We
have already seen Takom’s Mk.A Whippet
Medium Tank in a review by Andy Moore – Painting the completed kit will come in two day's time, but today Andy puts the kit together to REALLY show you what the fit and construction is
like. Enjoy…
Build review PT II
Mk.A Whippet Medium Tank
Mk.A Whippet Medium Tank
Takom
Kit no. 2025
1/35th scale
Available
from Takom’s Distributors Worldwide
You
can currently get this from HLJ.com for ¥6,120/ USD
$50.72/ €44.95 + P&P
In part one we had a good look at what Takom had
supplied us with in their new Whippet kit and very nice it looked. But kits
aren't for looking, they're for building and painting so let’s get stuck in.
Unsurprisingly, the construction gets underway with the
running gear and these early tanks certainly had a lot. In addition to the
drive sprocket and idler, there are 16 road wheel assemblies and 5 return
rollers to make up for each side. As each of these feature two wheels per axle,
that's a grand total of 84 wheels to clean up. In truth, this isn't as arduous
a task as it sounds, as all the wheels are hidden once the tracks are fitted,
so a few corners can be cut when building up the wheel and axle assemblies.
Takom recommends leaving the wheels unglued on the
axles, to rotate freely but, in reality, there's little point to doing this.
Gluing the wheels and axles together will make adding them to the hull much
easier. There are, in fact, four different road wheel assemblies to make, each
slightly different so it's important to pay attention to the instructions to
ensure you make up the correct number of each.
Takom have thoughtfully provided a placement guide for
the position of each road wheel so, as long as you haven't mixed them up, it's
a simple job to add them in the correct order.
The idler wheel was used to adjust the track tension on
the real Whippet and Takom has cleverly designed the mounting point to allow
the wheel to replicate this feature. Three interconnected holes are moulded on
the inner face of the track plate allowing the wheel to sit in three different
positions.
The three choices will make quite a dramatic difference
to the final look of the tank and you may find you need to add an extra track
link if you go with the fully extended option (more on the number of track
links required later).
Although you can simply add the idler in the position
of your choice and leave it at that, to be fully accurate, the adjustment bolt
and wheel mount should be altered to suit the position of the wheel. As I had
decided to go with the centre option, the bolt needed to be shortened
correspondingly. At this point, I'd love to show you the photos of this work
taking place, but sadly my computer decided to eat the pictures so I'll try to
explain the procedure instead.
The photo below shows the original configuration of the
adjustment bolt and wheel mount. The bolt has a nut moulded part way along its
length and the first part of the modification is simply to remove the bolt and
cut off the portion up to the nut. The bolt can then be reattached. This also
makes it much easier to clean up the small mould line that runs around the
bolt.
The second part of the mod is a little more involved
but still relatively simple. The mounting bolt for the wheel was carefully
sliced off and a hole drilled in the mounting plate where the bolt had been.
The bolt was then re-attached further forward and a small length of styrene rod
was glued in to the hole to represent the section of the adjustment bolt that
would be under the wheel mount.
The finished result can be seen in the photo below.
It's a small modification but well worth doing if you're planning on mounting
the idler wheel in its centre or forward position.
With that modification done, the rest of the track unit
could be built up. The upper and lower support frame and the panels that make
up the mud chutes were attached to the inner track plate and left to set before
the road wheels and return rollers were added. The wheels were simply glued
into place as there is no need to for them to rotate.
When everything had dried, the outer track plate was
attached. The fit here was excellent and no filler was required despite the
complexity of all the various frames and plates that make up this assembly. The
idler and drive sprocket are simply trapped between the inner and outer track
plates and remain fully rotatable which will make fitting the tracks easier.
With the running gear finished, it was time to start
getting the hull together. The first step was to build up the forward mounted,
armoured fuel tank. This was made from five flat plates and I was a little
worried about how well these would all line up. I made sure to clean up the
mating surfaces before gluing, but it was clear that Takom had designed this
kit very well as everything sat squarely and no filler was required.
Encouraged by the fit of the fuel tank, I proceeded to
get the rest of the hull together. Again, everything lined up perfectly but it
is important to ensure everything is seated correctly before gluing as, if one
part is slightly misaligned, it will throw everything else out. I found it
easier to hold the parts in position, run liquid cement along the joint, then
clamp the parts until the glue had set.
With the hull sides finished, the last part to add is
the roof but, before this is attached, the machine guns must be installed.
These are designed to remain moveable in their ball mounts but, in the end, I
decided to glue them in a fixed position to ease painting. The only
modification I made to the guns was to drill out the barrels with a fine bit.
Installing the roof plate proved to be the only awkward
part of the build. Although it would align correctly on the left or right side,
I couldn't get it to sit squarely on both sides simultaneously. This may have
been down to the kit, but more probably down to a slight misalignment of the
hull plates on my part. In the end, I got it to fit by securing one side with
superglue, then pressing the other side into place and running some plastic
weld around the join. Once set, a small amount of filler was required to neaten
up some of the joins. Mr Dissolved Putty was painted over the gaps, then the
excess wiped away, leaving a neat join that required no further attention.
The rear door was placed slightly ajar to add a bit of
interest. There's no point in opening it any wider as the lack of any interior
would be very apparent.
With the main hull together, I started to add the
remaining details, beginning with the exhaust pipes. I decided to detail these
up a little as they're quite a prominent feature on the tank The pipes are
covered by small shrouds where they enter the hull. On the kit these are simply
solid mouldings which the ends of the exhaust pipes butt up to.
I drilled this out, starting with a small drill bit and
increasing the size until the side walls of the shroud were thin enough. I then
carefully squared off the back of the hole with the tip of a sharp scalpel
blade, before finishing the hole off with a fine needle file.
As the exhaust pipe now needs to extend into the shroud,
a short length of plastic rod was glued to the end of the pipe. A couple of millimetres
is enough to give the impression of the pipe extending into the hull.
The exhaust pipes themselves had an asbestos rope
wrapped muffler but the kit part is smooth with no representation of the
wrappings. To remedy this, I wrapped some fine thread around the muffler,
securing it with superglue.
With the thread on, a little texture was added to the
pipes to give the impression a rusty corroded finish. This was simply done by
stippling putty onto the pipes with a stiff brush.
The moulded mounting brackets were sliced off and
replacements made from thin fuse wire. Holes were drilled in the hull to accept
the wire brackets and, once the exhausts were attached, the brackets were
secured in the holes with superglue.
I decided to use only one of the two stowage boxes that
mount behind the cab. These are moulded with smooth, flat sides but, in
reality, would have been wooded crates. To represent this, I scored horizontal
lines on the sides to represent the planks, then added some woodgrain texture
with a coarse file.
I added a bit of stowage in the form of a tarp sheet
made from tissue soaked in watered down PVA. This was simply pushed into the
crate, allowing a couple of corners to hang over the edge, then left to dry.
The last bits to add were the delicate PE brackets for
the track guards. I added a couple of bolt heads to these, taken from the
spares moulded on the sprue frames. I bent one of the brackets on the fuel tank
to show a little battle damage.
Oh yes, I almost forgot, there's some track too, isn't
there. These were so quick and easy to put together you barely notice you've
done it. The instructions call for 69 links per side but I found this to be too
long. After a couple of test fittings, I decided that 67 gave the best fit. If
you fit the idler wheel fully out you may need to add an extra link. There are
plenty of spares provided in the box.
So, with that the construction was complete. At this
stage, I left the fuel tank separate until I'd got some primer into the nooks
and crannies that would have been harder to spray with it fitted.
Part III - the painting and weathering - will be published in a day or two here on TMN
Andy Moore
Our thanks to Takom for sending this
model to Andy to review and make.
You
can currently get this from HLJ.com for ¥6,120/ USD
$50.72/ €44.95 + P&P
