WWI Heavy Battle Tank Mk V

Ron Garcia
I've wanted to build one of these (Mk. I - Mk. V) tanks ever since I got interested in armor way back when. I don't remember why I settled on the Mk. V but that's the one I had in my stash.

The kit is made up of slabs with no attachment pegs. Many are beveled at angles. All require careful cementing. Use a fast drying one. I can't imagine trying to build this kit with a slow drying cement while hoping to keep four (or more) slabs of plastic from falling apart. Due to this (and a few other things), the kit is tricky to put together.

I thought the assemblies would have gaps in them when I put them all together, but Takom did a nice job of engineering and any gaps were slight. However, I would recommend wearing an optivisor before painting just to make sure you filled in any seams that may have occurred during the build. The grey plastic and tons of rivets next to most connection points make some hard to see.

The road wheel/idler wheel assembly was also tough to assemble. The instructions would have you install them all on one side (27 each side) and then sandwich them with the other side. There is no way 27 wobbly wheels (or cemented if you decide to go that route) are going to match up with the other side's holes. In addition, above the wheels are slabs that need to be cemented to the other side. Tough with all those wheels in the way. What worked for me was to do one at a time starting from the rear and cementing the slab above as I went down the line. I would do about four before I touched the join with liquid cement and let capillary action run down it. Not too time consuming once I figured out this system, but again, tricky.

The best part of the construction was the tracks. Individual track links are sometimes a chore to put together. Not these. They come already cut from the sprue and actually snap together with ease. You want them tight, but add one more link because paint build up will make a "just right" fit one link short. I found the idler hole closest to the center of the kit gave me the tightest fit.

The worst part was the chains! The kit provides one chain that you have to cut four sections from and attach to various parts. Difficult! My wife came downstairs to tell me something and them watched in amusement as I kept trying over and over to attach two of them to the rack in the back. I got it done, but it wasn't fun!

The kit does not fall together, but it is well engineered. I would say this kit is definitely for the experienced modeler. I think the challenge of building all the sub-assemblies would make this kit tough and too frustrating for a novice. In the end, though, you'll have cool looking piece of history sitting on your shelf.