diablo rsv

I have finally got round to making a start on this little project. The first task was to start cleaning up the main hull. This comes in one piece with a reasonable amount of detail cast into it, unfortunately some of this detail, mostly along the bottom edge, was lost in the clean up process. It will be a fairly simple task to reinstate it though as it was mostly rivets. I have added the suspension mounts to the hull. The hull is an impressive piece of casting with a nice weight to it and my example doesn't have too many air bubbles in it. AA have even moulded in a seat in the drivers compartment should you wish to display the model with the hatches open. However I think you would have to add a lot of additional detail so I will keep mine closed up. The worst part of the hull casting is at the rear where there are some air bubbles to attend to and there will be some awkward tidying up to do where the casting blocks were attached. There are a number of parts to fit on the back panel so a lot of it will be covered up. The running gear is the first and probably the most time consuming part of the build. For a resin cast model I thought the detail wasn't bad. Assembling the bogies is where the downside of limited run kits began to show, the engineering and fit made it quite difficult to get everything to line up as well as I would have liked. Seen from the side they don't look too bad but from above it's not so good. I toyed with the idea of replacing the axles with brass rod and I may still do so but for now I shall put them to one side and get on with something else. Looking at the photos again I think I will have to replace the axles. I have started to attach some of the detail parts to the hull. Most of this is straight forward enough but having reference photos is a must to get the correct positioning. The drivers hatches were a poor fit. There was some warping to the hatch itself and the front plate has some missing detail that will need to be replaced. The sides of the hull had to be squeezed together to close the gap around the hatch and there will be some filling required where the front plate meets the hull sides. I was never expecting this to be a straight forward build due to the nature of limited run resin kits, there are a number of places where I feel I need to replace details and make repairs to poorly cast parts and I'm just struggling to keep motivated with this one at the moment. I don't want to park it as I know it can be difficult to pick it up again but I am tempted to build something straight forward to restore my mojo. Wayne

Unfortunately as no collection of British AFV's would be complete without it I fear I may have to bite the bullet, I have toyed with the idea of scratch building combined with some appropriate kit parts but by the time I had done that the £74 AA wants may not look so bad. Wayne

It's always an interesting debate when it comes to correct colours for models. I use MRP paints for my British vehicle colours and have been very impressed by them. I have pretty much used all of them now and each one has been a very good match for Mike Starmer's colour chips, which is good enough for me. The only one I haven't checked is the Dark Green No.4 but I am confident it will be a good match. If you are happy with spraying lacquer paints I can thoroughly recommend them. Their Khaki Green No.3 is what I used on my Valentine Mk.I below. As regards to the kit Peter, I have the more recent casting with the resin wheels. From what I have seen of the older ones this release seems to be better cast as well with less bubbles. As for the tracks, I binned them and got a set of Friuls for the T-26. As the T-26 was basically a Vickers 6-Ton and the A11 shared many common parts I think they should be a pretty good match. Wayne

I think that you may have had a dodgy one Nenad. The MRP Light Stone that I used on my Crusader was an older one in the glass bottle and it was a perfect match for my Mike Starmer swatch. Wayne

Blimey! That takes me back, I built that as a kid in the 70's. I guess the Revell boxing doesn't come in different coloured plastics. Lovely job on yours by the way. Wayne.

That's looking very good Mark. I had a similar problem with their Whippet tracks, I had to resort to removing the drive sprocket and move it further back. Wayne

Thanks for your interest gentlemen, I have only had a quick look at the kit but from what I have seen it shouldn't be too difficult, but you are right Roger the resin is quite brittle. Wayne

I haven't looked at that one yet but I rarely trust museum exhibits when it comes to paint schemes. I will do a little more research when I get there but I imagine they would have been painted Khaki Green No.3 with Dark Green No.4 as a disruptive colour. AA suggest Mid Bronze Green with Deep Bronze Green. Wayne

Well done you indeed Andrew. I love the way that has turned out, there is a lot to like. The way you have weathered it is just right, the mantlet cover and camo nets look very authentic and the accessories are the icing on the cake. Wayne

Very nice Milan. I haven't seen many of these finished, including my own. I love these early British tanks and now I have seen yours I think I really must get mine past the finishing post. Wayne

Thanks Andrew, It's a really nice kit with lots of potential. I hope they decide to produce some other variants. Wayne

Many thanks for the compliments and information Badder, I checked out the painting, you're right it has a fantastic atmosphere about it, your father must have been very proud to have received it. Wayne.

Many thanks for the positive feed back. It is definitely an improvement over the Italeri which considering its age isn't a bad kit, it's just that the additional cost and work to upgrade it makes the Border kit a much better option. I wouldn't be put off by the tracks either, once you get into them they don't take much longer to put together than any other track. The detail is crisper than the Friuls and if using the sand shields you don't need the complete run of track. Wayne

I have given up hope of an injection moulded kit of the 'Matilda I' being released by any of the mainstream kit manufactures and decided to take the plunge with Accurate Armours resin release from 1995. Although the A11 Matilda 1 was only produced in small numbers ( 140 between 1938-39 ) I feel that it is quite an important vehicle to add to a collection of British armour models, if only to highlight how short sighted British tank design was preceding WW2. Although planning work began in 1935 those who designed the tank were influenced by the mistaken belief that combat in a new war would be the same as in World War I, in which tanks were utilised for breaking through strong, static defensive positions. The General Staff specification required a cheap tank to be built with as many as possible already available commercial components. The result was a small, slow ( 8mph ), but heavily armoured vehicle. Armed with either a Vickers .303 or .50 machine gun and with a crew of two it was essentially a mobile machine gun post. Matilda I saw combat when the 4th RTR deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force in September 1939 and the 7th RTR in May 1940. Despite some success it soon became clear that the Matilda1 tank was not suited for its intended role. Although it's heavy armour afforded the crew protection against anything other than the heaviest antitank weapons the vulnerability of the tracks and rollers proved to be a major issue. It's lack of armament meant it couldn't engage enemy armour or strongholds and the cramped interior and small turret didn't help the commander, who had to duck down to use the wireless, and direct the driver at the same time. Most of the vehicles in France were destroyed or abandoned and the few remaining units helped to cover the evacuation at Dunkirk before being blown up to prevent capture. The remaining UK stock was soon relegated to home defence and training duties. The kit comes in a relatively small but sturdy box and the parts are packaged into five plastic bags. There are a couple of broken parts in my kit but they should be simple enough to repair. There is also a small photo etch sheet, a length of wire some brass rod and a decal sheet with five options, all from the 4th RTR. I added a set of Friulmodel T-26 tracks to replace the resin offerings supplied by Accurate Armour. As the tracks are so exposed on this tank I felt that the weight of the metal tracks would add to the look of the finished model. The instruction sheet is 12 pages long with a list of parts, general instructions relating to the construction of a resin kit and working with etched brass, a written assembly sequence and photos of a model under construction. there is also a brief description of the history of Matilda 1. At first glance assembly of the kit seems straight forward enough. I have been looking forward to getting this project underway for sometime now, I hope that it doesn't disappoint. Wayne

Thank you all very much for the positive feedback, it's very much appreciated. Thanks John, I'm still working on my Italeri one, its still a great kit but there is a fair amount of work and addons needed to bring it up to the level of the Border kit. The lines are borders that I add in Lightroom when I process the images. It does seem a little expensive in the UK but there is no real need for aftermarket parts. Thanks Nenad. Mine is the original glass bottled MRP and it matches perfectly with my Mike Starmer swatch which was why I was a little surprised when you mentioned that the shade was out in your Sherman builds. I wonder if you just got a bad one. I'm not entirely sure that I have got the colour balance right in the photos above as I'm still having to use my glasses which have a warm tint. I'm trusting that the software got it right. The actual model does match the colour swatch though. Thanks Bob, that's where I got mine from and I think it's good value for that and it arrived within a couple of weeks. Wayne