Here my effort for the WW1 centenary this coming August. I have a personal interest as my grandfather was a gunner in one these tanks.
He was born in 1899 and joined the army in 1916 and went straight into the Tank Corp and was eventually based at Bovington (4th RTC).

His army papers show his age as 18 but he was in fact 17 in 1916 as many were.
He went to France with the Tank Corp 12th battalion in Jan 1918 and was wounded 9 months later and returned to hospital in England in October, he spent 30 days in hospital in Halifax and 10 days family leave in Bristol, by which point the war was over.

I know he was a gunner in a MKIV but I don't know if this is the tank he was in when in France as the battalion had MKV's and Whippets by around March 1918. From info I currently have though the 12th Battalion never handed back any MKIV's so possibly had them for the duration of the war.

So, unless I discover more I'm going to go with my best knowledge - The tank would have had an "L" prefix followed by the number 1-60 - again I have no idea but will maybe know more at a later date.
The supplied decals show an "F" prefix, and also a training version, plus 2 german versions.

I intend to build this "as is" with a few enhancements as required, possibly gun barrels replaced. The Emhar kit has Hotchkiss machine guns instead of the Lewis ones, this is ok for what I need as this will be a late MKIV (the Hotchkiss became the standard in 1917).

Colour - Unbelievably, there is no exact colour for these tanks but most references say a neutral brown - not green as many think. Many museum pieces are green but this is not thought to be correct. I will also be adding the white/red/white stripes which again were used on later tanks to distinguish the British tanks from the captured German ones.

There will also be a simple diorama, possibly with another small kit as a point of interest

Just some pics of the kit first, BTW - this is a pig of a kit to build, I have had one before (female) and it was a horrendous fit. I'm hoping my patience and skill have improved since then though. Main problems are that the hull is all butt jointed with no fixing lugs or holes and the instructions don't say which face butts to which. The tracks are also a big problem and difficult to fit, anyway, more on this later
The rivet detailing is very nice though, big and chunky, just what you need on a WW1 kit.
It may be a little while before any movement on this one as I have to do a bit more research first.
Cheers
Steve

Nice to see another WW1 build will follow with interest

Thank for looking in, nice to have some interest in this, Robin - I will certainly let you know if I need anything specific.

Well I said it would be while before updating this but I had to have a play

Firstly, although the box lid at the top of this post clearly shows the Hotchkiss Machine gun on the right, the ones in the kit were not, I think they are a bad version of the Lewis gun with water cooling jacket - either way they wont be used!

This is the real Hotchkiss as fitted to later MKIV's (the pic is a MKV though) -



and another -


This is what comes in the kit -



So, I have tried to create a version that although not perfect will give the appearance of being a Hotchkiss. I used 1.2mm wire for the barrel and 1mm for the gas piston, a wire wrap on the barrel and a piece of PE. Need a little tidy up but with paint will look way better than the supplied ones -







The silver ball in the above pic is a bead from my wifes craft box as I drilled the hole too big in the original part
Steve

Thanks Martyn, they werent meant to be exact due to them being so small it wont be noticed but the kit ones were just horrible
Steve

Thankyou Robin, and thankyou for the PM I will be pestering you a fair bit during this build although I am learning more each day due to the fact that I am helping my mum find as much info as I can on her father in the war years.

I have ordered some 4mm and 3mm brass tube to replace the 6pdr barrels - the plastic ones are pretty bad, so bad that they were more of an oval, anyway the brass 3mm will fit into the 4mm exactly so I can insert some 3mm in the end to give the barrel thickness....in theory more pics soon.

Hi Stevie.

Disregard that bit about the vertical gun shields! I've just noticed on one of your sprue photos you've already got them included in the kit!
There's none in mine though!

Robin

Some real nice work there Stevie.....

Regards

Alan

Managed to get a couple of hours on this again today, I have replaced the "oval" 6pdr barrels with brass ones. The pics below show how this was done -
I firstly cut off the plastic barrel about 6mm from the base, this was to give the brass something to glue on to and ensure the barrel stayed straight.
The 4mm tube was cut to length and glued on, then a piece of 3mm tube was fitted into the end, this was to give the barrel the correct thickness.
The ends of both tubes were then filed down smooth.
There is lots of filling to do later as the fit isn't that good although not as bad as I remember the female version being (unless I'm getting more patient)
More soon
Steve

Thankyou Robin,
I hope to have the main lump together fairly soon, so I can get some primer on to see what needs filling.
Yes, you should be able to do the same with yours although everything is just a tiny bit smaller
Steve