Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 My build for this GB is a 1/35 Tamiya Matilda. I have built one of these before and throughly enjoyed it. However it was, as I suspect most Matilda models are, built in the box art Caunter desert scheme. So this one will (obviously) be backdated to a Matilda Mk.I as used by the British Expeditionary Force in France during 1939 and 1940. Common knowledge tells us that British tanks of that era were rubbish in comparison to German ones. That's not quite true. It's more true to say that the British cruiser tanks were equally as bad as the German tanks. The Matilda, however, was a different kettle of fish. It was virtually invulnerable to fire from German tanks and anti-tank guns. The only thing that could defeat it was the 88mm Flak gun which was hastily repurposed for ground use. On 21st May 1940, a force of 18 Matilda tanks broke through the German lines and caused havoc in the logistics areas of the 7th Panzer Division. They came within a hair's breadth of stopping the whole German thrust into France, but were let down by a lack of support from the rest of the BEF and the French army. The Matilda Mk.I was somewhat different to the Mk.III used in the Western Desert and I hope to illustrate those differences in the build. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo1966 Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 An interesting project. Will look forward to seeing this progress. At least you have a great kit to start with. George 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LorenSharp Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 You'll be "waltzing" this Matilda across the line in no time Enzo. Nice choice. Yeah I know it's a groaner of play on words, but hey, somebody's gotta do it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 6 hours ago, Geo1966 said: At least you have a great kit to start with. Indeed! Doing my best John Noakes impression, here's one I built earlier. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 3 hours ago, LorenSharp said: You'll be "waltzing" this Matilda across the line in no time Enzo. Nice choice. Now I want to build a CS Matilda used by the Australian army in Borneo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 Okay, let's look at the kit parts. Typical wonderful Tamiya goodness. For some odd reason the kit provides both link and length tracks and rubber band tracks. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 In order to backdate it to a Mk.I, I will be using a resin conversion set from Tiger Model Designs. https://tigermodeldesigns.com/ols/products/matilda-mki-bef-backdate-for-tamiya This is a very expensive set, even more so dues to the fact it needs to be shipped from the US. However it has been in The Stash for about eight years. It wasn't nearly as expensive back then. A major problem is that the upper hull and side skirts are very then and are very warped indeed. I will very probably just adapt the kit parts, which really just amounts to sanding off the rivet heads. Another problem is that the set does not come with any instructions. These are supposed to be downloaded from the TMD site but the download links no longer seem to be there. It shouldn't be too much of a problem though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 (edited) I built the1/76 Millicast early version for my BEF group and as far as I can remember the main differences are at the back end - different exhaust pipe layout with just a single pipe on the LHS and a 3ft rear extension "skid" to improve trench crossing. I believe it also had a co-axial water cooled Vickers .303 which was replaced with a Besa, in the Mk III and an extractor fan was fitted to the turret roof, so that will have to be removed. David Fletcher's book in the Osprey "New Vanguard" series may be of help. I know I have Tank Museum plans somewhere for several British Tanks but I think that although I have the A9 and A10, and possibly A 13 I don't think I have any for the A12, but I will check. Pete Edited August 24 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 The differences between the Matilda Mk I and Mk III were quite subtle. The main visual difference (at least among those Mk Is deployed to France) was the suspension. There had been some concern about whether the low suspension of the vehicle would cause problems in deep mud, so the suspension was changed to allow the tank to ride higher. This is dealt with in the TMD conversion set by providing a jig allowing new holes for the suspension units to be drilled. The hull front, storage box units and transmission covers were very subtly different on the Mk.I so the kit parts were replaced with resin parts. The conversion set provides resin replacements for the inner suspension units. The kit parts have large lugs which serve to attach to the hull sides. This would be visible on the finished model. Unfortunately the resin parts are all sadly warped. It would be an easy fix to immerse them in hot water to straighten them out but I thought it would be less time consuming to simply carve the lugs away from the kit parts. I seem to be using less and less of the resin parts. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 2 Author Share Posted September 2 Running gear built up and modified, ready for fitment. And fitted. As with all my AFV models, I have added ballast. It's not strictly necessary but I just like to have tank models with a bit of heft. The Matilda Mk.I was built with a much smoother surface than later marks. I decided to use the kit parts for the upper hull and sides so I sanded off all the raised rivets. I also filled in the cutouts at the front of the track covers with slivers of plastic card. Moving on to the turret. The TMD resin parts seem to have problems when they are thin. All the thin parts are badly warped. Thankfully the turret is perfectly fine. The Mk.I has different roof details, missing the large extractor fan. The gun mantlet is very different as it housed a Vickers gun rather than the BESA on later marks. The turret front face was again warped so I modified the kit part - a simple matter of sanding off the raised panels. Let's see how it looks. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Looking very nice indeed! I have a TMD M3 Stuart interior set and lower hull replacement and that has similar issues with warping. Going to be spending some time with the kettle when I come to build it methinks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 4 Author Share Posted September 4 The greeblies have been added to the upper hull and turret. I particularly like that the towing eyes are a totally different shape to that of the Mk.III and have been provided in resin. The Mk.II had a different engine to the later marks. It was an AEC Leyland petrol engine produced by grafting two bus engines together. The exhaust layout is different to that of the later diesel engined versions, so a blanking plate has been added from plastic card to the right hand exhaust port. The barrel is turned aluminium provided in the conversion set from TMD. Primed with a coat of clear lacquer from a rattle can followed by a coat of grey plastic primer, also from a rattle can. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 You're doing well with this one, Enzo James 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 5 Author Share Posted September 5 2 hours ago, 81-er said: You're doing well with this one, Enzo It's an easy kit. I bet I could build an overall light stone desert version in a Blitzbuild! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Showing your hand for the Blitzenbuild then? James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 5 Author Share Posted September 5 21 minutes ago, 81-er said: Showing your hand for the Blitzenbuild then? It's definitely under consideration. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LorenSharp Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 MAgnificent work so far Enzo. Not surprising though, It IS a part of your name after all 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 7 Author Share Posted September 7 Swimming in dangerous waters now! The early war British armour colours can be a bit of a . I know that Mike Starmer has provided some mixes that are well regarded, but that's the problem for me. I don't like to mix paints. I would much rather take them straight from the bottle. With that in mind, I used Vallejo Model Air 71.330 which is intended to represent Khaki Green G3. I was surprised at the appearance of the paint in the bottle which looks very dark brown. I was expecting a medium green. All the profiles I have seen show G3 to be a medium green while G4 is a dark green. However, I suspect that to be artistic licence to differentiate between the two colours, which have an extremely low contrast. I have seen some colour photos online which show the G3 to be a dark khaki green. When I initially sprayed the paint, it definitely came out as a khaki green, however after a coat of clear lacquer it now looks more brown in the photo. I suspect that is due to the glossy finish and the colour may well revert to khaki green once is has had a few coats of matt varnish. In real life it still looks khaki green. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 Great progress, Enzo. I used Vallejo 71.330 on my Matilda, and I thought it looked reasonably ok - green but with a brown tint: 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 On 10/09/2024 at 07:26, IanC said: I used Vallejo 71.330 on my Matilda, and I thought it looked reasonably ok - green but with a brown tint: That just looks superb! It does look significantly different to mine, but I suspect that's because your lighting and photography skills are superior to my own. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 The disruptive pattern was maksed using Blutak worms and masking tape squares, sealed with Copydex. The Green G4 was sprayed with Lifecolor UA-106 Aermacchi green. This provides a very low contrast with the base colour. It's a bit difficut to see on my photo but It looks good in real life. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 Hi Enzo, I used Colourcoats Khaki Green 03 back in the day and it was brownish. However the Tank Museum repaint of their early war tanks has a slightly different interpretation. There were 2 schemes, one with a Light Bronze Green disruptive over KG03 which is how I think they have gone with the above A13, and Dark Bronze Green over KG03 which is how the Infantry tanks seem to have been painted. My Colourcoats version is definitely a dark brownish green whereas the above is more like black-green with just a hint of brown, and the Mig take on KG03 is a fairly pale brown and looks totally wrong to me. Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 5 minutes ago, PeterB said: Hi Enzo, I used Colourcoats Khaki Green 03 back in the day and it was brownish. However the Tank Museum repaint of their early war tanks has a slightly different interpretation. There were 2 schemes, one with a Light Bronze Green disruptive over KG03 which is how I think they have gone with the above A13, and Dark Bronze Green over KG03 which is how the Infantry tanks seem to have been painted. My Colourcoats version is definitely a dark brownish green whereas the above is more like black-green with just a hint of brown, and the Mig take on KG03 is a fairly pale brown and looks totally wrong to me. Pete I think the whole subject of early war British tank colours is a bit of a It's fun though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 This is how my Matilda came out with Colourcoats KG03 and Deep Bronze Green. Bit out of focus. Pete 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 8 minutes ago, PeterB said: This is how my Matilda came out with Colourcoats KG03 and Deep Bronze Green. That looks good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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