Takom 1/35 Mk.IV Male Vignette

[Jens]

I'm a "German tank guy" and I've always been interested in German tanks so when I started modelling again last summer it was German tanks who slowly filled the stash. I'd also bought a Takom Mk.IV on a whim and I started building this as a "TV kit", one I built whilst watching TV.





The plan was to do a bit of light weathering since I had very little experience with this...



...but my first ever hairspray chipping attempt went... well, not good. (insert random swearing here)


Instead of chucking it in the bin I went all in and did some heavy weathering instead and since I didn't care any longer it came out quite ok in the end because I wasn't overly careful and didn't analyse every stroke of the brush!


Soon I had something that looked like this. I was actually rather pleased with this - my third kit!




It stood like this until the middle of November because I was busy building kit after kit and I was really enjoying it. I've built so many kits the last 6 months but only painted a handful because I really enjoy the engineering behind these tanks and putting them together is exactly the therapy I needed. I also felt I lacked the experience in the paint department so I was practising on some spare bits to get good enough so I could paint the things I saw in my head. (not the monsters, just the glorious tanks!)
It was at this point I thought about making a small vignette, or just a base, to display my Mk.IV because it was the third kit I built and the first to be "done" with regards to paint and weathering so I thought it deserved a place to sit.

Without any knowledge about vignettes or dioramas I just fabricobbled a piece of MDF and hot glued some EVA foam to it and sploshed on some plaster. I got some dried earth from dead flower pot which I mixed with water and PVA and just played with it for an hour or two and I then decided to add some sort of fence, and later on some duck boards.
I ordered some Meng WWI figures which took 10 weeks (!!!) to arrive so it was only now that I was able to do the finishing touches to it.









This is how it looks like right now. Bad photos, I know. I only had a mobile camera to use and neither proper lights nor diffusors, but it's something.







My oldest son thinks it lacks "clutter", like sand bags, crates, equipment and rubble but I don't know to be honest?
The plan was to have something to put the tank on and then I made a little story in my head for it to make some sort of sense? Adding "clutter" to the scene might take the focus away?

This is my first ever vignette so I've made all the errors one can make. We learn from making mistakes so you can say I learned a lot here...
I was lucky with my angles and levels when constructing the base because I've read a couple of books on vignettes and dioramas since building this and I now know quite a lot more than I did when I started this build...

I don't know how to finish it though?
There are things I don't like about it, like the duck boards. The first ones I ripped up and made new ones because they were out of scale. The new ones are also out of scale but I'm going to leave them like they are now, otherwise I'm never finished. I can do the next one better but how to finish this one?
I've made a signpost, a typical German trench signpost, that could go behind the grenade lobbing guy perhaps?
I've also made a wooden crate but I don't just want to put it anywhere just for the sake of it? The vignette is supposed to be somewhere on the very edge of a trench line, hence why it's not a proper trench and lack the features you normally see in a trench.

Some constructive criticism and suggestions are more than welcome here!!! If you think something is wrong and need more work, or to be changed then please say so. I prefer honest feedback in order to learn and showing my work to others is the only way to know.
I want to improve as a modeller and I've got plenty of ideas and inspiration for my next piece, but feedback is important and especially feedback from seasoned modellers!

I've also built a fascine that's meant to go on top of the tank but I've omitted it here because I worry it makes the vignette a bit too tall? I've not made a decision on that yet.

Many thanks in advance,
Jens

[AlexBB]

That is absolutely fabulous Jen.... Nice piece of art, well thought out and nicely put together. Just love the look of the MK IV male....

[DrSprue]

Wow what a really nice tank and diorama! Love the rust look on that beast! Seems that WW1 tanks had some class to them.

[TheNordus]

You say that's only your third ever painted tank? What did you do previously, artwork for the Louvre?
I think this piece looks stunning as it is although the tank really chose a bad spot to cross the trench
You could add sand bags and box(es) to the bottom of the trench if you wanted, like next to the wall. Or if you wanted to risk it, add mud puddles with water effects.

[Jens]

Cheers guys!!!

Yes, this was the third kit that I painted and no, I'm no artist that can paint... I am though not worried about asking for tips how to do certain things and I research before I do stuff so I had some theories on how to approach the painting and weathering but theory and practical experience are two very different things!

The first kit I painted was a Tamiya Tiger I and it looked dreadful... It's since been repainted twice and is now sporting a semi-failed winter coat with a fully failed hairspray chipping - but I learned many things by failing on this tank so in a way it's one of the more important ones. It is however not exactly "on display" but we all have those I guess?

I agree with you DrSprue that WWI tanks had class to them! Not from a comfort point of view but they were technological marvels and they have a certain look only the early 1900's engineering can boast with armour plates and hot rivets!
I've since bought a few more WWI tanks that I will build at some stage.

With the vignette I had no trainer prior so I had to do all the failures on the real piece but layers of mud can hide a lot of things

So I should perhaps listen to my son then and add some clutter?
I can make a few more crates and perhaps a couple sand bags and put them somewhere it would make sense.
Big learning curve doing this the first time so I've not had to try different things but I agree that it perhaps look a bit naked. War is messy and dirty and cleaning up isn't exactly high priority - especially not the edge of a trench line?!

Many thanks for the feedback!

Anything someone would rip up and redo? (apart from the duck boards that is...)

[Kevthemodeller]

Very nice mate you've really done a fine job. It's almost a carbon copy of the set up in Bovingdon.

[Jens]

Very nice mate you've really done a fine job. It's almost a carbon copy of the set up in Bovingdon.

Thank you!!! That's one of the nicest comment I've ever got!

I'd love to visit the Tank museum in Bovington one day. It's just one of those places you need a whole weekend to adsorb - and a good camera for documenting everything!

I particularly want to visit the Tiger Collection since it's so unique with it's super rare tanks and tank destroyers - all in the same room!?
I don't know how long they're allowed to have the Sd.Kfz.184 Elefant on loan from The United States Army Ordnance Museum, but I hope it's a bit longer so I've got a chance getting there...

I don't care for the politics behind wars or even care who won and for what reason, in the scope of scale modelling. I do care an awful lot about the engineering behind these mechanical marvels and I often research every build I make to sometimes absurd levels - but there's so much to learn from these historic constructions and to see how things progressed to what we have today?

What would've happened if the Germans had manage to keep fighting until 1946? They surely had several very interesting prototype jets that could've changed everything? What about the Entwicklung series tanks? With standardisation they could've achieved reliability instead of reinventing the wheel for every new model... This we will never know but by building scale models and doing research we can at least honour the architects and engineers who built these mechanical marvels!

In building this Mk.IV and the vignette to display it I learned about the whole British tank program, starting with Little Willie and then Mk.I upto Mk.VIII* and then the Mk.A Whippet, and how they secretly got the first tank on the battlefield and surprised everyone! Great engineers and innovative thinkers deserve to be remembered.

Enough waffle but there's an awful lot of history one can learn from just gluing a bunch of plastic pieces together!
This is why I want to improve as a modeller to do justice to the real tanks, planes, ships, cars etc we try to replicate in miniature.

[digger303]

I like it a lot....excellent story with excellent work.

[Jens]

I like it a lot....excellent story with excellent work.

Many, many thanks!!!

Before I got back to modelling (after a 30 year hiatus) I was doing nothing. Watching youtube in bed whilst the kids were at school but nothing else.
I was so bored after I was forced to retire and my spinal injury pretty much made me bedridden for several years, especially the 3.5 years I had to use a wheelchair to get anywhere...

...but then I started modelling again last summer and all of a sudden I felt creative again and somehow I got extra energy to do stuff - so modelling is a fantastic form of therapy for sure!

I never expected to build anything better than I did back in the days, with wonky kits and bad paint that looked like it had been painted with a hammer - and here I am, having fun and creating things I'm actually proud of and I hope to improve and learn more so I can become better at doing this fantastic hobby!

Modellers are also very friendly and helpful people!

[DrSprue]

So right Jens,
I don't care for the politics behind wars either in the scope of scale modelling. It is about the engineering behind these mechanical marvels as you say and the scale modeling we do to make them look cool to us and our friend's is just fun. Its the engineering in me that has always loved what rockets did from the V2 all the way to the Saturn 5. I love making something that looks close to that. Im not a tank man (even tho rockets are a part of armor in a way), but that is another engineering feat that is so cool and add aircraft into it and its all just amazing. We people have always used those inventions and did to each other issues long before that and it just that... politics. The marvels we have from that is just that... marvels. I like to re-create those marvels.

[OneSmallStep1966]

That is excellent, really top-notch work.

[Kevthemodeller]

Thank you!!! That's one of the nicest comment I've ever got!

You're very welcome my friend.

I'd love to visit the Tank museum in Bovington one day. It's just one of those places you need a whole weekend to adsorb - and a good camera for documenting everything!

I particularly want to visit the Tiger Collection since it's so unique with it's super rare tanks and tank destroyers - all in the same room!?
I don't know how long they're allowed to have the Sd.Kfz.184 Elefant on loan from The United States Army Ordnance Museum, but I hope it's a bit longer so I've got a chance getting there...

If you go onto their website you can take a virtual tour of the museum and I would have thought there will be information on the Tiger Collection dates.

What would've happened if the Germans had manage to keep fighting until 1946? They surely had several very interesting prototype jets that could've changed everything? What about the Entwicklung series tanks? With standardisation they could've achieved reliability instead of reinventing the wheel for every new model... This we will never know but by building scale models and doing research we can at least honour the architects and engineers who built these mechanical marvels!

Much is debated about this situation and as interesting as it is, I believe it's really a red herring things wouldn't have gone on much longer. All these arms require an uninterrupted raw material/fuel supply something they didn't have in any real quantities after late 43, yes they did actually increase output but these increases were still nowhere near making up for what they were losing. What is also almost completely overlooked is what we (the Allies) were developing and what would have gone into service.

In building this Mk.IV and the vignette to display it I learned about the whole British tank program, starting with Little Willie and then Mk.I upto Mk.VIII* and then the Mk.A Whippet, and how they secretly got the first tank on the battlefield and surprised everyone! Great engineers and innovative thinkers deserve to be remembered.

Enough waffle but there's an awful lot of history one can learn from just gluing a bunch of plastic pieces together!
This is why I want to improve as a modeller to do justice to the real tanks, planes, ships, cars etc we try to replicate in miniature.

Well said

[Jens]

What would've happened if the Germans had manage to keep fighting until 1946? They surely had several very interesting prototype jets that could've changed everything? What about the Entwicklung series tanks? With standardisation they could've achieved reliability instead of reinventing the wheel for every new model... This we will never know but by building scale models and doing research we can at least honour the architects and engineers who built these mechanical marvels!

Much is debated about this situation and as interesting as it is, I believe it's really a red herring things wouldn't have gone on much longer. All these arms require an uninterrupted raw material/fuel supply something they didn't have in any real quantities after late 43, yes they did actually increase output but these increases were still nowhere near making up for what they were losing. What is also almost completely overlooked is what we (the Allies) were developing and what would have gone into service.

Yes, there are an awful lot of it's and but's and a huge problem for the Germans (and many others) during WWII was the lack of proper steel.
This is well documented and whereas the early Panthers e.g. could take a pounding from Shermans and T-34's the later ones certainly did not as the "mystery steel", as it's called in blacksmithing terms, was brittle and often unhardened simply because they just melted down everything that even resembled iron to make steel.

Fuel was also a huge problem for the Germans and I suspect many of their armour simply had to be blown up because they didn't have fuel to run more than a couple. The Maybach HL 230 was a very thirsty 23 litre petrol engine and let's not forget that the tank factories in Germany and occupied countries were run with forced labour - which is evident in modern tank restorations where some bolts were still loose today and final drive assemblies were filled with cigarette buts and crap!

My opinion is that the biggest problem with the German tanks (and everything mechanical to be honest) is that everything had to be perfect. Super fine tolerances and thousands of checkpoints before anything was signed off and delivered. This led to huge delays and ultimately shows that the on paper inferior Sherman and the, let's say "crudely" built T-34, won simply down to volumes and shorter build time - and well trained soldiers giving all they had!

I do still think the Germans had the superior designs and innovation but that's not what's going to win a war - especially one where you've made everyone around you an enemy

And yes, you're pointing out something that's often forgotten and that's the fact that the Allies also had newer things in the pipeline, but I can't stop fantasising about what would've happened with German jets in the skies and mega tanks on the battlefield? If not it would've been a huge psychological effect!

With scale modelling you can take a slither of history and dig as deep as you want and to a certain extent fill in the blanks yourself. It might not be 100% accurate, but the engineering they all did back in the 40's is truly fantastic and this is something I want to honour in some way!

Cheers!

[Jens]

I made a couple "boxes" and a bundle of rope to create some clutter. I also made two signs to add something, but I'm going to pull the handbrake now and call it done. Or at least "done"...

This was my first ever vignette (or diorama) and I've learned loads making it. It turned out to be much more fun than I'd hoped for and there's going to be many more in the future for sure! The only negative thing with vignettes and dioramas is that they're taking up even more space than just the models, but that's a problem I can live with!

There are many things I'm not happy with but it is what it is. I think it would've looked more interesting if the base hadn't been rectangular in shape and instead been rounded, perhaps irregular, but that's something to try on a future build?!

Anyhow, here are a couple quick photos with a couple A4 white papers as backdrop and just whatever light there was in the room. I'm going to setup a photo booth so I can take proper photos in the future. It just hasn't been a priority. I love building and tinkering but sharing my work hasn't - mostly because I've seen some of the masterpieces you guys do, but my work is improving and I really enjoy what I do so I've won no matter how I look at it!









I did take a couple pictures from the right side but they were too blurry so I'll have to do them properly whenever possible. This is now "done" and I will move on to something new, otherwise I'll just add one straw of grass here and there and never be done...

Many many thanks for all of your kind comments!!!
Cheers,
Jens