Since I had some success with the Archer Details I decided to try and correct the Emhar Mk IV sponsons using a drawing from a Polish book in my reference resources. I cut the rear of the sponson to the correct angle and glued .040 styrene to the back of the sponson and sanded it smooth. I am using the Landships photos for overall shape and details. I hope to write an artical for my club website along with the Mk II supply tank showing how to correct them. I know there are other diminisional errors but most are easiely overlooked. However that 90 degree rear sponson was too much. I have corrected the gun shields but I may replace them altogether. I still have quite a bit to do but at least I have found away around the issues of the incorrect Male sponsons. Now the big question. Why would I do this instead of buying a conversion kit? The short answer is I was curious if I could do it and with all the issues of the kit why not try? Another reason is that while I feel it is true that scratch building them would be easier I know a lot of people who would be more comfortable correcting then scratch building them all together. Any thoughts from all of you would be appreciated as this forum has inspired me to try and strech my skills.
Well done indeed. These details are hard to correct. Yesterday, I bought an Airfix Mark I, and I used up almost a quarter of A4 plasticard correcting it! Btw, is it the 1:72 or the 1:35 Emhar Mk IV you're using? I hear that while the 1:72 model is passable in detail, the 1:35 never goes un-noticed.
your article in the make, are you planning to put that on this forum too? If so, I am looking forward too read it! Scratch or conversion: well, nothing against conversion kits, it's great that people make the effort to bring these on the market. But for me, as long corrections can be made by scratch it just makes more fun, though conversion and scratch are sometimes overlapping. The corrected angle of the sponson: can you tell how many degrees the correct angle must be? You're right, that 90 degree of the Emhar original, that really hurts! As Hugh already asked, is it the 1/35 you're talking about?
Plastic Fan, we'd love to have your article on Landships2. If you wish.
In the mean time, I'm going to sound like a scratched record by saying everybody should look at photos of Lodestar III in the Brussels museum. She is a male Mark IV in original colours. There are a lot of detailed photos of her on Landships1 in the Mark IV pages. You can count rivets, and match paint colours!
All the Mark IV articles need a good sorting out, before they get moved to Landships2, and articles like the one Plastic Fan is working on would improve the quality and cohesiveness of the new pages.
-- Edited by philthydirtyanimal on Sunday 9th of May 2010 01:46:01 PM
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Thanks for the encourging feedback. When I wrote this it was around 2:00am so I didn't write it very well so I will try to give more information here. My reference material is the Wydawnictwo Militaria book No. 30 British Tanks 1914-1918 by Jacek Solarz ISBN 83-86209-65-8. It has line drawings of the Mk I and IV and while these are good drawings I have found some detail errors, but for the most part they are very accurate . The drawings do not have a stated scale but the Mk IV is about 1/49.4.This is the scale I used to convert it to a decimal and scan and reduce it on my P.C. From here I used a protractor to find the angle of the sponson rear which, if I am reading it right, is 84 degrees. I would like to put this on Landships 2 so when I finish it I will let you all know. I am also working on the unditching rails as well. My research on this site as well as a couple of books leads me to believe that there are fewer bends in the real thing then most drawings I have seen. My drawings show it very neatly following the same line as the stowage box but from the wartime photos I have seen the rail sits above the box with a gap at the back. It is easier seen then described! I hope this helps out and I will continue and let you all know my progress as I go along. I am working on the 1/72 kit.
-- Edited by plastic fan on Sunday 9th of May 2010 04:20:06 PM
This is a very good idea to work on MarkI and IV correction. I try to improve the 1/35 Ehmar kit and convert some other to MarkI, MarkII and MarkV* version.
About the sponson, it would be easier to built new ones than correct all the drawbacks on.
But please, don't think to use the Jacek Solar book drawings. most if not all of them a simple copy taken from a very old Militaria Magazine booklet and just wrong in any way!
The most awfull are the MarkI sponsons copying errors from the first Bellona issue.
Up today, it is easier to found much better references. At first the Bovington museeum planpacks providing technical print copies, especially about gun mounting and sponsons.
The french "Batailles et blindés" published drawing on past issues and some of them could be found on their website some months ago.
Hi Gilles, yes, the Bellona drawings...I fell in that trap too..every now and then they still appear in some articles. The sponsons particuraly are, somebody used the expresision before, a fairy tale. Thanks for your tips!
Plastic Fan, we'd love to have your article on Landships2. If you wish.
In the mean time, I'm going to sound like a scratched record by saying everybody should look at photos of Lodestar III in the Brussels museum. She is a male Mark IV in original colours. There are a lot of detailed photos of her on Landships1 in the Mark IV pages. You can count rivets, and match paint colours!
All the Mark IV articles need a good sorting out, before they get moved to Landships2, and articles like the one Plastic Fan is working on would improve the quality and cohesiveness of the new pages.
-- Edited by philthydirtyanimal on Sunday 9th of May 2010 01:46:01 PM
I will be going to Lincoln in the near future. anyone been to see the mkIV - is it worth photographing?
Hi all.
I am involved in a project to create a 3D CAD drawing of a Mark IV Female tank and we are struggling to get some accurate plans of the female sponsons. We know that the plans available from Bovington are missing the detailed drawings schematics of the female sponsons but does anyone here know of where we may obtain a copy of these plans(preferable electronically) or if any still exist? We could of course look to going to one of the surviving Mark IV Females and taking some measurements but has anyone already done this? Any advice an guidance will be appreciated.
Don't take the Bovington drawings as gospel, as there are some discrepancies between different drawings when compared. Even the length of the 6pr is wrong on some of them!
Check very carefully before embarking on any scratch build.
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