Landships II

Long Tom · Brigadier

Paint Color For The Mark IV Tank

CharlieC · Legend

No

The Mark IVs were brown - lots of discussion about the exact shade. Perhaps Tamiya XF-52 would be a better starting point.

Regards,

Charlie

Long Tom · Brigadier

While I'm on the subject, I wondered about the roadwheels, Were they painted, bare metal, rusty? The illustration in the Osprey book shows steel road wheels without paint, but I wasn't sure if they would be painted. I assume they weren't rubber-covered.

T140 · Lieutenant-Colonel

Nice to see someone doing this kit. Mine arrived yesterday and have been browsing through the instructions. I did choose to get the seperate pack of track links so dont have that huge assembly job to do. One thing that puzzles me is the idler wheels at the front. The instructions note that there are 4 positioning holes to allow for taking up slack in the tracks. Great idea but cant see how you can decide which to use as the hull sides need to be assembled before the tracks can be test fitted. Hmmmm. As for road wheels they didnt have rubber but were plain steel. I will give them a coat of rust colour but not sure they will be seen once built as theres very little gap between tracks and body.

Pierantonio · Lieutenant-Colonel

In my opinion wheels were painted black or red oxide primer. IWM painted them black during restoration of its MkV.
They were all metal so they could show metal during their life moving on the track.
I build two Takom Mk IV and a Tamiya one and the position of idler wheel is not so important because one-click tracks are not so tight and you can easly adjust them along the hull even adding a link to them.
Pierantonio

MK1 Nut · Hero

This is the IWM restoration primer colours...

T140 · Lieutenant-Colonel

Hows the build going?

Long Tom · Brigadier

T140 wrote:
Hows the build going?

I finished the machine guns. Trouble is, I cannot get the parts for the front top area (with the vision ports, whatever it's called) to fit together properly! Anyone else know how to go about it?

Also, I'd like to have the visor doors open, but what would be visible behind them?

T140 · Lieutenant-Colonel

Not sure if I'm right but that top section I would call the drivers cupola. I used the top deck of the hull as a jig to get those pieces angled correctly. I glued the sides rear and top on to the hull deck then the front panel with the machine gun ball i did last when assembling the main hull panels. To align those use one of the inner hull sides as a jig again just dont glue to it. Use it as a jig only. Hope that makes sense, it worked ok for me anyway.

Pierantonio · Lieutenant-Colonel

Takom's MKIV has lots of fitting problem on sponson, drive cab and gas tank area because some parts' tabs interfear each other.
Take a look at this thread and you will note how I worked these parts.

landships.activeboard.com/t59125527/wip-converting-a-takom-male-mk-iv-into-a-supply-tank/

The drive cab need also a lot of dry fitting and some sanding on side parts

Long Tom · Brigadier

Thanks! Even with your help, have I got my work cut out for me. And I decided to do the gas tank box first.

T140 · Lieutenant-Colonel

Havent got to the sponsons yet but drive cab and fuel box went together fine for me. Think its a bit harsh to say there are lots of fitting problems. I've found good so far. The drive cab I would build up on the hull top. To make it separately then fit as one block is likely to leave room for more errors.

Long Tom · Brigadier

T140 wrote:
Havent got to the sponsons yet but drive cab and fuel box went together fine for me. Think its a bit harsh to say there are lots of fitting problems. I've found good so far. The drive cab I would build up on the hull top. To make it separately then fit as one block is likely to leave room for more errors.

The problem with the drive cab was attaching the front panel (I dry-fitted it) I cannot get it to go all the way flush.

Pierantonio · Lieutenant-Colonel

I had the same problem with both my model. In my opinion there is not a solution easy to explain or even a definitive one.
I cut and some some plastic here and here but with no great results.
At the end I had to fill jonts with the other plate.