JeroenPeters

Resurrection! After a few distractions, this one is back on the bench.

Wow... What an amazing photo and what great diorama opportunity. Following this one!

1/35 Mk.A Whippet Medium tank Takom # 03.02.2025 Available from Pocketbond for £ 39,99 Introduction What we have here is one of the first operational tanks. With the sudden sprouting of WWI kits in large scale, this is a very welcome but also logical release. It’s one of the first tanks that actually started to look a little bit like the tank we know today. A first hint of a turret and the tracks not running at the height of upper body of the tank. After the MK.I and MK.IV the need rose for a smaller and faster tank. William Tritton (designer of the Mother tank) came up with the idea to develop a smaller and faster tank that could use the gaps in the enemy defences made by the bigger tanks. Since the machine gun was one of the most feared and loved weapons of WWI, this fast tank was to have an armoured machine gun nest firing in all directions. Tests were done with a rotating turret, but time pressure (deadline: July 1917) obstructed this. William Tritton named his tank Whippet for it’s speed: powered by two Tylor 45hp engines. The same engines that powered the double decker busses! The difficulty in the setup was that each engine powered one track. This called for serious driving skills in a time where training time was scarce. All in all this tank was developed over a one year period. The deadline was not made, but in October they were ready to go to France. The first missions consisted of covering retreating troops but later on they finally got the role they were designed for! Fighting alongside the heavier tanks and penetrating enemy lines where they would reap havoc. Despite their lack of thick armour (8 – 14 mm) they proved to be successful. One story stand out: That of one Whippet called ‘The Musical Box’. It got separated from it’s unit behind enemy lines. There it fought like a beast wiping out an entire camp, a motorized column, machine gun nests, an artillery unit and an observation post. Eventually it was stopped by a direct hit, but it had already made it’s point… The Whippet had some downsides. It’s thin armour. The four machine guns crowded the fixated turret with their butt stocks. And the steering engineering proved way to complex. Even for a trained driver. In the end all 200 orders for the Whippet were built. After the war some went to units in Ireland and some went to Russia. They even upgraded a few with a French 37mm gun. Six were sold to Japan where it was carefully studied and used as a starting point for Japanese tank design. The Whippet in Japanese service (not the towing cable carried on the side): Survivors for reference As far as I could find there are X surviving Whippets around today. Which means we are lucky to have various walkarounds available on the net. Here is one from the Brussels Army museum: http://svsm.org/gallery/whippet_bru And here is one from the Worthington Tank Park in Canada: http://svsm.org/gallery/whippet_wor The surviving Whippet in the Brussels Army museum: The kit The first thing I noticed is the small box it comes in which doesn’t really reflect the size of the tank, which is substantial (for a medium tank). Contents: 7 grey sprues hold all the parts, a bag of separate and movable track links, one small photo etch sheet and decals for no less than 7 schemes. On the first page of the instruction booklet and additional sprue (F) is mentioned, along with a resin commander figure and decals are mentioned. These are only included in an exclusive limited edition and will let you build the Japanese version. By the looks of it sprue F holds 2 japanese machine guns. Lets walk through the instruction steps One thing I simply hate about building armour kits is the laborious work of cleaning up the wheels, sprockets and return rollers. When a kit has a lot of flash this means hours of cleaning up the mould lines with a sharp blade. Luckily sprues A and E show little to none of this moulding imperfection, causing steps 1 to 3 to be pretty do-able. The Whippet had ingenious mud chutes that made sure the mud that was transported to the top of the track did not land on the lower road wheels. At the same time this system (and the outer armour plating) causes the road wheels and return rollers to be almost invisible. I find it curious that you are to place all the wheels before assembling the hull. Usually this is done the other way around. On the other hand it might make assembling easier, since there are so many of them and you want to assemble them vertically (so they don’t fall out) before you button them up with the armour plate that holds them in place. Sprue A (x2): Close up of Sprue A: Sprue E (x2): Close ups of Sprue E: These side plates take 10 small photo etch hooks. I checked a lot of reference photo’s and found some that show these hooks to be used for carrying towing cables. The exhaust pipes on the sides of the hull are placed pretty early in the construction phase (if you ask me). I would advise to keep these parts aside and spray the armour body first. The ends of the exhaust pipe have a hint of being hollow. A small dimple is present but this makes it easier to drill them out yourself. No big deal. When both track units are done construction moves to the main hull. No interior is offered in this kit, so this is a speedy procedure! The armour plates that make up the hull show light traces of ejector pin marks on the inside. Only if you wish to scratch (or after market) the interior should you get rid of these, but they are so light this will be a simple task. Sprue B: Close up of Sprue B: Close up of Sprue B (note the ejection pin marks. Not very prominent): Sprue C: Close ups of Sprue C: Sprue D: Close ups of Sprue D: When the hull is almost completely closed the Hotchkiss guns are added. One firing to the front (and yes, the long nose is the front, which holds the two huge Tyler engines), two firing to the sides and one firing to the rear, located in the door. Once you have added all four guns, you’ll see that the space inside is pretty cramped. That’s why during battle often the side firing guns were left out. When firing to the sides during battle was necessary the forward and rear firing guns could be switched to side firing positions in short time. The Hotchkiss guns themselves are pretty well detailed. Check out the detail on the Hotchkiss gun: Note the cramped space inside the Whippet, mainly caused by the 4 Hotchkiss guns: The movable / workable track links are great…. I test fitted a small piece. 69 links make up one side and to help you keep ‘track’ Takom has numbered every single one of them! The plastic is soft enough to bend just enough to squeeze the two pins and slide them in the two holes of the next link. Don’t use too much force, or one pin will definitely break! Not too fond of the numbers on the inside of each link though: Painting and Markings As I said in the intro no less than 7 colouring options are included! 4 British options, two german and 1 russian: • Option 1: British Mark. A Whippet Near Achiet-le-Petit France, August 1918 • Option 2: British Mark. A Whippet Biefvillers (France) August 1918 • Option 3: British Mark. A Tank 347 Of 6th battalion Tank Corps.B Company Amiens (France) August 1918 • Option 4: British Mark. A Whippet Irish Civil War Dublin, January 1919 • Option 5: Repair number 111 At Lieu-Saint-Armand Training ground of the 17th Army in September 1918 • Option 6: German Whippet In Freikorps Service Berlin, January 1919 • Option 7: Russian Whippet In Red Army service, 1920 The decal sheet: Aftermarket? This is a fairly new kit, but the subject has already been done by Emhar. Not as nice as the new Takom kit by far. Accurate Armour also released the Whippet some time ago, but that is the most expensive road to take. And as we are used to in the model production world, two companies jump up at the same time and produce the same subject at the exact same time. Yes.. Meng models recently also brought their take on the Whippet to the market J This does mean that there is already some aftermarket available that might just fit the Takom release too. Like the Panzershop resin stowage and tracks. I don’t think the resin tracks are something you’ll use, but the stowage bins and other extra stuff in this set could prove useful. Panzershop resin: Also available (and again not 100% sure whether they fit the Takom release) are the Friulmodel white metal tracks. I’m usually a huge fan of these, but with the Whippet the return rollers are obscured. Since I usually add Friulmodel to the mix to show how the track sacks over them, I might think about this purchase pretty hard. Friulmodel ATL-146 Masterclub also makes resin tracks and yes, they ARE designed for the Takom release. This Russian company focuses on figures and tank tracks. Pretty new to me, but great products by the simple look of it. Masterclub resin tracks: DN Models does a nice set of paint masks for the insignia and crosses. Verdict One simple but effective (and affordable) release of the Whippet Mk.A. With the old Emhar Whippet costing around 22 pounds and this new Takom Whippet going for just under 40 pounds, I’d say this is a pretty good deal. Not much aftermarket is needed since the crude exterior is very well rendered and doesn’t need much. You’d better invest in a good set of weathering agents! What is not included is any hint of an interior. No engine. No drivers compartment. This is where’s there room for the aftermarket companies. When the rear door is posed open a good part of the inside is visible. Technically this is a very well made, thought out, basic kit with plenty of options for extra detailing. I would have loved to see some extra’s added though. Like the towing cable. Or the fenders that are not an option in this kit. Ah well… you can’t have it all! Takom is definitely on a roll, releasing one exotic kit after another. Keep m coming! From 1 to 10 I’d rate this kit as an 8. Highly recommended Our sincere thanks to Pocketbond for the review sample. To purchase directly, click HERE. Jeroen Peters

Hehehe, The figure should maybe not bring a sword to a bomb-fight, and probably could use two sips of sake! Let's say that he can complain after he's successfully completed his mission The little bugger is done!: http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/4228-hph-models-kugisho-ohka-model-11/

Here she is after the resin dust has settled (Not that there is a lot of that with this model). About two months on the bench. I used Gunze paint and AK Weathering washes, pigment and grime. The figure is from Ultracast and is there to give an impression of the size. Enjoy!

Aaaaaaaand she's done! More proper pics later.

Almost done!

As i said on FB! G10! And be sure to get the A.M.U.R. Reaver upgrade. Review imminent on LSM!

Supercool and not an absurdly huge size either

Welcome! Really liking your YouTube review. I usually have my doubt on printed IP's on Large Scale kits, but in 72nd scale it should be cool! I'll move your topic to the proper section now

wow! nice one fran!

Metallics Volume 1 AK Learning Series 04 Publisher: AK Interactive Editor & Idea: Fernando Vallejo Available from AK Interactive for € 9,95 What we have here is number 4 in the growing line of AK Interactive’s Learning series. Instead of covering a series of subjects (like Cold War Tanks for instance) ththis range deals with a certain material. Volume 1 taught us to paint Realistic and weathered Wood and was linked to the AK paint set. Volume 2 was all about German Panzer uniforms and volume 3 dealt with rubber and iron under the title: Tracks and wheels. Pretty smart marketing, since the result of a modellers work is crucial in creating raving fans of a certain tool or paint. Focussing on a certain material helps us to master a certain technique. So what do we get? A sturdy glossy A5 cover, binding 83 high quality glossy pages. Restrained advertorial space and various metallic painting techniques and metal types. Let me walk you through it: Index: • Introduction With an explanation on how light is refracted and basic colour theory. • Paint types Deals with the characteristics of acrylics, enamels, lacquers, inks and other metallic paint types available. • Main metals in modelling The most common metals we try to replicate in our models and the challenges they bring. • Techniques and samples Step by step tutorials on how to achieve a convincing steel or aluminium finish with various paints and techniques. This last chapter is one to take a closer look at. There are so many ways to deal with various metallic finishes, that it’s important to choose the medium and technique carefully. The book shows us the effects of weathering pigments, filters, washes and inks on top of the XTreme metal paints by AK Interactive (but these materials ofcourse can also apply to Alclad II for instance). It shows us how to properly use the wax and polish agent with the name True Metal by AK Interactive and has an entire section of step by step airplane finish techniques and super glossy car and bike finishes that show your mirrored reflection after careful polishing. Even the application of Bare Metal foil is shown, even though it is not featured in the AK product line-up. A nice touch. Look at the effect of inks on this heat discolored engine of a 1/48 Fouga Magister... Verdict This is a simple but effective little title that will offer great help to the novice modeller, whether he falls for the AK Extreme Metal range or not. But it will also help the weathered, senior modeller that is open to new techniques and / or materials. A highly recommended for the quick learner! A special thanks to AK Interactive for the review sample. Available here. Jeroen Peters

I think i want one...

Patience and measure thrice / cut once is rewarded with the HPH kits. Great work so far! I'm sure I'll see it in person pretty soon

That looks lovely! Scale and subject-wise you are all over the place!

A few things left to do: Add the aileron and rudder counterweights. (x4). Add the aiming sights: Add the belt that hold the Ohka to the cart. As you can see in this pic the strap was white. Probably thick canvas: And here are just a few more pics that show a dented nose. Also not the wide seam across the fuselage that connects the nose to the firewall. That's why i widened that seam on my model.:

Progress! Metal rocket tubes are in: Scratches are being added and oil filters: Almost done!

AK and Ammo actually. Applied matt varnish and adding scratches now. I use a large toothpick to tighten up the washes around the window frames.

Very sad news and a great loss. I've read that his sick bed was short lived...

Pfffff

And dirty!

A little feast for the eyes! Undressing always does the trick!

Perfect! Hard to believe I'm looking at a resin kit..

Just a few more small decals to go! Then to seal it all in. Washes. Matt varnish. Getting there... The light discolorment at the rear red line is temporarily and caused by the Micro sol.

You havent been paying attention...