Every Vally Shall Be Exalted - The Valentine Tank Family Vol.1 - Finished

[Bertie McBoatface]

     

 

I continued painting the tracks today. They looked quite two dimensional as they were so I tried a deep brown wash to sink the shadows. It worked to a point. I would have preferred to use a spirit based wash as I don't think water-based pain ever flows nicely into the crannies, even with flow improver. However, the tracks felt very fragile and I thought white spirit might cause the glue joins to fail - there's very little surface area in the joints. The first pic shows the wash still wet, the second is when I remembered to photograph it dry, half way through randomly applying some 'chalk' coloured weathering. The third picture shows the chalk applied and waiting for whatever I did next. At this point I was experimenting as I've never weathered for chalky mud before.

 

And also at this point, the first track fell apart in my fingers. Eek! With my perfect hindsight, I can see clearly that it was foolhardy to use a hairdryer on the first dark wash and then manipulate the warmed tracks while I dabbed on the chalk. Silly me. Rushing again!

 

I panicked and struck the tracks onto the wheels before anything else disintegrated. They fitted perfectly and Tamiya Extra Thin burned through the paint and stuck the tracks to all the wheel contact points without making a mess. I will now have to finish the weathering in situ which will be interesting. I've never done it this way before. If it works ok, I could save a lot of time in future builds and if it doesn't I'll make the diorama a lot more muddy than current plans and hide it all under Pollyfilla.😉

 

 

Actually, as I look at this picture of the tracks, it seems more and more sensible to muddy it all in one go. I'm thinking I'll use more of the thick white and cream acrylic paint and then bleed in some darker greys and maybe greens? I'll now wait until the diorama is built so that it will match. For now, the Archer is done (hurrah!) and I'll get on with painting its crew next.

 

As you see the fit of the tracks was beautiful and I now can't easily find the joins. Nice one Tam.

 

 

I assembled, painted and fitted the tow ropes. I used the kit supplied string, soaked in superglue to give it that uncooperative, wire rope stiffness. The paint was Humbrol steel which polished up nicely and now just needs a bit of brown oily washing to tone down the shine and represent the grease that hawsers are packed with.

 

I learned something about Tamiya instructions today. They said cut the rope 130mm long and that is exactly the right length. Next time I'll add 5mm to give me some wiggle room. I can always make a loop a little bigger, but there was no margin for error in that 130mm and I really had trouble fitting it. All was well eventually but I'm still concerned that some of the hooks are under tension unnecessarily. I will lie awake tonight waiting for that faint 'ping'.

 

 

 

[fatfingers]

Nicely done Bertie old chap 👍 

 

I've got a few of the AFV Club Churchies in the stash and they're very nice kits, but a bit over engineered in my view. Tis a shame that they've still not done a MkI or MkII though.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Bertie McBoatface]

10 minutes ago, fatfingers said:

Nicely done Bertie old chap 👍 

 

I've got a few of the AFV Club Churchies in the stash and they're very nice kits, but a bit over engineered in my view. Tis a shame that they've still not done a MkI or MkII though.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

I've just received an AFV Club Vally II, my first kit from them. It looks ok but complicated. The turret interior is very well detailed, and invisible.

[f matthews]

20 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I've just received an AFV Club Vally II, my first kit from them. It looks ok but complicated. The turret interior is very well detailed, and invisible.

The AFV Vally II has the wrong roadwheels-the ones in the Tamiya II/IV are correct, or you can source aftermarket ones-I used a set of Accurate Armour ones. Otherwise, AFV makes the best Vallys and they have fully-workable suspensions. It’s likely too late now, but swapping the wheels you used in the prototype Vally with the AFV Vally Mk II would be correct for both tanks.

I really need to get back to this build, but it’s taken a backseat to Panzer III builds for the moment.

Edited February 26, 2022 by f matthews

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, f matthews said:

It’s likely too late now, but swapping the wheels you used in the prototype Vally with the AFV Vally Mk II would be correct for both tanks.

 

Oh well, moddelling's like that, and that's the way that it is! Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

What's your source for the roadwheels? ITV shows five different patterns and says "there may have been more" but doesn't assign any of them to any particular mark. They were made in different workshops all over the UK and my impression is that Vickers, or whoever was assembling the bogie sub-assemblies, used whatever they could get at the time. As they said back then, "There's a war on, you know!" 

 

 

[opus999]

I love what you did with the figures!  As you showed, the whole diorama tells a story.  

Edited February 26, 2022 by opus999

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 minutes ago, opus999 said:

I love what you did with the figures!  As you showed, the whole diorama tells a story.  

 

Thanks Opus, I'm very interested in storytelling.

 

I'll tell you a story about an absent-minded moddeller one day and how he forgot to add the camouflage netting to his Archer. I know that story because I was that moddeller.

 

 

This is plasterer's scrim, folded carefully and then tied with wire before being soaked in PVA and a little water.

 

 

And then this time I remembered to cover the wires with straps as used on the real thing. These were cut from lead foil. 

 

 

For once I was working from solid references, the official drawing showing what was supposed to be stowed where. This is a tank at the garrison, so I think it will be correctly packed for this final examination day.

 

Under the cam-net is the folded engine cover, which contains the blankets of the crew, as per regulations, sir! I knitted the four brown blankets with the three red stripes down the centre of each one, from spiderwebs I collected at the last full moon. Such a pity that you can't see them now and I forgot to take a photograph too. 😉

 

 

And now you can't see the awful mess I made when I tried to dent that storage box. There are a couple of flecks of white in the netting; that's from the last time they were used, on chalky Salisbury Plain of course.

 

 

 

[f matthews]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

Oh well, moddelling's like that, and that's the way that it is! Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

What's your source for the roadwheels? ITV shows five different patterns and says "there may have been more" but doesn't assign any of them to any particular mark. They were made in different workshops all over the UK and my impression is that Vickers, or whoever was assembling the bogie sub-assemblies, used whatever they could get at the time. As they said back then, "There's a war on, you know!" 

 

 

In The Vally, as well as just about every other source.  The Mk1 wheels in the AFV kits were only used on Mk1s and a very few non-combat Mk IIs.

The MkII wheels in the Tamiya kit came after MkI production, so wouldn’t have been available on the prototype.

If you are looking for accuracy, this is an error-if you are simply enjoying the build, it matters little!

Edited February 26, 2022 by f matthews

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, f matthews said:

In The Vally, as well as just about every other source.  The Mk1 wheels in the AFV kits were only used on Mk1s and a very few non-combat Mk IIs.

 

Well I can't find it in my copy of Into The Vally. 🤷‍♂️ 

 

2 hours ago, f matthews said:

The MkII wheels in the Tamiya kit came after MkI production, so wouldn’t have been available on the prototype.

 

I wonder how long Vickers used the prototype for development, demonstrations, training etc? Maybe they didn't throw it away immediately after production started?

[f matthews]

It’s also in the Dick Taylor Armor Photohistory volume.  There’s a good buildlog here too:

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

With the improved weather over the last three days, I've been catching up on my dog-walking and have done little moddelling at all. I have made a start on colouring in my soldiers though only a start.

 

 

Frenchie, the driver, has transformed into an Igor. 

 

It's going to rain tomorrow so there's a good chance I'll finish them. They are only sketches in support of the Archer so I'm not going to worry about making them perfect.

 

[mullac2001]

its pronounced egor

[Bertie McBoatface]

9 minutes ago, mullac2001 said:

its pronounced egor

 

I know. However, I wrote it down, I didn't pronounce it. 😕 (Confused face)

 

 

[mullac2001]

sorry bertie it's a reference to the film young frankenstein , it just made me chuckle when you said your figure turned into igor

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Oh yes of course. Ha. I missed that one because I was making a reference to Terry Pratchett's Discworld when I wrote "an Igor". 

 

https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Igors

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

'Frenchie' is painted, and promoted Lance Bombardier too. He's older that the gunner and loader and is sticking up for the clumsy loader so I thought he'd be likely to have a stripe. I painted his hair a dark blue/black with cold white reflections off his quiff - very Elvis!

 

I also started assembling the Tilly and fixed the shaped diorama base to a baseplate of plywood, so that's ready for plastering. Small progress but now there's nothing else on the go, things here should speed up dramatically.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

That was quick, @APA!

 

[APA]

6 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

That was quick, @APA!

 

Right place, right time. Especially as I haven't been to BM for about 24hrs.what are the chances! 😐

 

Andrew 

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 minute ago, APA said:

Right place, right time. Especially as I haven't been to BM for about 24hrs.what are the chances! 😐

 

Andrew 

 

I haven't been here in the Vally all week!

[APA]

Just now, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I haven't been here in the Vally all week!

Before yesterday I don't think I've been here for about a week either. 😳

Should we be worried? I'm worried, are you worried? 

[Bertie McBoatface]

45 minutes ago, APA said:

Before yesterday I don't think I've been here for about a week either. 😳

Should we be worried? I'm worried, are you worried? 

Im not worried. I was busy finishing off my last (possibly) aeroplane model. All done now. 
 

I still haven’t got a real life so I have nothing to worry about! 🤓

[bigfoot]

Figures are coming along nicely Bertie, frenchie looks the part. Bit cramped in the driving compartment, but then I guess all tanks were!

 

I like the use of the white Salisbury plain mud, something a bit different. I think when you’ve blended in a few ‘classic’ mud tones it will definitely look the part.

[APA]

10 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Im not worried. I was busy finishing off my last (possibly) aeroplane model. All done now. 
 

I still haven’t got a real life so I have nothing to worry about! 🤓

That's the spirit 🤣

Worry not then. 

 

Crack on 👍

 

Andrew 

[Bertie McBoatface]

9 hours ago, bigfoot said:

Figures are coming along nicely Bertie, frenchie looks the part. Bit cramped in the driving compartment, but then I guess all tanks were!

 

Frenchie has that dark hair and white skin colouring, like Ray Reardon the snooker player. Same hairstyle too!

 

 

9 hours ago, bigfoot said:

 

I like the use of the white Salisbury plain mud, something a bit different. I think when you’ve blended in a few ‘classic’ mud tones it will definitely look the part.

 

 

 

 

 

It's beige when wet, whiter when dried. Quite often the mud is thin and very splashy. I think it's quite distinctive and many Brit(armour)modellers are very familiar with it, so I'd better get it right!

 

 

[Pig of the Week]

I thought frenchie really reminded me of Dave Vanian from The Damned..