is there anyone who can tell me more about the Firing Line Mark I scale 1/15? I recently bought it .The seller told me it was a limited run from late eighties and srictly made in a run of 50 examples. The body is completely made from photo-etched plates and the tracks and tail wheel are made of aluminium. Can anyone help.?
Max, have you purchased a completed model, or the unbuilt kit? I built the kit a few years ago. The wheels, guns and small castings are white metal, as were the track plates on the original version of the kit. In a newer version, each track piece is composed of multiple photo-etch and white metal parts. I suspect that the model was based on Bovington's MkI, since various pieces missing from the kit are also not visible on the museum tank (but can be seen in photographs of period vehicles). The hydraulic ram and tail are where most of the omissions are located, probably because the museum tank had this unit retro-fitted after arrival at Bovington from Hatfield Park in the 1960's. My plan to paint the model has been delayed by rather protracted research into the paint schemes on these tanks (and a modelling arms race against my son's Warhammer 40K army).
thanks for the info. The kit is unbuilt in box and it seems it is a first production. The tracks are made in white metal. Just found some pics on the internet of FL Mark I built by a Japanese guy.
The Japanese modeller has made an error in construction. The slit in the gun shield for the 6-pdr sight lies to the left side of the gun in both the port and starboard sponsons (which resulted in the gun having a slightly different range of traverse in each sponson).
