I was gifted this kit not very long ago by a generous friend and made a start on it pretty much straight away. After some assembly issues, everything fell in to place quite nicely.

Plastic is fairly brittle in nature so I resorted to using a razor saw for a lot of sprue removals to ensure I did not break some of the more delicate parts.

I am also going to stretch some sprue tubing and replace the machinegun barrels as they are pretty basic.

Painting is next, once I study the pretty but woeful finishing instructions. Paint call outs are for Vallejo and Lifecolour paints and I had to purchase those Vallejo paints I did not have.

One thing for certain, it is going to be a riotous splash 'o' colour in my cabinet, if those colours are to be believed. Several dark washes, filters then pigments will tone it all down.

Now that looks like a neat little tank!

Looking forward to seeing some paint on it.

Cheers,
Joe

Looking nice so far Sabredog,the PE screen really looks nice though I hear by the experts that it is out of scale . I've got the old Emhar kit in the stash, I'll have to pull it out and compare! Is it going onto a base or dio when finished?

Yeah I read that too, but, my passion for absolute accuracy does not extend to making a change of that nature.

It will certainly go on a base. I have two options currently, one more involved than the other. Will make a decision towards completion.

Right now, trying to make heads or tails out of the colours and the scheme. The painting instructions are colourful but absolutely woeful.

I've always googled my subjects to find a cool scheme to do. More often than not I've come across more than one...making it just as hard to decide! Happy hunting!

Here is a typical issue with colour call-outs.

Master Box call out two differing types of paint on the finishing example;Lifecolor and Vallejo.

In the pic below, you can see the difference in shade. The Lifecolor (left) is actually Light Compass Ghost Grey an altogether better shade than the very blue grey of the Vallejo.

I was fortunate to have a pot of the Lifecolor to compare. As I have to mail order these, it will be a while before I can compare the others.

In a nutshell, I am still as confused about correct colours as I was when I started, though there is some clearing of the very muddy waters.

At least I got the Grey sorted!

Hi, glad to see you got the tracks on first before painting in this thread

Looking at the painting guide in Jan's review, it looks to me like they more or less copied the illustration from the Osprey book of A11 "We're All In It", even down to the wiggly line that comes forward and then down near the track adjuster. Thing is, you can only really guess at the shades by how much they contrast from looking at the black and white photos. Has to be said, some of them do have a lot of contrast, more than we might be used to seeing on tanks, more like those battle ship schemes where they're trying to break up the shape rather then trying to blend in with the landscape. Anyway, just a thought.

Looking forward to seeing it on one your great bases.

I have primed the Mk.1 now with Tamiya TS6 flat black and am now looking at applying a base coat of the light compass grey.

At this point I am still not sure exactly what colours are appropriate but am firming on potentially three colours, those being dark yellow, khaki green and the base grey.

This is almost certainly going to change as thee is possibly a fourth colour to consider, but I feel like I am actually seeing a glimmer of light at the end of a long and murky tunnel.

Just to be way off topic, but the hobby saw you have.. Where did you get it? I got one from the Nationals in FL the other year and can not for the life of me remember who sold it so I can buy another blade.. Thanks

I buy a spare blade set every time I fly over to the Nationals in Melbourne. Red Roo models sell them locally here in Australia.

Well progress has been made on this Mk.1.

After being totally confused (probably of my own making) I have sourced colours I am comfortable with after reading a fantastic build blog by Federico Colladia.

I brush painted all the colours over an airbrushed Modelmaster Acryl base. Four thin coats gave a good result. It took four nights to do all of it properly.

Once the colour blocking was done, I lightened each colour with white and worked that colour in with a very dry brush to create some fading.

So here are some in-progress pics of my Mk.1 build snapped on my iPhone. Apologies on the image quality.









Still plenty to do!

Very nice and interesting progress, Michael. You are obviously being far more productive than I am! While your painting doesn't look bad, I am still not sure about any particular scheme at this time. I did see a Mk I Female on a recent "World War I In Colour" broadcast, but it was "colorized" in a flat Khaki. Another important thing of note, the machine gins on the Master Box kit are quite correct in overall shape. The most notable thing on the real thing was that the guns did not have a protruding muzzle, their ends were flush.

Cheers,
Jan

Cheers Jan

To be honest, there was no "official" colour scheme at this time. The Somme of July-November 1916 campaign was the first series of battles in which "land battleships" were used, so I am sticking to the belief that the crews got hold of semi-official paints and just went for it.

Second phase of weathering completed.

Dry mud has been applied using MIG pigments. Next stage will be "wet" mud on the tracks and on adjacent portions of the hull.

Phase two mud application all completed

Wet mud.

Mk.1 on base now. Just a bit more blending and final touches to do before I add the "chicken coop".





Pics are from my iPhone. Sorry about quality.

It is cold, snowy morning with an overcast sky during mid November 1916. The Somme campaign had waxed hot and cold for over four months with horrendous losses on both sides for little apparent gain.

Some better images of the Master Box 1/72 Mk.1 Female. These ironically are from my iPhone and not my Canon camera. It is interesting the differences made simply with lighting and camera angle. The last pic is closer to the actual colours of the finished build.

Like to thank everyone for watching my build of this really nice kit progress.

It came out well (again ). I like the camo and colours, somehow it gives it a slightly sinister look that seems appropriate.

Thats brilliant, Michael, i like it a lot, those WWI monsters will be part of my "little world of tanks" as well.

Some questions about these tanks:
For what is this "roof top" on the vehicle?
The sponsons carried the armament, could that be traced to W.Churchill?.He was behind this development and the fist sealord in England,this design was also standart on warships of that time.

Great built !
Bernd

Looks good Michael, well done.

Al

Nice work Michael
very interesting camo and weathering effects!

Hi Berndt

Thanks for your comments.

The "chicken coop" roof was a screen designed to prevent grenades from being dropped into the top hatches or to explode on the thinner armour of the roof. They proved to be a hindrance and were removed on later versions.

The reason the armament was placed in side sponsons was to reduce the centre of gravity of the tank. Earlier prototype versions of the tank, before the final prototype "mother", had a revolving turret but this made the tank too high adding instability when moving or crossing trenches.

Hi Michael, thank you for these interesting informations.For my
"World of Tanks" the WW I tanks are very important, it is important to know what i am glueing together

Great built, well done.

Bernd

Marvellous job there, Michael! As usual, your base provides the model with just the right setting. The Picaso-ish camo is both eye catching and probable from what I have read.

I am still not settled on the camo for mine but am leaning towards a somewhat more subtle variation at this time, but yours is definitely an inspiration.





Bernd, what I have read while researching the Mk-I is that there is mention of Churchill being involved in the development. However, the Royal Navy was originally responsible for the original design work on the "Landships." For the full story on the origins of the "tank", you can check out the FIrst World War Site.

Cheers,
Jan

Excellent job Michael! I see you have "sorted out" the camouflage dilemma and it looks great. The bird cage does add to the overall look even though they didn't last long. Cheers!