The magazine article on this is not really worth the paper it's written on; I should have stopped when I read that the builder had never built a tank before!
The Landships article on converting the Mk IV into a Mk V is excellent, but not the whole story of the conversion as there are a number of differences between the Mk V and the V*.
The kit's rivets are also too small.
I have just finished the scratch build of the rear turret or cupola for the Mk V* - it measures all of 35 x 30 x 15 mm.
The number of parts? 293, excluding the two MGs still to be built.
252 rivets/bolt heads were punched out and glued on despite lots of static that made them stick to anything other than the plastic card!
That's a R5 coin alongside (same size as a 2 Euro coin).
Going to finish off the tank underside with a few dozen rivets tomorrow and then find some beads so that I can make the MGs in ther ball mount.
That looks excellent Tony, I'd like to see more pics, please.
One question though: wouldn't it be easier to turn Emhar's Mk V kit into a V*? The extra changes from a Mk IV must be considerable, with the addition of radiator grilles both sides, sponson detail corrections, cab changes, a completely new rear bulkhead! Is it just that you had a Mk IV kit handy and decided to use it?
I agree with TincanTadpole that it would be easier to use the MKV and use the conversion kit from Panzer shop ( I think that's the one ! )which would save you a lot of time to do the build.
As a "poor pensioner" I don't buy many kits - I have to live another decade to finish at one kit a month to finish what I've got.
I had the Mk IV kit and the magazine article made it seem fairly easy!!!! Now it seems as if a total scratch build would have been easier in the long run!
There is no way that I could afford Panzer Shop conversions.
Anyway, I'm finding doing some real model making to be really satisfying, although I have just made an appointment with my eye specialist!
I have the Interus Mk V, and if that is anyway like the Emhar one, it's better to start off with a Mk IV.
For checking panel sizes and positions, I have made 1/35 scale transparencies of the original drawings sold by Bovington.
Will post another picture when I have a side panel finished.
