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Showing results for tags 'Valentine Mk.II'.
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Surely it's assymetric to put the 1937 Rodgers/Hart evergreen against the 1994 Latin-inspired single of Basia (BTW born a few months before me, just 30 miles apart), but jazz is as broad a term as the AFV. Was the Valentine really funny? Well - being an infantry (i.e. sluggish due to the heavy armour) tank that evolved straight from the ill-fated Mk.I Cruiser (crewed by 6 men) it should be neither fish nor fowl. But despite this weird ancestry it became the most numerous British tank, surpassing not only the WW1 landships and cold war era Centurion, but also all the so-well-known WW2 designs like Crusader, Cromwell and Churchill. And why third time lucky? Because it was the 3rd incarnation (after the A9 and A10 cruisers) of the same design lower part (including the engine, transmission, drivetrain, steering, tracks, and roadwheels). And because it's my 3rd entry within this GB (after the Matilda and Crusader) The ancient (1976) ESCI kit, facelifted with link-and-lenght tracks by Italeri in 2003, is still the best Braille scale Valentine on the market. The contains of the slightly fatigued box are visible here: It's the early variant with 2-pdr gun and turret crew of two. The biggest challenge will be to find the 1943-style painting scheme for it, as my MTO tank collection still lacks the Desert Pink vehicle. Cheers Michael
