British Light Tank Mk.VIB

[Mike]

British Light Tank Mk.VIB

1:35 Vulcan Scale Models

The Mark VI was the last of a line of light tanks build by Vickers-Armstrong during the period between WWI and the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. It was a re-imaging of horse-mounted cavalry, and had a high top speed for its day of around 35mph, although that wasn't of much use on rough ground where the short wheelbase meant that it pitched wildly over bumps and trenches.

It was lightly armoured to withstand small arms and machine gun fire only, and also lightly armed with only a .303 and a .50 cal Vickers machine gun mounted coaxially in the turret, which was enlarged to take a three man crew and wireless gear. Surprisingly it saw quite extensive service in the early years of WWII, serving in France during the retreat to Dunkirk, and in North Africa where its speed was an advantage. It was finally withdrawn from service in early 1941 as it became more and more outclassed.

The kit is a new one from Vulcan, and as befits its real size, it arrives in a small glossy top opening box with a picture of an olive green vehicle on a Union Jack background. Inside the box are six sprues of parts in a medium grey shiny styrene, with a few more parts loose on "spruelets", and the hull and turret parts in the box. A small sprue of clear parts, a small sheet of Photo-Etched (PE) brass, decals and an instruction booklet, plus a bag of suspension parts finish the package.

The instruction booklet has a very busy look to it, so care will be needed to ensure you do everything right, especially with the suspension units. The build commences with the hull, which resembles a modern skip without its running gear and turret on. The hull builds up with various panels added and a basic driver's seat added for viewing if you wish to leave his hatch open. The rear leaf springs attach to the sloped rear of the hull, and then it is on to building up the complex Horstmann coil suspension on the four main bogies.

The road wheels are built up in pairs onto the bogie, after which the coil springs are added. These take the form of inner and outer coils on a brass rod, all of which are supplied in the bag of suspension parts. The brass rods are finished with tensioning bolts, which are moulded onto the end of one of the sprue runners, so must be cut off with a very sharp blade to keep them in good order. These are super-glued to the end of each rod, which means 16 will be needed in all. There are 20 on the runners, so you can afford to have 4 ping off into oblivion before it becomes a problem. A new blade is definitely recommended here.

The bogies attach to the hull on single pegs, and then the instructions recommend that you build up the tracks around them in an unusual order. The tracks are of the link and length type, with lengths of slightly curved triple links for around the drive sprockets and rear idler wheel, plus the single return rollers on each side. The balance of the track is made up from long straight lengths of track of varying lengths, so again, care will be the order of the day. Painting will be tricky if you build up the whole assembly, but I would seriously consider painting the sides of the hull and wheels, then assembling an already partially painted track onto the wheels.

Once you've completed the tracks, a pair of long fenders are installed above them and the detailing of the upper hull commences, with a host of boxes, tools and bracing trusses, some of which are built up from the PE sheet in whole or in part. On the right hand side there is a choice of using styrene or PE components, although the instructions are a little confusing here, due to the small size of the parts and the single step explaining the folding of the PE option. The rear light cluster, mudflaps and exhaust festoon the rear with detail, which leaves just the turret to be built up.

The turret is surprisingly small given that two men will inhabit it, and it is quite busy due to its small size. A detailed pair of smoke grenade dischargers attach to each side, and a front mounted lamp is built up from both styrene and PE parts for scale realism - it also has a clear lens, and a 1:1 guide for the shaping of the PE hand-holds that the crew would use to adjust its position on the mount. The gun mantlet has a shroud around both barrels, so only the ends are depicted, but they both have hollow flash-hiders, which is always good news. The commander and gunner's hatches can both be posed open, but unless you have some early war tankers to fill them up, it will just expose the empty interior. Helpfully however, a pair of shelves are added inside the bottom of the turret on which your crew could perch. None are included with the kit however.

The decal sheet is small but perfectly formed with good register on the only multi-colour decal - the Vulcan logo is also perfectly represented, which makes it a shame that it won't be used! A small slip of paper provides additional information on the two marking options, as follows:

• 3RTR in Calais, May 1940
  
• 3rd County of London yeomanry with 22nd Armoured Brigade in 2nd Armoured Division, Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire, Sept 1940
  

Conclusion

Although there is a slight air of the shorter run kit about the sprues, the parts themselves are very nicely moulded, with quite extensive use of slide-moulding to obtain detail on multiple sides that just wouldn't work using traditional techniques.

It's a tiny kit barely 5" (12.5cm) long, but it is packed with surface detail. I suspect that tracks could be tricky, and the suspension is not for the novice, but otherwise it's a great little kit of a personable, if not outmoded light tank.

Review sample courtesy of

[Shar2]

I was talking to bit of an expert on British military vehicles in the Farnborough IPMS and he stated that the tracks could really do with 2 or 3 more links per side as there is a definite sag missing in the kits tracks, but otehrwise it's a nice little kit.

[Moofles]

That will look great all built up next to your Nbzfthingy.

[Antoine]

Nice review, and still useful even if I already have the kit.

Were there some foreign users of this tank?

[spitfire]

Looks grand, hope my better half has taken the hint about it as a Christmas present !

Cheers

Dennis

[BWP]

Were there some foreign users of this tank?

So far as I know, only examples captured by the Germans. Some were turned into Self-propelled artillery by removing the turrets and upper superstructure and mounting a 105mm gun.

[foxy]

Nice reveiw Mike.

I agree on the suspention It does take a bit of sussing out, but is a grand piece of work when finished as it can move if care taken.

This tank was used mostly by the British/Australian/Indian regts.

Some were captured as BWP has said, but with there thin armour were not good for tank verses tank but played havioc with the German Paras in Crete before runnig out of ammunition.

There was an AA tank used for a short time to support armoured regts.

Operating in France/Greece/Grete/Malta/Cyprus and North Africa as well as home in blighty(England)

So it has good possibilities for a Diorama.