MiniArt have just sent us details of their NEXT armor Release in 1/35th scale: 35092 - VALENTINE Mk.IV RED ARMY with CREW. The Image Report can be seen:

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Pity it only has individual link tracks as not all of us who like to build armor have the patience to do them.

Still interesting that they did a Red Army variant before a British Army one.

One question, is the anti aircraft machine gun a Vickers K or a Russian gun? I'm not enough of a expert to know which type of gun that is.

I believe thats a Mk 2 Bren gun with the rarer 100 round drum magazine.

Individual links, thank God!

Hi

I don't have much knowledge of this tank but from the pictures shown it looks a great effort on Miniart's part and a lot of nice detail.

I note the way the upper hull has been created and wonder if this leaves the way open to create other vehicles on this chassis. Isn't there a self propelled gun that uses this chassis?

Great stuff.

Alan

Yes, there were two of them, the Bishop with a 25pdr field gun and the Archer with the 17pdr AT gun. As the 17pdr has just been announced by Bronco and previously there were connection between the companies, we can hope that at least the Archer will hit the shelves soon.

Cool, MiniArt does it again - a fresh and interesting release. Looks pretty nice. No markings though? Was this normal or maybe Archer or someone will come up with some decals.

oh, if only I could afford some new kits.

what is so red army about it? what stops it being a british tank with different decals?

Oh my poor bank account.
It's nice to see optional stowage bins and some interior detail.

cheers
David

Perhaps something to do with the fact that quite a number were sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease?

It's no surprise that it's being marketed as the Russian version first. It's a common strategy. Look at the long awaited Centurion. When released by AFV Club, they issued it as a RAAC version. Of course NATO, UK and IDF usage of the Centurion was far greater. But if they had released an IDF version first, how many Aussie Centurions would have been sold? By selling the Aussie version first, many people grabbed it just b/c it was a new tooled Centurion. Later they bought an IDF or NATO version -- but probably wouldn't have gotten the RAAC version after an IDF or NATO version.

Look @ the DML Panzer Mk IV ausf H --the most numerous version -- finally getting released. DML did the others first -- held this one back. Same rationale.

It certainly is from MiniArt! Being fortunate enough to know the MiniArt team personally, from the word go, they always understood the importance of maximizing their moulds. In that, that has been the reason for the delay in of their YC-12 tractor: they simply couldn't find as much documentation of the vehicle in German service (which allows them to sell more examples).

As a business model it's been imaginative strategy which is great for modelers - the more succesful they are, the more highly innovative releases we can expect!

Nice to hear. Fell in love with their WLA, and Dingo. I'll wait for the Desert version, which I hope is the next one.

More excellent news, looks like a grand kit.

Al

Sarcasm lowest form of wit.

You could just answer my question, does it have russian specific changes to hull / armorment/ radio equipment is what i was suggesting.

Instead it seems you do not know.

No sarcasm. Asking a specific question usually gets a specific answer... You didn't, so I didn't either..

Hi there,

I'm not sure why nobody understood your question, I sure did, and I have been wondering the same thing: was there any difference between the Red Army vehicle and the British issue apart from the markings?

I found the answer on Missing-Lynx: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/message/1274239617/Re-+can+you+build+it+as+a+British+and+Commonwealth+tank+too

HTH

R~