Hi all,

I'm working on the Emhar 1/35 Whippet. While I realise there appears to be a fair amount of debate as to the actual colour colour of the Whippet, can anyone tell me what colour the Whippet tanks - or indeed any WW1 British tanks - were primed in?

TIA

Rudi

Rudi, all the afv’s at Brussels are as far as I know in their original colours. Use this link;

http://www.tanxheaven.com/referencepictures.htm

to see their Whippet and all their other WW1 exhibits. Grey for primer may be correct but…

Regards, John-B
MAFVA Information Officer

Thanks Rod and John.

John, thanks for the link... those pics have just shown me further problems I have with my intake vents...

I remember an e-mail discussion I had about 'Grit' the Mark IV in the AWM, and the person i was talking to thought the primer colour was the usual red oxide.

The subject of the primer only came up as a side issue, as we were mainly trying to establish the final colour.

The IWM's Mark V has a few bits of reddish-brown visible where the green is chipped, but it looks like its seen several repaints, so the paint showing may not be original.

PS if you want more WW1 tanks, try Peter Kempf's Landships site.

Rudi

You could avoid the colour controversy by painting your Whippet silver - see page 9 of the pdf you can download here:

Preserved tanks in South Africa

Hi David,

Thanks.

Actually I'm already a member at Landships (thought I'd give my question a bash here instead ), and have previously downloaded William Marshall's excellent document of preserved tanks of SA.

I had thought about painting it silver (as can be seen in THIS freely available downloadable document. :-)

But actually I'm going to be portraying it as represented during the Rand Revolt of 1922, so I'm taking the liberty of assuming the normal coat was brownish.

This picture is from the Sunday Times a few weeks ago:



Thanks again,

Rudi

HI Rudi

Thanks - At last I've been able to download that ***** photobook! All the other attempts in the past had failed and I'd forgotten about it.

And a new period photo of the SA one in addition, previously I'd only seen the poor (fuzzy/distant) one on Tanks!

Brown would seem appropriate for the Whippet, since the newspaper photo shows the Whippet still carrying the recognition stripes. I could muddy the waters by saying that the Osprey on White Tanks in the Russian Civil War has their Whippets in a khaki drab, but they don't really go into reasons for the choice. My Whippet looked a lot better for having Scale Link Hotchkiss MGs even if they are nominally overscale.

Hi David,

I'll more than likely go with painting it Humbrol 29 (or a equivalent Vallejo colour if I can find one). To me that would seem the logical choice for this particular machine. I'll leave the national marking on, but I plan to take some artistic license on it by stencilling the name (HMLS Union) on the cabin. There are no period photographs to confirm or deny this...

I'm using the Airwaves PE set on it, but the set (like the kit) is a real dog! I thought about changing the MG's, but I decided not to... I'll have to live with the kit's guns...

Rudi

Hi Rudi

You could go with something like Vallejo's 'English Uniform' maybe.

As for the Airwaves PE, it's a lot better than their set for the Mark IV, which is a waste of brass. The Whippet set has some brackets for the track guards which are miles better than the kits attempts.

I didn't find the Whippet as much of a pain to build as the Mark IV (get the sponsons wrong every time) and all I did was to mount the return rollers the other way round so at least the small amount of detail on them was visible. I also bought the Accurate Armour track set which has grouser blocks.

Hi David,

The Airwaves PE set certainly does make a difference to the kit. I elected not to use the air intakes though. Apart from being a bit of a dog to put together (from a PE newbie point of view), they are also wrong. They are too small, as well as not having the U-shaped vent extend past the L-shaped bracket.

Generally though I find the kit to have a pretty poor fit. I've been doing alot of filing and sanding, and it looks like I'll be doing plenty of filling :-) :-) Still, it's a nice enough kit for an armour newbie - and it's not like I was expected DML pz IV type quality

I managed to reduce the fit problems with some fairly extensive sanding during building. Worked for the cab pretty well, less so for the armoured fuel tank. Hardest part of my build was drilling and filing out the ball mounts for the Scale Link Hotchkisses - that was a pain Specially when I discovered how far the guns really extended from the ball mount after I'd done the first....

Now i've looked at your newspaper photo again, I'm not sure if I can see the trackguard brackets.

Re. the fuel tank, you're right... the top panel if way too long, front and back. The rest of the fuel tank fits more or less ok-ish...

I'm still trying to work out how to drill out the Hotchkiss barrels

I think you're right about the trackguard brackets... I'll have a closer look at the newspaper picture again...

To drill out MG barrels I use the smallest drill bit I can find (0.6mm ish) and a pin-vice. After filing the muzzle flat, fit the bit in the pin-vice so only a short length is showing (just a mm or 2) or else it snaps. Then I press the point of the bit into the plastic to make a small centreing dent. After that, gently drill, stopping often to make sure the hole is centred. You could make the centreing hole with the point of a scalpel, but that has more finger-damage potential.

Even works for 1/48 MGs

Hi David,

I managed to have a look at a clearer reprint of the photo over the weekend, and you are correct. The trackguard brackets are definitely not fitted in the photo - well on the right side anyway

Another interesting point is that 2 upright brackets (they are still on the vehicle) have been fitted to the fuel tank. These are presumably for headlights, although the headlights are not fitted.

BTW, I've basically finished assembling the kit. Just the filling to do, and boy is there a lot of filling, filing and sanding to do! :-)

Cheers
Rudi

Hi Rudi

I think the upright brackets are for headlights too, I was looking at the pictures of the Brussels Whippet 'Firefly' yesterday and that has them still fitted.

Pity about the missing trackguards as scratchbuilding them would have been a diversion from all the filling - specially making the springs.....

All the best

David