1/35 British Mark IV Tank, First World War

[JohnTolcher]

Hi, this is a project I finished recently. Although this is one of my favourite subjects for a model, World War One is an era sadly neglected by the model tank industry today. This kit is produced by Emhar, and it's not a great kit. I replaced the tracks with resin ones by Accurate Armor, and the grousers are made by Panzershop. The unditching beam and it's rails were scratch built, as were other improvements to the kit.








As the tracks run over the top of the tank, they often carried mud and deposited it all over the sides and upper surfaces. I spent some time trying to make the dirt look realistic and not clumsy or goopy.

[marc_reusser]

John,

That is just beautiful.  Love the paint tones on the side and the coloring of the tracks. Also really great work on the beam and attention to small details like the wear mark from the gun ports, and the driled holes in the rails.

How did you go about painting and weathering the tracks?

Marc

[Wesleybeks]

Great work John. It's difficult to believe that's a plastic kit.

What do you think is reason WW1 is modelled alot less than WW2? I'm interested to know.

[finescalerr]

Lord have mercy! You do have a way with paint. -- Russ

[Andi Little]

Very - VERY impressive, I can't pick out any particular area for recommendation as they all look equally convincing to my eye.
And I think that's the big winner for me! Nothing looks like a well weathered model - it just looks right!!!

Particularly impressive - Huzzah!

[Junior]

Great paint job on that one...have seen a lot of your other nice work on various forums. Particularly like your work on the beam, small tarp etc. on this tank.

Anders

[lab-dad]

WOW!
Really neat!
I never realized there were tanks in WWI, didnt really think about it honestly.
Would love to see more examples (like this one!)
-Marty

[JohnTolcher]

Hi folks, many thanks for the compliments!

Hi Wesley, I don't know for sure. My guess would be that the spread of interest from the Second World War is a slow creep, one that has reached the modern period faster because there's more and better images of modern conflicts. Images that spark inspiration, and as you go back they become fewer, - well just a theory!

Hi Marc, the tracks were primed first then airbrushed Lifecolor Schokoladen Braun (I didn't have any dark rust at the time). Then I applied various Lifecolor rust tones with a foam sponge, continuing to dab with the sponge to mix the colors until they looked right. When dry the track ridges were rubbed with dark steel pigment on my finger. This one from AK is really fine and buffed up nicely, and really worked into the surface till it was almost impossible to remove.


The dried mud came from pigments. I mixed up various shades until I got a good colour.


Then I layered it on the tracks, brushing it on and sprinkling it from a dry brush. Next I 'settled' the pigments by saturating them with white spirit, applied by loading up a paint brush then touching the tracks at spots allowing the capillary action to carry the white spirit through the pigments.


There is something about the action of the fluid moving through the pigments that gives it a nice, natural structure. When dry, and once i was happy with how they looked, I fixed the pigments by applying AK Interactive pigment fixer in the same way as the white spirit.


The fixer does alter the appearance of the pigments, making them appear darker or thinner. But you can reactivate the fixer with more white spirit as it's an enamel, and add more pigments while it's still wet.

Thanks again for the comments!

[Ray Dunakin]

Great job, looks totally real!

[BKruger]

Beautiful work!

[Barney]

Nice bit of work that and a superb paint job- keep the articles coming - I love 1st WW stuff but it is a pity that the manufactures don't make more bits available - most of the kits being a bit of a challenge and a few no go ones like the German A7 kit (I think it was made by Turo or some thing like that) mine hit the bin within minutes of opening the box !! and I moaned for a week  - the tracks I kept in hope of building a A7 trenching machine - so the answer for us 1st WW modelers is scratch building with a bit of help from the resin people.
Barney

[JESTER]

This is excellent John!!

Thanks for all the pics! My son is getting into armor and he also thought it was great.

-

[JohnTolcher]

Thanks guys for the feedback! I'm hoping that newer, better WWI kits will come out soon. (Glass half full?)

[W.P. Rayner]

Exceptional job John and welcome to the forum. Looking forward to seeing more of your work here.

Paul

[Gordon Ferguson]

John can only back-up all the other comments .......... its a great paint job combining subtly and artistic interpretation.

Thanks for the details on the track painting  .................. may well come in very useful shortly