AFV Club Valentine

Which AFV Club Valentine? The Mk I, II, III or IV?

A little confusing.  Box says British infantry Tank Mark III, then says Valentine Mark I.  It's AFV's AF 35178.  It has the split hatch of a Mark I.  Doesn't the Mark III have a round hatch?

The British had categorized their tanks as Light, Cruiser (faster, recon oriented) and Infantry (heavier, slower to support foot soldiers).

The Valentine was the third variation of British Infantry tank. The A11 was the Infantry tank Mark I, the A12 Matilda was the Infantry tank Mark II and the Valentine was the Infantry tank Mark III. The plans for the tank were submitted just prior to Valentine's Day 1938, thus the name was adopted.

Now the Infantry tank Mark III (aka Valentine) had eleven variants so there's Valentine Mark I through XI.

The extra parts on sprues but not shown in the instructions are most likely for the other Valentine variants.

The markings appear to be used for training and home guard tanks in the UK. I know Mark Is were also used in Libya early in the war, but not sure of which units used them.

IIRC, British 6th Armoured Division fought in Tunisia after landing in North Africa following the Torch landings, during 1942/1943. I am not familiar with their combat history after that. 11 Armoured Division fought in NW Europe in 1944/1945 following the Normandy landings and was part of XXX Corps during the Market Garden battles. You can easily research both divisions WWII history thru Google.

Based on the mark and the provided decals, looks like you are limited to building a UK based training vehicle.  This is the initial production Valentine, and online sources state it was never sent out to any battle front due to problems created from a rush production:

http://tanknutdave.com/the-british-world-war-2-valentine-tank/

Looking at the decal options, 11th armoured would of upgraded to Shermans for the Normandy invasion.  Before that, for three years  the unit remained in the UK - wow!

The 6th armoured did participate in the North African landing, but would have been equipped with a later mark Valentine.  They too would upgrade to Shermans later in the campaign (April '43).

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Although likely rare, you could possibly  send it to North Africa, but photos do indicate they had sand shields (a dedicated PE set?). 

You could possibly convert it to a Mark II, but most photos show a different pattern to the road wheels.

Might want to check out a comparison build of the Mark I & II currently going on here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234954703-valentine-mki-and-mkii-135-afv-club/

regards,

Jack

Thanks everyone for the great info.  Doesn't sound like the right kit for the diorama I had in mind.  This will have to be a stand-alone piece for now.  It was in a scratch and dent bin, so not out much.  The box was beat up a little, but nothing I can see wrong.  Might do a dio of it coming out of the factory, no mud work or weathering needed then.

What sort of diorama do you have in mind? If you need help finding the proper vehicle for the setting that you have in mind, I am sure that somebody here will have the proper information/suggestion.

This subject has been presented in a very nice way here www.modellfan.de/zeitschriftenartikel-8167.html

You will find that the author did an excellent diorama, very inspiring even if not loaded with action.

This is the MiniArt offering and the stencil sheet will look different in the AFV kit but nevertheless, a very interesting kit!

Good luck with your build, looking forward to see your progress pictures :) 

Best Regards

Johan

I had some British infantry figures and tank figures already.  When I found the Valentine kit, I also picked up a Miniart set of Royal Engineers.  I had thought of a diorama of the Valentine with the tank crew, and   with infantry riding on the tank waiting on the engineers to clear mines in a road.  I guess it could be the tank is on training maneuvers in England early in the war, training with the engineers.