diablo rsv Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 After the disappointment of my Crusader Mk.I mishap I thought I would start a new project to restore my mojo. I wasn't sure which one to start but with Valentine's day round the corner this one seemed quite apt. The Mk.IX valentine was made in answer to the need of a more powerful gun than the 2pdr. To accommodate the 6pdr gun the turret needed to be redesigned. Vickers engineers freed up space for the new gun by reducing the turret crew to 2 men and the coaxial machinegun and smoke bomb launcher were removed. The removal of the machine gun meant that the tank couldn't defend itself against infantry and so was unpopular with its crews. The bomb launcher issue was partially resolved by mounting two grenade launchers externally. But in essence the Mk.IX had turned the Valentine into a tank destroyer. I am on a bit of a mission to build as many types of British AFV's as I can and I want to show a representation of all of the different camouflage schemes. There is a bit of a dispute as to which colour this particular vehicle was painted but I wanted to do the Desert Pink / Dark Olive. This scheme was introduced on the 6th October 1942 and was used until May 1943. The above picture was taken on 10th April 1943 so it seems likely to me that this is the scheme it is painted in, however Blue-Black, Slate and Dark Brown were also used as disruptive colours. As always with black and white photos it's difficult decipher exactly which colours have been used. This kit seems typical of Bronco with a reasonably high parts count and very nicely moulded details. There is a fair amount of photo etch included along with separate link tracks. I have enjoyed the ones I have built previously and this one has received very favourable reviews. Looking at the instructions there seems to be a a fair bit of the interior included. I probably wont use the transmission and radiators though as I don't intend to have the doors open. The drivers compartment and turret interiors are welcome as it means that I could have the hatches open and who knows I may even be brave enough to add a crew to this one. I think I have waffled on enough for now, I've got some building to do. Wayne 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Crack on then Wayne I'll follow along if you don't mind 🙂👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f matthews Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 (edited) This kit got me started in a “new phase” of my modeling in 2017 where I started doing things at an an elevated level. It’s a fun build and there’s a lot that you can do with the kit. I want to eventually build the Bronco Vally XI from my stash, but have built several Valentine marks. A fun project. Edited January 31, 2021 by f matthews 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaastav Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Interesting project. Mind if I follow along? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 This looks nice and interesting Wayne, I'm looking forward to seeing this progress... Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Liking the Valentine so will follow along Stay safe Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nenad Ilijic Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 On my list for quite some time. I will definitely follow along. Cheers, Nenad 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Good choice Wayne. I've got a Mk.ll to build (the other make, not Bronco). John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 18 hours ago, Andy J said: Crack on then Wayne I'll follow along if you don't mind 🙂👍 10 hours ago, Vaastav said: Interesting project. Mind if I follow along? 6 hours ago, Hamden said: Liking the Valentine so will follow along Stay safe Roger 5 hours ago, Nenad Ilijic said: On my list for quite some time. I will definitely follow along. Cheers, Nenad Thanks for your interest guys, glad to have you along. Wayne 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 4 hours ago, Bullbasket said: Good choice Wayne. I've got a Mk.ll to build (the other make, not Bronco). John. Do you mean the Miniart one? I was looking at doing their Mk.V in the Malta scheme. Did Bronco have something to do with the Miniart ones? I'm sure I read somewhere that this is based on the Miniart kits but with corrections. I'm thinking you have a pretty decent stash John, probably one of those that I would like to have a rummage through. Wayne 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted February 2, 2021 Author Share Posted February 2, 2021 Construction has commenced and it starts with the interior. At the rear there is the transmission and a pair of radiators but as I won't be showing this I left everything out except for the bulkhead. At the front there is a nicely detailed drivers compartment. My intention was to have at least one of the access hatches open to show it off. The problem is that some additional items such as pipework and cabling would need to be added and there is no detail at all behind the drivers compartment which would be very obvious. As I don't want to get involved in scratch building I have decided to keep the hatches closed. I will however leave the front visor open in case I do decide to crew the model and depict it as driving along. There won't be a driver in there but you won't really be able to see that. Frustratingly Bronco fails at times to give positive location for where parts are to be fitted. One such part is the front plate. It would be difficult to know that you have it sitting at the right angle with out fitting the top plates so I deviated from the instructions and rather than fitting the running gear I made up the body of the tank first. At the rear Broncos ambition to have the transmission compartment displayable has meant that it some of the parts are quite flimsy and it was difficult to get the rear panels to line up as well as I would have liked. There was a bit of a gap where the top panel met the rear plate. Pulling the panel down distorted the shape so I filled the gap with some 'sprue goo'. This meant that the transmission hatch wouldn't sit right as it is supposed to sit slightly proud. A piece of plastic strip between the hatch and the rear plate would resolve that problem. In photos it appears that the side plates extend slightly beyond the rear plate so I need to add some plastic strip to the ends of these. The rivet detail was lost in the repair work so I punched out some replacements from plastic card. Bronco's models do have some lovely detail but that is at the expense of a high parts count, not that I'm complaining as I feel like I'm getting good value for money. The engine compartment doors are a good example of this with 12 parts on each door. They give you an option on the rear doors one bolted and one welded. They don't however explain which one is needed for which build option. I am building Buccaneer as portrayed on the box art and looking at photo's of vehicles in the same WD number range it appears that this tank was an earlier production vehicle and so the bolted doors are the correct ones. Next up will be the running gear. Wayne 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper dog Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Crikey Wayne not wanting to make comparisons with another thread but almost a page in and construction has just started!😉 Looks an involved build, typical Bronco I'd imagine. Built the AFV Club one a couple of years ago, still sat on the shelf of doom now. Build went fine until the decalling stage, they all splintered horribly and then the paint started flaking off the tracks and it went down hill from there. Never been able to face a Valentine since. However looking forward to you working your magic on this one! Atb Darryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APA Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 This is a cracking build. A 'lesser' british tank with full interior - unheard off! I thought that was reserved for the big cats only. 😁 A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 On 31/01/2021 at 16:35, diablo rsv said: Do you mean the Miniart one? I was looking at doing their Mk.V in the Malta scheme. Did Bronco have something to do with the Miniart ones? I'm sure I read somewhere that this is based on the Miniart kits but with corrections. I'm thinking you have a pretty decent stash John, probably one of those that I would like to have a rummage through. Wayne Yes, it is the Miniart version, and it's the Mk.lV in Russian markings, but I'll probably do it as a Mk.ll. Strangely enough, my stash is fairly modest. Around about 50 kits in both 1/48th and 1/35th. At my age, I've finally come to my senses and realised that at the rate that I build, I won't even be able to finish those. Mind you, that doesn't stop me from grabbing something new that catches my eye and interest. It's coming along nicely Wayne, but I can see that you are finding that they are not Tamiya!! John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Nice work so far, really like what your doing with this Stay safe Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted February 3, 2021 Author Share Posted February 3, 2021 On 03/02/2021 at 08:05, Jasper dog said: Crikey Wayne not wanting to make comparisons with another thread but almost a page in and construction has just started!😉 Looks an involved build, typical Bronco I'd imagine. Built the AFV Club one a couple of years ago, still sat on the shelf of doom now. Build went fine until the decalling stage, they all splintered horribly and then the paint started flaking off the tracks and it went down hill from there. Never been able to face a Valentine since. However looking forward to you working your magic on this one! Atb Darryl On 03/02/2021 at 12:56, APA said: This is a cracking build. A 'lesser' british tank with full interior - unheard off! I thought that was reserved for the big cats only. 😁 A On 03/02/2021 at 14:22, Bullbasket said: Yes, it is the Miniart version, and it's the Mk.lV in Russian markings, but I'll probably do it as a Mk.ll. Strangely enough, my stash is fairly modest. Around about 50 kits in both 1/48th and 1/35th. At my age, I've finally come to my senses and realised that at the rate that I build, I won't even be able to finish those. Mind you, that doesn't stop me from grabbing something new that catches my eye and interest. It's coming along nicely Wayne, but I can see that you are finding that they are not Tamiya!! John. On 03/02/2021 at 15:31, Hamden said: Nice work so far, really like what your doing with this Stay safe Roger Thank you all very much! It's not really a full interior A, and that's the problem really, you would have to do a lot of work to make it possible to display the interior. I have built a few Broncos now, including all of their early British cruisers and the Comet and they all follow a similar pattern. I actually really like them, there are at times frustrating moments but the level of detail is first rate and they do actually correct accuracy issues in later releases of their kits. I built the AFV Club Mk.I and it was the first model I posted on the forum. I really enjoyed that build but yes Darryl I did have issues with the decals cracking up. I think I used AFV Club's workable track links so I didn't have the issues with the paint. It makes up into a lovely model though. I would change the tracks and get some after market decals and get it off of that shelf of doom. I think the issue with the Miniart kits was with the wheels being to small and something about the shape of the turret. I don't know if that was corrected in latter issues. Bronco only do the Mk.IX and Mk.XI so I would go with the AFV Club kits John. I'm thinking that's 50 good one's though. I am trying to keep my stash small but I'm failing miserably. I panic that they will go out of production and I won't be able to get what I need. It probably comes from building WWI aircraft where a lot of them are limited run kits. Talking of your stash John @Bullbasket, I believe you have a love of the Comet family. I am thinking of getting the Accurate Armour Charioteer conversion. I know the new Airfix kit would be a better bases for a conversion but I think the AA one has parts to correct the hull. I just wondered if you had built it, have it or seen it and if you have an opinion of it's quality. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Nice progress so far, seems like a nice kit to be honest, I've still got a Bronco Chaffee in my stash somewhere Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted February 3, 2021 Author Share Posted February 3, 2021 Started work on the running gear. Bronco have designed the wheel bogies to fully articulate and for the wheels to rotate. The plastic springs function as well and are wonderfully moulded. How ever unless you are intending to add the model to a diorama it is all a little unnecessary. I would normally leave wheels off to make painting a little easier however I found on the A9 and A10 cruiser kits, that use the same type of running gear, that without the wheels on it is difficult to get the suspension to sit correctly. The drive sprockets have have holes drilled into them. I guess it would be difficult to mould these as one piece so Bronco provide 2 halves ( see above ). This leaves a nasty join line which was filled with sprue goo. The holes were then cleaned out with a drill and an application of Tamiya extra thin. Talking of sprue goo, mine needed topping up. So for anyone who is unfamiliar with sprue goo, it is basically plastic dissolved in liquid polystyrene cement to make a filler. Some modellers prefer to use pieces of the sprue from the kit that they are building but I found that different manufactures use slightly different plastics and not all of them work very well and can lead to long drying times also if the plastic is the same colour as the kit it makes it difficult to see how the repair is going when sanding and finishing. My preferred recipe is Evergreen plastic card dissolved in Tamiya extra thin. I find this dries much quicker, sometimes it can be sanded within 20 minutes of application, obviously that depends on the thickness of the application. It's better to add smaller amounts and build up the filler with a couple or more layers allowing each layer to dry. If the gap is too large then you would be better off using a different type of filler. The Evergreen mix dries with a slightly glossy appearance which helps with the sanding. Some modellers add a little paint to the mix to make it easier to see. Once a bottle of TET gets down to a certain level I will use it for my mix. You just add plastic and glue until you get the desired consistency. It will take over night for the plastic to dissolve and then I will then adjust the mix. Ideally I have mine so when I pull the brush out it only just strings. I find that at that consistency it has an almost self levelling ability. You could have a separate mix made thicker or thinner goo for different needs. Back to the build. I used a burr on the wheels to simulate some wear on the tyres as this vehicle operated in some pretty rough terrains. In the photos it appears that the covers over the periscopes were either removed or not fitted. I cut the covers off and reprofiled the periscope mounts with a dental burr. They don't look pretty in close up but look ok at normal viewing distances. Once the running gear was fitted I glued all of the suspension parts and held the model down until the glue dried making sure that all of the wheels sat on the ground. It's beginning to look like a tank now. Next up is track day, not the exciting one where you get to blast around a track on a motorbike but the mind numbing one where you get to faff around with hundreds of tiny pieces of plastic. Wayne 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APA Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Thanks for the run through of the goo. My bottle of extra this is getting low so might give it a go 👍👌 Coming along nicely and have fun with the tracks 😁 A 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper dog Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Really taking shape now, tyres are looking suitably worn too. Thanks for the sprue-goo info, never tried it. I assume you can just leave the brush in the bottle and apply the goo with it? Again I assume the goo remains usable in the bottle, if screwed shut, just as extra thin would? Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted February 5, 2021 Author Share Posted February 5, 2021 On 03/02/2021 at 19:59, APA said: Thanks for the run through of the goo On 04/02/2021 at 07:36, Jasper dog said: Thanks for the sprue-goo info, never tried it. I assume you can just leave the brush in the bottle and apply the goo with it? Again I assume the goo remains usable in the bottle, if screwed shut, just as extra thin would? Thanks guys, you're welcome. Yes you can leave the brush in the bottle. I sometimes use an old paintbrush as well. You can clean the brush in TET or lacquer thinners. It will remain usable for ages. I just top up the bottle now and then. I use it for cracks and seams and it doesn't shrink or crack like some other fillers as it bonds to the plastic. Wayne 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo rsv Posted February 5, 2021 Author Share Posted February 5, 2021 Track day First job is to remove the links from the sprue. Clean up wasn't too bad but with 101 links per side it's a little tedious. These are not workable links and so need gluing together. I use a steel rule and some tape, sticky side up, to keep the runs straight. The links click together and once I have a long enough run I apply Tamiya Extra thin to fix the track. I make one run long enough to fit from the centre of the first road wheel to the centre of the last. The remaining links are made into one long run. Normally after around 20 minutes of drying time the track can be shaped around the top run of the running gear and around the drive sprocket and idler. This is where my problems began though. Bronco suggest 102 links per side, I found this to be 2 links too short. The problem was adding the extra links as the adhesive wouldn't set quick enough but I didn't want the existing runs to harden. I then found that the glue just didn't seem to be able to hold and the tracks kept falling apart. I had no choice but to remove the tracks, flatten them out, turn them over and apply more adhesive. This meant though that I was losing some detail in the tracks as I was having to apply so much adhesive to get them to hold. They were getting very close to getting binned and a couple of times I had some Friuls in the shopping basket. As I had spent six hours to get to this point though, I decided to persevere and see what they looked like in the end. I left them to fully harden over night before I primed them with some black Ms. Surfacer. Once dried I gave them a base coat of my track mix which I basically a pot of a mid grey with a little brown added. The next coat was an application of Life Color Dust acrylic paint followed quickly with a coat of their Rust Rust Dark Shadow. These paints were thinned slightly with water and applied with an old brush in a stippling fashion. British tracks were generally manganese steel which is dull red brown colour, the rust colour is to simulate that and not rust as these tracks were more resistant to rust. Once the paint had dried I rubbed on some graphite and burnished it with a finger and silicon brushes too get the shine of the worn surfaces. Unfortunately the phone camera struggled to capture the look, in real life they look okay, honest. This is the graphite stick I use. I grate it into a powder before rubbing it on. The stick can also be used as it is and rubbed over a surface. You can also see the silicon brushes. Next up will be the painting of the lower hull and running gear. Wayne 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Well worth the effort Wayne those tracks look awesome 👌 👏 👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dads203 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Another fantastic build in the process mate, great attention to detail and a very tidy build Wayne 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vytautas Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 1 hour ago, Andy J said: Well worth the effort Wayne those tracks look awesome 👌 👏 👍 Seconded. Definitely looks like real, heavy steel. Vytautas 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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