Ive allways wanted to try some WW1 armour so is Emhars Tadpole tank.

The kit itself was pretty bad , some very soft mouldings and poor fit on many of the parts (lots of sanding and filling required)

Its painted with Humbrol enamels(there is a great depate as to wether WW1 British armour was Green or a khaki brown so i went khaki/green ) and weathered with Mig pigments and chalk pastels , the mud is a mixutre of white glue , sage and sand and acrylic paints

There is very little reference material around regarding thismark of tank and no pics appear to exist with of any bearing markings so i took a little artistic licence.

The Tadpole was a pretty big beast so Ive included a pic with a Sherman Firefly for size comparision.

Thanks Ian



















And here is the Tadpole / Sherman pic

Nice build Ian
The weathering and mud look 1st class.
What Humbrol paints did you use?
I've got several in my stash,male ,female etc but I've never built any!!!
Are they the kit tracks??, as I hear they are crap!!!,but they look pretty good
Thanks for sharing
Andy

They look to be kit tracks. Note inthe second picture how there's a seam in the track just above the outward pointing gun.

Thanks Andy

The colour is used was Humbrol Matt khaki ( no 26 i think )
Orginally the base colour was a lot more of a khaki brown , however after filters and some pastels its turned more of a green/brown

Yes they are the kit tracks and like the rest of the kit are pretty awfull LOL .
They come in lengths that hmmmm kinda fit together , the biggest headache was getting them to fit around the sprockets they are not to flexible and are very thick, however if found heating them with a hair dryer and using fast setting superglue helped


Ian

Awesome build! Fantastic weatherin', too!

seems hte markings were as poor as the kit :-)
weathering is definatly looking great
Nice armour, glad to see something different

Frank

Thanks guys

I didnt realise the decals had silvered so badly

Its my fault , I thought the tank looked kinda drab and dug out some from the spares box ( Tamiya Churchill i think ) but i decided this after i had weathered the tank so maybe all the mud and dust didnt let them settle but they look even worse in the photo's ggrrrrrrrrr

Will try and fix them


Ian

Nice build....here's a link to a good site for WW1 armour and kits and various other info
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/
Cheers
Gene

Thanks Gene

And thankyou for the link , theres some great stuff on there.

Even though I found the Emhar kit a bit crude and basic , I must admit I do want to get a Whippet (the Emhar one )so that site will be very usefull for future projects


Ian

Looks good! Ian you've perfected polishing a turd! I bought the Female MkIV and it was consigned to the back of the cupboard I was that disgusted with it. Poor fit, crap tracks etc. I wouldn't have believed this was an Emhar kit. In fact I might even dig it back out seeing what you've done to yours. Top job!

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) Karl

Why do you think i painted it brown

But seriously it did come as a bit of a shock after being used to building Tamiya or DML kits , Ive never had so much trouble/fun with a kit that only had 70-80 parts , for example after building the gun sponsons I came to find out there was a HUGE gap between them and the hull and as for the extended tails , well lets just say you "place" them on, there are no slots/pins for guidance.

Ian

Really nice build! It's amazing considering what you had to work with! I've had to battle some horrible kits that had great subjects. It's nice to see some WWI armor and I loved the pic comparing it with the Firefly. It really gives you a good perspective on how armor has developed over the years.

Ian,
Nice build it is nice to see some of the early tanks brought to life in such a great way and the weathering and mud looks really great.

John

very cool subject i love the old wwI tanks, i gotta get me one of these one of these days, this looks awesome, nicely dirtied up and "heavy", ive never built an emhar kit but looking at yours i would have never guessed they were so bad, great job.

Thanks again guys

Its not that this kit is so awfull its not worth attempting one , its just that if you are used to building with Tamiya or DML it does come as a little bit of a shock as to how basic these kits are. However with a little work and patience you can produce a decent finished article of what after all is an unsual subject.


Ian

Howdy MonkeyGun,

Many thx for posting the pics of your Tadpole build. I really enjoyed them.
Since I've been focused as of late on 'earlier' subject matter, your project was most enjoyable indeed. I am also in the process of building a Mark IV {but not the Tadpole version}, and a Whippet from this early era of tank warfare. Both are Emhar kits, so I am completely understanding where you are coming from with your remarks about the base kits themselves.......but then, with these being the only kits of these particular vehicles out there......whachagonnado?

Must say, interesting colour choice as well. There has been {as you probably know} great debate over some of the actual colours used in the Great War....I believe you came up with a winner with your final recipe.

And finally, as with the kit, I also understand {in detail} your troubles with the kit-supplied rubber tracks......but again, you really created a silk purse where there once was a sow's ear.

So what's next?......a Tauro A7V?

Tread.

Thankyou Gordon

I did ponder a long time over the colour but plumped for a khaki/brown , the pics on my post do make it look a little more khaki/green but they where taken under artificial light

Would i buy another Emhar kit ?????..... Yes now armed with what to expect I would .

I may have to purchase Emhars Whippet


Ian

Hiya Ian,
Nice work, amigo. Good detail and the open gear box is cool - the helmet is a nice touch. Those tadpoles were mighty long but helped when crossing wide trenches that the Germans dug after seeing the abilities of other British tanks.
Good idea placing the Sherman next to the Tadpole to get an actual idea of their length and width.
Ironmike
PS
I got one of the earlier kits and had a tough time with some parts fitting as you mentioned. The tracks are terrible.

Howdy again MonkeyGun,

You say the pics are a tad skewed because of your photography...that they should be more brown?...maybe it's my browser, but the most accurate colour renditions I see are your submitted 1st and 3rd pics.
And,since you are considering a Whippet, keep these colour recipes in mind during your build.
For the record, I have a decent number of Whippet photos as well as reference info available to help your endeavour....including some info regarding field installed fenders, rear crew-friendly platforms, as well as variant examples.
Now, as to the 'tadpole' version of your build. The aftermarket manufactured 'addition' pieces that were welded onto the existed British Mark IV's proved {unfortunately} rather quickly to be almost utterly useless because of under-engineered attachment points between the existing Mark IV chassis and the tadpole 'tail' sections....they would bend and flex in such a way that the extensions themselves would seperate from the main body of the tank chassis. The mortar was an afterthought....
But harken my talented modeling friend. Several were used quite successfully as well.

to Ironmike:

If there's anything I can do to help you in regards to the earlier Emhar kits, just give a hollar

Tread.

Thanks Gordon

I will keep the colour in mind for my Whippet , easy enough to do as it was a Humbrol enamel




I can quite imagine , presumably the crossed struts of angle iron where added to help alleviate the problem of flex



Any photos you have of the whippet would be most appreciated I may even try a little scratchbuilding on it to try to improve on the kit , will have to see what is or isnt included in the Emhar kit (the Accurate Armour kit is out of my budget but there aftermarket trakcs may not be )

Ian

Hello Ian
Very beautifully made model - congratulations ... I do in suchlike something also , but from cardboard and part resin and in scale 1:15 ...
Success - Andrzej
My workshop :
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/bigtank/

Hi Andrzej and thankyou

I have to say your MKIV looks absolutely stunning , the attention to detail is amazing and even more so considering its all scratchbuilt.

Very very nice


Ian