Coming back to modelling after a gap of decades, for some weird reason I have started with a 1/35 Mirage Vickers E Mark A. The kit quality is pretty poor and the instructions are in Polish. It also contains a number of parts from different tanks which makes it an interesting build. Plenty of Milliput and plastic sheet so far.

My main uncertainty at the moment concerns three three triangular brackets and/or plates that are positioned on top of the track guards possibly only on one side and possibly on both sides!!

The kit parts are made as brackets i.e. they are just like angle iron bent into a triangle and the instructions show them on one side only. However, a couple of photos I have found imply they are solid bracing plates on both sides but they are not very clear. Does anyone know which is correct ? Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Mike,

I had a go at one of these, another not quite finished model . Here's a link to the thread I ran it has a lot of useful information. I still have to move the tools and it probably needs a re-paint with broaded camo lol, lol.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/124117#1023867

Hope this helps.

Al

Thanks Alan - what more could a man want

My Model is the 'genuine' Model A with the twin turrets. I can see from your excellent material that the objects I enquired about are angle iron brackets.

Having worked with the kit I admire your work even more. I found all the hatcth handles fell apart as I tried to remove them and have had to build new ones from brass wire. I'm not sure about the ones on the front hatches. Although they are clearly shown on the model and you would think they would need them to get in and out, I haven't seen a photo that shows them.

One foible of this kit is that the instructions show it with the early Hotchkiss air cooled machine guns and it wasn't until I had built the turrets that I noticed two water cooled machine gns for the later model sitting on the sprue!!

Anyway, this is enough to keep me on track and good practice for my main project (hopefully) which is a complete set of North Africa armour and artillery up to and including El Alamein

Hi Mike,

Despite the quality Mirage make some really interesting models. It's a pity about the tracks in the kit and the replacement ones are OOP. Mind you the set I have (thanks to Dave) are very brital which is why I haven't yet added them. Not only that but they don't really seem to want to glue together lol,lol.

They are good cheap kits to practice on and try things out. Not to sure about the spec of the vehicle I relied a lot on the post for info.

have fun.

Al

Trawling the internet I found this blueprint http://www.the-blueprints.com/index.php?blueprints/tanks/tanks-u-z/25916/view/vickers_armstrong_6_ton_tank/ .

There are a lot of other apparently detailed and clear drawings of all sorts of armour on this site. Is this one that others have found to be accurate?

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the link, first time I've seen the site.

Al

Hello,

here is Polish Vickers in early version(like your Mirage kit):



And look at this link:
http://www.odkrywca-online.pl/pokaz_watek.php?id=132388

Adam

I forget add, that yours Mirage' s kit presents early version of Polish twin-turret Vickers; British was a bit different

Adam

Thanks Adam - a fantastic link. My Polish is not so good (!) but I have a friend who's parents came over from Poland in the 50's so I can get stuff translated if I think I need to

A couple of the pictures seem to indicate that in fact there are no front hatches on the Model A. It was only a 3 man tank so that's one driver and two in the turrets, so maybe they didn't need front access. I'll collect all the photos I can and then decide.

So thanks again for the info. I'm quite intrigued by this era so maybe later I'll have a go at a 7TP