Matador 1/76 Mark II tank conversion from Airfix kit By Eric Gallaud

History

Basicaly, the Mark II tank was a Mark I intended to be use for training purpose only. Because of that, it was agreed to have not a full armoured strength, the steel was not hardened. There was a few other modifications compared to the Mark I : The cab was narrow in order to accept wider tracks, tracks adjustment was increased by 38mm, which resulted in a different shape of the apertures on the front horns. On the top of the hull, the hatch was completely modified, from a round one to a higher one, which allowed some visibility to both sides and rear of the tank. The steering tail wheels was also abandoned. Some track extension elements (grousers) were also added every 6 links to spread the weight of the tank.

While these tanks were not intended to fight, some of them were used for the Arras battle. The females were equipped with Mark I sponsons, the only real armouring elements of these tanks. These sponsons were camouflaged with the Mark I scheme while the other parts were painted in a muddy shade of brown.

The Kit

It is the old but still good Airfix kit. If I remember well, it was first released in 1964. It is not a "pure" Mark I but a mix between the Mark I and the Mark II. From the Mark II, it has already the narrow cab and the hatch on the top of the hull. It also has a silencer which appears only on late Mark II and Mark III, instead of the triangular baffles.

The decal sheet which comes from Decalcomaniacs is huge and offer the possibility to build a lot of different romboïds tanks.

The conversion comes from Matador in a card box. The parts are molded in a tan resin with few bubbles. I bought it directly from Matador and it is provided with a good instruction sheet : Page 1, Page 2.

References

The best book reference, in my opinion, is the "British Mark I tank 1916" by David Fletcher, Osprey publishing.

The best web reference is the Landship site, devoted to 1/72 WW1 vehicle modeling. The forum of this site with its members was an unvaluable source of knowledge, both for history and modeling improvement.

The Build

First of all, I start to trim, fill and sand all of the resin parts. Then, I begin the construction by filling the hatch on the top of the driver cab. For this operation, I used the light curring putty from Tamiya. This is an interesting product as it is stated that it cures in 1 minute when exposed at the sunlight. Unfortunately, I tried it in winter and it was not cured after 1 hour. I have to try it next summer.

Once done, I build the Airfix part of this kit. This is a fast operation, very straightforward.

According to some pictures, I choose to scratchbuild the machineguns. This is done with 2 sizes of Evergreen rod. In tan, the provided ones, in white, the scratchbuilt.

Then, I added the MGs to the sponsons with the help of some steel wire.

Then, I finished the building process with addition of the exhaust triangular baffles that I scratchbuilt, it was easier to do that instead of remove the flash on the resin parts. I also added the box at the rear and the tracks made with several parts. I just had a problem with them, on one side, I didn't manage to have every grousers spaced every 6 links. I didn't find where is my mistake.

Then the painting process starts. I airbrushed a coat of Humbrol 29 on the whole body then, when dry, I hand painted the track with Humbrol 113 which give a good rust base.

The sponsons are airbrushed with a coat of MisterKit battleship grey, then the other colours are added, trying to reproduce the scheme found in the Osprey book with the colour recommended on the Decalcomaniac instructions : sand and brown with some black demarcation line between some colour patches, everything over a medium grey. I chose the Citadel "Scorched brown" and the Humbrol 63 matt sand to match these colours. I don't know the level of accuracy of them but they looked ok to me.

I add a coat of Klir (French version of Future floor wax) on the whole tank. Then I added the decals.

Then, I applied a wash of gouache (very dark brown mix), in order to give a deeper aspect to the details. The advantage of this paint is that when dry, you can remove the excess with a Q-tip or a damp cloth.

I used the Tamiya weathering set (pict 1, pict 2) to enhance the edges and various raised details.

Next, back to the tracks. After the coat of rust colour previously hand brushed, I add a heavy drybrush of Humbrol 53 gun metal on the whole tracks. An advice from the Landship forum, it is also possible to paint a base coat of gun metal then a wash of rust.

I add a heavy wash of black oil paint diluted with white spirit. When dry, a light drybrush with a silver paint. For this case, it is not necessary, as the tracks will be covered by mud, this last step will disappear.

Then, I add the "mud" with a new product from Tamiya, the weathering stick, mud version (there is also a snow version). This is a stick of thick paste. The application is pretty easy as far as there are no little place where you want to put it in, which is always the case!!! To turn this problem, I use some little tools such a screwdriver, an old cutter and whatever I find convenient to do so. The "mud" dried hard within a few hours and seems to stick well.

To finish this kit, I added some mud under and around the bottom of the sponsons before I glued them in place.

Conclusion

This was a very interesting build, pretty straightforward. My intention was to test some weathering technique described in the Landship site. You can see below the completed model with its companion, the Mark I, with Matador tracks and a scratchbuild anti hand grenade roof. Now, I have to increase the family, Mark III, Mark IV, Mark V* .....