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Valentine Mk.I and Mk.II - 1:35 - AFV Club


Vally G

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Thanks, Carius, Ian and Paul. :blush:

The track-building is progressing slowly but surely and I hope to have the second set done by the time this weekend is over.

In the meantime I have been trying to find a photo which confirms that the antenna cable was attached to the antenna as seen in the above illustrations. No luck so far on that front.

Kind regards,

Adam

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Hi again.

I took advantage of a lull in my attention deficit disorder to complete the above-mentioned tracks.

Here they are on the vehicle, 68 this time:

IMG_3780_zpsb9efa707.jpg

I will go with 68 a side in the end as 69 is just too droopy.

Next up, the headlamps for the Mk.I, which will be done differently than those on the Mk.II.

Kind regards and thanks for looking,

Adam

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Hi all,

Above I mentioned that the headlamps for the Mk.I were next on my agenda. They were, but I got to thinking about the periscopes and did them first. I made little masks for them from Tamiya tape before painting the clear plastic bits silver.

IMG_3789_zpsd3def6b2.jpg

IMG_3791_zpsc525c91e.jpg

So, on to the headlamps. Lets start with some illustrative material. Here is the box art from the AFV Club's Mk.I, which shows a vehicle with lens covers with half-circle apertures of the same size:

AC35178_zps9a446e4f.jpg

There are two problems with this illustration. The first is that the apertures were not the same size. The lens cover on the tank's right had a substantially larger aperture, as can be seen here on the vehicle named "Coronach" (one of the decal options in the AFV Club kit):

CoronachsHeadlamps_zpsabd3a001.jpg

Here is a clearer view of the right headlamp in a detail from a photo of "Divine Discontent":

DivineDiscontentsRightHeadlamp_zpse5a8c3

The second problem is that the kit only inludes clear plastic lenses, so if you want to have headlamps with lens covers, you need to come up with something yourself. The first solution I came up with seems to be the easiest - punch circles of the appropriate size out of masking tape and then cut each one in half before positioning it on the lens. Not a real cover but will produce the same effect, I hope. Below you can see the mask for the tank's right headlamp along with the rest of the headlamp-related pieces. I made a mask for the left one as well but wasn't happy with it and removed it before taking the photo.

IMG_3782_zps23091e27.jpg

I will of course try to make another little mask for the tank's left headlamp, but if I can't get a satisfactory result, there is always the possibility of masking the whole lens on both headlamps, as can be seen below on my Mk.II:

IMG_3719_zps8aaff4e1.jpg

Another possibility is to mount the headlamps like they are here (on "Sneezy"):

SneezysHeadlamps_zpsb5e3f508.jpg

There are many photos of Valentines with their headlamps in this position, but Sneezy's are quite interesting in that they have patches of a very light color on them.

No matter how they are masked or how they end up being positioned, I would like to run wires into them, which will require some alteration of the conduits. This is a topic for a future post.

Kind regards and thanks for looking,

Adam

Edited by Vally G
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In the meantime, after not finding any photos which showed where the cable from the radio was supposed to attach to the antenna, I just stuck it underneath the base.

IMG_3794_zps712d6017.jpg

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There are many photos of Valentines with their headlamps in this position, but Sneezy's are quite interesting in that they have patches of a very light color on them.

Adam

Lovely job so far Adam. The lighter patches on the lights could be gas detector paint?

Regards

Steve

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Cheers, Ian, and thanks, Steve.

Interesting thought about the paint!

Kind regards,

Adam

Edited by Vally G
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Hi all,

Progressing slowly with the headlamps and conduits for the Mk.I. I was rather successful with one phase and decided to put them aside for a couple of days so as not to tempt fate.

As an experiment, I tried Vallejo surface primer (instead of my usual thinned Mr Surfacer 1200) on my Mk.I wheels. The result was awful - grainy or pebbly or however it's described. I really wanted to like this stuff as it is less nasty to spray and clean up, but it and I and my airbrush just don't get along. Stripping the wheels with all of their nooks and crannies was no fun, but they are now back to their original state.

To add to the reference material in this thread, I would like to point readers to this Prime Portal page on a South African Mk.I, an oddball with a Vickers machine gun in the mantlet. There are a few shots of the earlier-model tracks, including this one which also shows how the drive sprokets really looked:

valentine_mk.1_10_of_29.jpg

Kind regards,

Adam

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Hi Adam,

Shame about the Vallejo primer. I use it all the time and have had the 'pebbly' finish once or twice, but never bad - and it disappeared after just spraying over it as per normal.

A tip I read just reently was to thin Vallejo with their airbrush cleaner... I do this now, even for the primer, and it has reduced airbrush blockages bigtime, so maybe worth a crack?

Cheers,

Ian

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Thanks for the tip, Ian. In the event I get up the courage to use it again, I will give it a try.

Kind regards,

Adam

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Hi all,

I have finished the headlamps and conduits on the Mk.I. A piece of brass tubing was used in place of part of each conduit so that I could run some wire to the headlamps.

IMG_3801_zps807640cb.jpg

IMG_3802_zpsad4b0930.jpg

IMG_3803_zps738a10e7.jpg

Both headlamps now have their masks.

IMG_3804_zpsca6032ed.jpg

IMG_3805_zps7d911e6c.jpg

There are one or two more things to do before priming the hull and turret.

Kind regards and thanks for looking,

Adam

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Hi again.

One of the things I needed to do before the Mk.I's hull is ready to prime was to deal with the following issue.

There is a bracket just aft of the storage box atop the right fender (this bracket is not found on the Mk.II as it had a longer box or even two) which can be seen in this detail from the Mk.I box art.

35178_zpsdf0586c4.jpg

In the illustration this bracket is flat on the back and recessed in the front, if that makes any sense. All of the kit pieces are like this, so those on the left of the vehicle are flat on the front and recessed in the back. This early Canadian Valentine at Camp Borden, Ontario has a right-side bracket (on far right in photo) that is flat on the back:

BordenValentine_zps4cafc2f5.jpg

These British Mk.Is below, however, have right-side brackets that are flat on the front and recessed in the back:

15975_zps9f182096.jpg

16067_zps9145ae43.jpg

I wanted the bracket on my Mk.I to be like those in the two photos above, so I fashioned one from parts of two of the kit brackets (luckily I have an extra kit for spares).

IMG_3808_zps00b42a92.jpg

IMG_3809_zpsd1ed24c1.jpg

The lighter lines seen in the second photo are where I filled in the gaps that were left after gluing the two parts together and should give some idea of how the piece was made.

Kind regards,

Adam

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A Fourth Track Style

Chalk it up to age, but I neglected to include the style of track seen below in my track post earlier in this thread. :blush: I will amend said post accordingly.

CruiserIIITracks_zps92bf78d6.jpg


Kind regards,

Adam

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Thanks, Dan.

The metal bits on the Mk.I got sprayed with metal primer today and just for fun I thought I'd do an extreme close-up of the photo-etched manufacturer's plate.

IMG_3810_zps666cedb7.jpg

Judging by the numbers, the plate appears to be based on the one on the Mk.IV in Kubinka, Russia.

27543_zps2aa6904a.jpg

Kind regards,

Adam

Edited by Vally G
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