Landships II

Howdy All,

In an attempt to focus some attention on our ongoing 'British Tank' Group Build here at Landships.com, I am posting some preliminary photos of my second entry. Again in 1/35th scale {I know most of you fellas prefer the Braille scales...}.
It is the Mark IV British 'female' tank, manufactured by Emhar. I decided to build this kit after the recent attention that the British Mark's were receiving here at the site.
With any luck, this build will do justice to these remarkable Landships....

Here I go....

I have read thru a couple of kit reviews on this kit, and quite honestly was prepared for some ill-fitting pieces, especially the track horns. But, after looking closely at the parts, and spending a decent amount of time test fitting and barinstorming the fit 'issues', I attempted to glue everything together with my 'adjustments' in mind.....

Below is a pic of the lower hull section with the lower track horn piece glued on...



Now, it needs to be said here that this is not the way the instructions supplied in the Emhar kit say these pieces should be assembled, but I honestly found fault with the way Emhar says to do it so I proceeded with my own non-linear {as per the instructions} method...
It has been stated that one of the 'issues' with this kit is the fit of the track horns, and their alignment with the drive/idler sprockets. If this kit is just simply glued together I don't doubt that there would be some fit issues. One of the small adjustments I made was to file down the end of the lower track section so that it was flush with the end of the lower hull piece {pointed out by the arrow in the pic}

Here is a pic of just how much of an overhang there is initially....



Once I had shaved this down till it was flush with the lower hull piece {which is what it was supposed to be in the first place}, I then proceeded to glue the rest of the pieces that make up the hull 'box' together by quick gluing them together and them placing the 'box' on it's side on top of a standard sheet of quadrille paper to ensure proper alignment. This 'box' was then allowed to dry for a bit, and then I applied a few drops of CA glue to the inside seams to strengthen the rather tenuious bond points...



Lastly{for now }, I wanted to show you a close-up of the better aligned rear hull plate {#1}, rear inside sponson plate bond {#2}, and the {hard to see} straightened rear drive sprocket angle {no number}....



The #3 arrows are pointing at the bottom edge of the inside and outside track sponson joins that will be lightly filed down so that both pieces will be straight and lined up properly...

My apologies for maybe being to 'A' type about this build, but I have always wanted someone else to be so piqeun {sp?} about spelling-it-out when it came to just how they overcame a kits limitations.....

regards,

Tread.

-- Edited by Treadhead at 02:31, 2006-02-04

-- Edited by Treadhead at 02:32, 2006-02-04