1/35 MENG Mk.A Whippet, B Company, 6th Battalion, Tank Corps, British Army, May 1918.

[plasmahal]

1/35 MENG Mk.A Whippet, B Company, 6th Battalion, Tank Corps, British Army, May 1918.

Some background on the Mk.A Whippet:

The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank of the First World War. It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the

enemy lines.[2] Whippets later took part in several of the British Army's postwar actions, notably in Ireland, North Russia and Manchuria.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Mark_A_Whippet


Onto the box and sprues.

[plasmahal]

Update One

As usual with MENG, it looks to be a well engineered and detailed kit. It went together over the course of a few hours with no fit issues.

Starting of with the main hull and adding the front plate.



Then it was a start on the turret assembly.




Adding more to the turret assembly.



Once the turret assembly was completed, it is attached to the main hull.






Then lower hull plating is added.



Then the four machine guns are fitted along with the engine intake lourves and exhausts.



Then is was the long task to remove, clean and assemble the wheels and sprockets.



Once the wheels were all done, it time to start assembling the track sponsons.



I used some white tack just hold the idler wheels in place during assembly.



One track sponson complete.



With the other sponson completed, they were added to the hull.






The last task of the day was to add the spare tracks and the tools.






The tracks and the cables will be assemble and painted separately and added later.

[plasmahal]

Update Two

The tracks links were removed from the sprues and the nubs removed. This took an hour or two. Tow cables were assembled with CA glue.




Then everything was primed with black Stynylrez.



The MENG colours in the instructions show a very dark green tank colour and it's generally accepted that the colour in WW1 was more a muddy brown
with a hint of green. I tried a custom mix with XF-52 flat earth, XF-55 deck tan and XF-67 nato green but I added too much green and had to add some
XF-72 brown/JGSDF as i had run out of XF-52.

I think it came out OK in the end. With shading, washes and filters etc, it's going to change colour again.

The tracks and cables were painted with XF-84, dark iron.

[plasmahal]

Update Three

I added some XF-85 rubber black to some of the original base colour in the AB colour cup. I added some post shading to break the colour up.

[wappynutter]

Looks fantastic Toby, and here was me thinking you was a "Sci-fi Only" type of guy.. lol.
The kit has gone together very well and your painting skills have brought it to life..

Well done again mate, will be keeping an eye out for the next update.

[plasmahal]

Update Four

So I have finished off the primary painting phase with the red and white stripes, machine guns, exhausts and the wooden blocks.

As the machine gun ports were round, I used a white tack worm and tamiya tape to mask them for painting.

[Damonkh]

Looking great!

[DBMiller]

Super work! I bought this kit a week or so ago and am happy to see one built up here!

[plasmahal]

Update Five

The whippet was gloss coated with alclad aqua gloss and left to cure. Then the decals were added and left overnight after using micro set and sol.
Then after the decals were inspected and found to have settled nicely, another coat of alclad aqua gloss was added and left to cure.





To start the weathering off, I mixed some black and brown clay based wash and added in some thinners. I used this as a pin wash.





This was Then cleaned up and the whippet received a matt varnish ready for the next stage.

[gustavlekstal]

Great skill. Eyepopping with all thoose rivets. Great work buddy

[InitialProduction1]

That was/is, an amazing build and paint job, I just love the detail of that kit, and you just really brought out all that great detail with your great painting of it.

[plasmahal]

Update Six

I used green, grey and raw umber artist oils to apply a dot filter and blended with low odour thinners.
This added tonal variation to the paint which was a little flat at this point.

[OneSmallStep1966]

This build is fantastic

I've been eyeing up this kit for a while and you've convinced me to get one.

[plasmahal]

Update Seven

The tracks and cables were painted with XF-84 dark iron. These were sealed with a matt varnish. I gave the tracks a wash of mig dark rust and
engine grease. Once dry, the tracks were sealed with matt varnish and then the tracks and cables were fitted to the tank. The cables were attached
with a drop of CA on the contact points and held down as to create a sag effect.

[Gav0909]

Really nice build mate. The weathering has really made it pop, excellent!

[tone]

A work of art!, Awaiting the final look with the tracks on!.

[tone]

AH silly me did not scroll down far enough!! really ace work!!!.

[OneSmallStep1966]

Beautiful

[plasmahal]

Update Eight

It's been a while but progress has been made and I’m nearing the finish line.

The exhausts were forcibly removed without too much damage. The rust pigment work was carried out and the exhausts refitted and any paintwork sorted.



Then I started work on the base. Taking inspiration from Mr Nic Beany, I have followed his tutorial to create a base from a picture frame. I had some leftover foam board to use up which worked in my favour for what I had in mind.
The foam board was measured and cut to size and super glued into the frame to make the base.
The top of the base was covered in the filler and some wooden coffee stirrers were used in random lengths to create a temporary wooden decked hard standing for the tank.
I used map pins around the side of the base and forced them into the foam and secured with PVA glue. This gave the effects of rivets which I wanted to go with the construction style of the tank.




The frame was then masked off and the whole base primed with a rattle can grey primer.
This was then airbrushed with the leftover custom mixed paint used on the whippet.
After a gloss coat was applied and left to cure, i used the same dot filter technique on the base as I did on the tank.





I then finished off the sides of the base by using a custom black/brown mix of clay washes and built up a few layers. Once dry, I used some cold water through an airbrush and a soft flat brush to wash and wear away the clay wash to give a worn/streaky grime effect.
This was sealed with a matt coat.
The top of the base was painted with various Vallejo or Tamiya earthy brown colours. The wooden planks were paint with Tamiya’s wooden deck tan.

This was then given a dark dirt clay wash and the wooden decking cleaned up with cotton buds.

I used AK's dark slime green and light slime green to add some algae colour to the decking.

Then base was layered in various mud pigments.

I had some wargames barbed wire and then coiled it up, primed with AK's rust primer and the added various rust pigments.
To add to this I used some cut down coffee stirrers, grimed them up and used lead wire to secure them to the barbed wire.

Then the base had some gloss varnish dabbed around to simulate wet mud and rain patches.

I then used army painter battlefield XP winter tufts of grass to add some interest.

I'm nearly done so this is where I'm at now.

[OneSmallStep1966]

Sweet You've done a superb job on both the tank and base, well done.