Stumbled over a copy of this kit and couldn't resist buying it. Ever since I saw it at Bovington I have wished for a kit of this crude ugliness of a tank.
First inbox impression is that Hobbyboss still is raising its molding quality with very fine and crisp detail. The multi slidemolded turret and hull are impressive. Not being an expert of the subject and the lack of reviews online I can't say much accuracy wise but hope someone with the knowledge will take up the task soon. It seems to be a pretty straightforward build with a moderate amount of PE.
Looking forward to start the build.

Mats

I'm looking forward to seeing it progress. Please post pics as it moves along.

I will, in time. Have a char 2c and a t-44 occupying my workbench atm but after that :-)

Crap, couldn´t help my self from starting the build...

Some pics of the one-piece hull








The suspension units. The kit provides two options and as far as I can find on the net the left is the original versions and the right is an improved version. According to sources the Medium Mk I was infamous for its weak wheel axles and they literally left a trail of lost roadwheels while on excercise. As a solution they came up with the reinforced platecover for the wheels. The frequent neeeds of repair of the suspension also meant that the lower armour cover of the suspension was never mounted. This issue were fixed with the mk II and the armour covers was in use again.


All of the suspension units


And mounted to the sponson. A nice touch from Hobby Boss is that you, even if the instructions doesn´t say so, can make the track tensioning mechanism workable which will be a great benefit when installing the tracks.


More to come, this is a pretty fast build so far. Approx 60 min of work at this stage.

Mats

I've been waited for this kit for some time and it doesn't look like a disappointment.

Two types of return rollers. The right one is for the improved version and the Mk II. As I wanna depict the early version I go for the spoked ones.


Some nice PE features


And the overall progress. Not as fast as I hoped for but with two small children the available time for modelling is a bit hard to predict



I haven´t installed the bottom plate for ease of painting the inside.

And on note, some of the PE is missing in the building instruction, though seen in the drawings.

Why? There's no detail there except for the MGs.

I always paint the inside black in case I wanna put a figure in one of the hatches. A bit overdoing maybe but that's the way I do modelling, always create options in case I Change my mind during the build.

Mats

Me like!

Didn't these serve in North Africa? This kit looks pretty descent. Thanks for sharing your build!

Some mk II served in Egypt tiil 1939, according to sources on the net.

Mats

It does not have an interior, right? (It would be probably the best thing since forever if it did...)

From what I heard some MkII*s were employed in dug in positions in Egypt during the Italian invasion, but I am not sure if they ever saw combat.

They were sent to Egypt in late 30s with Asbestoss pannels for trials and were used at the start of hostilitys under Hobart I belive it was called The imobile farce but it grew into The Desert Rats 7th Armour Div a few pics of them by the wire as static defence

Correct no interior. Oddly enough Hobby Boss still choosed to add PE to the Vickers MG. Another peculiar thing is that the Hotchkiss MG:s are included in the kit but the turret ballmounts have no openings to install them. Some drilling excercise maybe...

Mats

An AM interior set would be most welcome considering all the openable hatches on this tank.