I've been thinking about purchasing either one of the ICM valentines. I've read a review of the MK XI (?) on some other site, but it doesnt say much about the kit. If any of you have built it can you tell me how it went together, and if there are any very obvious errors?

If you feel this kit should be avoided like the plague then can anyone reccomend any other good british armor, not the bren though, I already have that

Ralph

Haven't built the kit, but can recommend highly either Tamiya's Centaur or their Cromwell. I've built their kit and can recommend it highly. Even I can turn it into a nice looking kit!! #:-)
See!

I have not finished thkit, but have it mostly assembled. It is a typical Eastern European kit and actually goes together with just a litle extra effort. I think the biggest pain was filling the sink holes in the suspension bogies.

I think you would probably enjoy the kit. Not real sure on size being on scale, etc. But it looks ok

I've got the Valentine Mk III in the Shanghai/Dragon box. It has the blue and red VM logo on it and it is a rebox of the Marquette one. I know this because I had the Marquette Bishop kit and except for the turret, the two kits were identical. I would venture a guess that all Valentine hulled vehicles are probably the same basic kit. That being said, mine looks nice, I haven't built it yet, but I do have an Eduard PE set (#35108) and Elefant barrel (#35.345) for the kit.

I have built the Maquette mkIX, and now have an old Azimut/Ironside mkIV to build. The Azimut kit is obviously the original as the moulding is very much sharper. Thje only problem with the Maquette kit was the wheels and bogies not fitting very neatly. The usual bad point of eastern european kits - the seperate track links weren't too bad. Just treat it as a limited edition which is what it started as.

I have built both the VM kits of the Valentine and while they do take extra work they turn out nice. There is some rivit detail on the Hull front that needs to be removed from the MK XI as by the time these were built welding had replaced riviting.
HTH
Jeff aka beachbm2

Is ICM now reboxing the Valentine as well or are you confusing your manufacturers?

Rob--You are quite correct in your guess that all Valentine based kits are basically the same. The 2 versions of the Valentine and the Bishop were all done by VM and have been reboxed by Maquette, DML, and maybe now ICM if Ralph isn't confusing manufacturers. They are decent kits that with a little work can be made very nice.

Here is a link to a build article on the VM Valetine kit:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/russia/jpmval/jpmval.htm

I have the VM Valentine III kit. Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the heavy zig-zag engraving on the fenders? What is that supposed to represent on the real vehicle? They look so bad on the kit that I desperately want to fill them with putty.