LANDSHIP ACROSS NO-MAN’S LAND

With both sides firmly entrenched in the opening years of The Great War, the British developed a “land-ship” which they hoped would push across no-mansland with the crew protected inside, squashing through defensive barbed wire to pave a path for infantry, and crossing the enemy trenches while laying down fire at their inevitable retreat.

The Mk.I British Heavy Tank was the first of its kind to enter combat in September of 1916 during the battle of the Somme. Of the 150 tanks manufactured at the time, half were male, and the rest female. This designation referred to the armament, with male tanks having a six-pounder gun and a Hotchkiss machine gun in each sponson, females having two Vickers MG’s in theirs.

These vehicles were rushed into service with little training for the crews. They were also mechanicallly unreliable, and they performed poorly on the battlefield. But they had a psychological impact on the enemy, and with backing from Winston Churchill and others who saw their potential, the design was improved and tactics and strategy for their use developed. Within a year the Mk.I tanks still left were relegated to utility service behind the lines when the new and improved Mk.IV was introduced in 1917. These vehicles paved the way for the future of how war was fought for decades to come.

Takom’s kit of the Mk.I Female tank was built to represent A13 “We’re All In It” preparing for an attack near St. Piere Divion in the Somme region, November 1916. I modified a set of MasterBox figures from kit no. MB35146 to complete the vignette.

Construction

The Takom kit fits well for the most part, with plenty of little wheels to trim and sandwich between the inner and outer parts of the hull sides. Care was taken to align the sponson sections in position on the sides of the hull before cementing together. Small clamps helped hold the sides to the hull when gluing those larger parts.

Driver’s Roof

Takom’s Mk.I tank kits suffer from an inaccurately dimensioned driver’s cabin roof. This part of the model is the same width as their Mk.IV kit and is too narrow by 5mm. MR Modellbau of Germany make a resin replacement, but I thought I’d just build my own from sheet styrene and use the other kit parts for the sides and visor details. Using Evergreen 0.15” sheet and their HO scale 2X6 strip, I constructed a roof of the correct width of 41mm, and added bolt detail salvaged from the many spare kit parts.

The periscope openings were also corrected from the kit representation by drilling a hole and adding a counter-sunk base for the scopes. This was also done on the upper hull, for the periscope position further by the hatch in the roof. The periscopes in the kit were also lengthened by 2mm to represent what I could judge from photos to look correctly.

A small deflector plate mounted just below each visor was made from 0.10” styrene sheet, and given a small bend apparent in a period photo of the actual tank. Smaller details like the periscopes, headlights and tail light were left off the model until painting had been completed since handling during that process would inevitably break them off.

Small clamps facilitated gluing the sides of the tank to A the hull

“A” Company tanks, and specifically A13, sported mesh grenade screens on their roofs to protect against such attacks by enemy troops. There is only one screen for the main part of the roof provided in the kit, and I had pilfered that a couple of years ago for a Mk.I Male tank project.

Both tanks A13 and A17 featured screens that extended over the gun sponsons, and also included a second section over the aft part of the hull. By studying various photos and film reel of these vehicles in service, and using the dimensions of the original kit part, I constructed two sections of the screen frames using Evergreen styrene strip and angle. For the frame, I used 1.5mm angle Evergreen #291. Legs for the screen sections were made from brass wire with styrene feet, this way I could adjust the height to get a proper fit.

To replicate the mesh screening, a fabric called tulle was cut to measure and stretched over the frames, and roughly trimmed off at the edges. Photos showed this mesh extended past the frames and the edges looked uneven. Next I laid down the metal cross-bracing using Evergreen #103 0.1 X 0.6 strip.

Because the driver’s cabin is too narrow, a new one was made using styrene sheet

Several tests were necessary to achieve a proper width and fit using the kits sides.

Some of the kit parts were used to complete the detail of the cab. Small deflection plates just below the visors were also added.