The Emhar 1/72 scale MkIV Male Heavy Tank of WW1

This model kit will form part of a project, which I am planning for next year. Having been concentrating on wooden ships and polythene and white metal figure mini dioramas for the last few years, I have to admit that I haven’t built a plastic kit for ages! I do have a large number of un-built or even un-finished kits gradually accumulating (that flaming filter again!!)up in the attic, some of them have been there quite a while, others are in the process of being recovered from my old workroom in the garage (some of them even have un-mouse-eaten instruction sheets too!). The one thing they all have in common though is that the price tags, (those that still have them on, that is) are incredibly cheap compared to what we pay today - £9.99 for a Tamiya 1/700 scale battleship which is now nearly £40! This forthcoming project therefore will be my first foray into my old plastic kit hobby for many, many years!
So on with the review…

This review begins with fond memories of the old original Airfix 1/72 MkI tank which I built way back in my youth. You might well remember that one with its twin rear wheels sticking out the back and the pair of long barrelled 6pdrs, well this kit is basically the exact same machine as far as the externals are concerned, the main differences being that the MkIV did away with those wheels, and the 6pdrs have much shorter barrels (it was found that the long barrelled ones used to dig into the ground whenever the tank dragged itself free of the enemy trenches, firing a 6pdr with a plug of wet dirt up the muzzle was definitely NOT recommended! The other improvements from the MkI to the MkIV were nearly all internal, and consequently play no part in any comparison (at least, not yet!! ) So with those memories fresh in my mind, lets see how thirty odd years of model kit production has improved this, the very first battle tank in the world Designed by the British, Built by the British and employed by the British!!!
(OK the French were developing their own tanks on a roughly equal timescale, but they didn’t make anywhere near as much use of them as we did – God Bless Colonel W S Churchill and all!!)


The Emhar MkIV Male Tank consists of 31 individual parts moulded in an olive green, very hard plastic which will result in a model measuring 10.5cm in length, 3.4cm in height and 4.6cm in width. The height and width may be a millimetre or two more, I won’t know for sure until I make the little blighter up! Added to those 31 plastic parts are a further four pieces of flexible polythene type plastic for the caterpillar tracks. These seem to be a little stiffer than the old Airfix tank tracks that I remember from my youth and, also unlike the Airfix tracks, these are made in two parts for each side, the longest section of 17cm goes from the bottom of the tank, just behind the front, up and over the front, along the top and back down to the bottom again, just forward of the rear of the rhomboid shaped hull. The smaller section, 7.5cm long, joins the gap along the underside. Why they have done this I have no idea unless it was to fit the sprue into a smaller box designed to take the hull pieces. It doesn’t make any difference to the build though as, unfortunately, due to my sometimes, unfortunate need to super detail everything I get my hands on, I’ve got to alter the tracks somewhat but more on that next year! The reason why those tracks are stiffer than the old Airfix ones may be due to a reference in the instructions that the tracks can be glued with ordinary liquid poly glue as used for the main construction. Emhar were one of the first manufacturers to introduce this ‘glue-able’ polythene although I think I’ll still be super-gluing them when the time comes!
When I first opened the box and took a look at the component parts, I must admit I was taken aback as to how small the model would be. I, like many others reading this built the old Airfix MkI tank way back, and my memories of that kit were basically, ‘it was a LOT bigger than this!’ Outwardly, there is no difference size-wise between the MkI and the IV, other than the MkIV did away with the trailing wheels which were supposed to help with the steering but in fact proved just the opposite in practise. I have to admit though, I was a lot smaller myself when I last had a 1/72 WW1 tank in my hands, it probably seemed a lot bigger to me then!
As far as detail goes, this diminutive kit is pretty damn good! Consulting my ever growing stack of reference material, just about every nut, bolt and rivet is represented and in just the right place. There are only a couple of little details, which could be added for extra authenticity. Firstly, the rear fuel tank. The MkI’s had their fuel tanks situated in the front of the vehicle in the two projecting horns, which the tracks went around. This was hardly inspiring to the driver and commander and was more than likely the very first “Tommy Cooker”, long before the Sherman tank came along to take that title! In the MkIV, the fuel tank was moved to the rear, and outside, in between the rear horns where it was far better protected. It was filled via a filler cap beneath an armoured hatch on the top. Emhar have unfortunately moulded this on the rear of the rectangular tank instead of on the top! This piece is a hollow ‘box’ and I think I might just stick it on, rotated up by 90 degrees moving the hatch to the roof section and make a new plasticard bottom to fill in the open side now facing downwards.
Secondly, on the top of the driver’s cupola, (part No.12) there are two rotating hatches which were used to pop up little hand held periscopes, there should be a little ‘L’ bracket in front of each one to protect the periscopes from aimed small arms fire, again, a simple piece of plasticard is easy to add. Lastly for the missing bits, right at the front of the tank at the sharp angled nose of the hull there should be a simple metal plate and pin towing hitch to allow one tank to pull a brother out of the mud or ditch (presumably there must be a corresponding one on the rear as well, I must check my books again for that one!) Plasticard and brass wire to the rescue again!
For a basic ‘out of the box’ kit, that’s about all the detailing this little beauty really needs, after that its just up to you and your paint brush/spray to get the best out of it.
For those who just love going that extra step (yes I know we’re just sad old gits!) there are a couple of extras you might like to put in. The two 6pdrs actually come with a rudimentary breech which makes it much easier to super detail the main guns (remembering of course that if you build this kit as is, you won’t ever see that extra work again! The barrels are just thick enough to be able to drill out the muzzles for extra realism. The three Lewis Gun barrels however are not big enough by a long chalk for that simple enhancement and these would really benefit from replacing them with brass or aluminium tubing of the correct size – I just so happen to have recently liberated my old ally tube collection from the garage – slightly rusty from rain damage (some old paint brush ferrules were in with them) but cleaned up well with steel wool.
There are four different examples of the MkIV included in the painting instructions which appear on the final third page of the instruction sheet (fourth page if you include the front cover which is a text only history of the MkIV and its differences to the MkI, its specs and battlefield use. I’ll be including a fuller history in the new project build next year but interestingly, the Germans used more captured MkIV’s than they built A7V’s, which were their own design built to combat the British machines). Two of the colour schemes are for British tanks and are virtually identical. The ‘dazzle pattern’ “Solomon” camouflage scheme of the MkI had by now been discontinued and all the MkIVs were painted in a single colour. The examples given here are for Olive Drab although debate still exists over their actual colours, some are described as ‘dark green’ whilst others are mentioned as ‘brown’. Some, even went into battle in Royal Navy ‘Battleship Grey’, after all they were first described as “Landships” and the Admiralty actually played a bigger part in their conception than the army did! The two British tanks are called “Flypaper” and “Fantan” (although I love the one named “Squash ‘em Flat” by its crew, possibly something to do with their battle tactics I suppose!)
The two captured examples are painted in a German camouflage scheme similar to their late war aircraft with grey, rust brown and desert yellow patches. One is covered in ‘Iron Cross’ type German markings (Maltese Cross?) whilst the other sports the more modern straight crosses as used by the Germans in WW2. Both the German versions are simply paint schemes, although in actual use they quickly removed the MGs and 6pdrs and replaced them with German weapons (how else are you going to replenish your ammo supplies!)
So as far as the overall appearance of this kit goes, I think it’s a really nice one. The details are nearly all there and with just a little extra work a pretty good model will result. As to the actual fit of the parts, well I won’t be able to comment on that until I begin the construction itself so that will have to wait until the project is underway. A simple eye-ball test though doesn't show any warping of parts at all so I remain hopeful, (famous last words!)

So that’s my very first model kit review which I hope you’ll find useful if you decide to join the growing band of Great War kit enthusiasts. Emhar have really done this period proud with an ever-growing range of kits. If 1/72 is your favourite, you can also get the MkIV ‘Female’ tank (MG armed variant), the little “Whippet” Medium tank (a nippy little Infantry support tank) and the huge and unwieldy German A7V “Sturmpanzer” (a pillbox on tracks).
If you prefer 1/35 they do both MkIVs and the Whippet plus the “Tadpole” (a MkIV with elongated hull and tracks (The Germans made their trenches wider to combat the tanks, we made our tanks longer to combat their trenches! It also has a large trench mortar which shoots out it’s er, rear!) . Finally there is the “Hermaphrodite Tank” which I’m not so clear on, it sounds like one of the longer Tadpoles with both the full armament of a male and female but don’t quote me on that one!

Happy Building to you all and a Happy New Year too!!

Robin

I have built the Emhar female MKIV in 1/35 scale and have the male version to build too.
The fit on these kits is notoriously poor, they do make a nice finished model though but you will need your filler handy. Looking forward to seeing this progress.
Steve