Rob, love what you have going on with her so far. Should be a beaut when finished.

Don't forget the "bullet drains" in the machine gun barrels.....  

Looking real good Rob.

Nate

ERIC, DM, NATE - Thanks for the comments guys, they are much appreciated

DM - "Machine Gun Drains" ?  If you mean for the barrel, I had drilled out the water jacket and used 1/32 brass rod for MG barrels or is there something else I'm missing?

Did this to all the MG's, just hard to see in the pics I posted.  If it was something else let me know, your advise is always welcome and appreciated.

Rob I remember these kits when they first came out. They were awful, You have done a great job so  far and all I can say is congrats on tackling one of these, I look forward to seeing you progress on this one.

Terry.

Great work especially the details!   Now you have made me want to check the whole WWI GB thread...

Hi

good work so far, your pics don't show it, but the 6-pdr QF had a small but noticeable taper, the kit barrel being a fairly good guide to the taper, obviously ignoring the very ovoid nature of the item...

see wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_6_pounder_6_cwt_Hotchkiss

TERRY - Thank You.  It was a bit fustrating at first but now it has become quite enjoyable even though there are still some problems with it that I did not correct.  Might give it some time but believe will be building the "Female" and the "Whippet" at some point.

ANDY - Thanks Buddy! Go ahead and check out "The Great War" GB, there is a lot of great work being done (most of it flys though )

MAJOR - Thank you Sir.

JON A ITS - Thanks for stopping in.  You are correct, they should have a very small taper to them.  To be honest the barrels and the incorrect shape of the back of the sponsons really bother me.  Used .156 dia tube for the guns which gave the right size but did not allow me to taper.  I do believe these look better than the kit supplied ones, they were awful.  The guns are lightly attached and I have plans on spinning some new barrels on the lathe.

UPDATE - Pre shaded and applied the base coat.

Thanks to all for looking and your comments.

Marvelous.  Wish my painting skills approached yours.  It looks prettty darn good at this stage of assembly.

Always neat to see the WW1 subjects get their due, this one's looking pretty good so far.

Very cool! Love the pre-shading, it's going to give her nice 'pop'.

Built one years ago and well, didn't fit all that well and I used the old, paint, wash, dry-brush style so she turns out pretty dull. I've been getting an itch to go back and do another with what I learned since then.

BTW: I see you've used green here. I remember something coming out years ago claiming as 'land ships' they were painted battleship grey. Then again pretty much every painting I've seen of them has them in green though.

very nice work.

Ron

Love it over there, and I love it here, too!

on your preshade....did you paint the whole thing black then fill in the panels or did you shot black around the panels the paint light coats?

Oh man, this is beautiful!  Another proof why pre-shading rocks!!!  You did it perfectly.  I give you a score of 9.5.  I would have given you a score of ten if it was a German...

MAJOR, WBILL, SPADX, DOOGS thanks guys.  Glad you like her always good to hear your feedback and thanks for taking the time to look.

GAMERA - The reading I have done, believe the early MK I and II's were gray.  Not sure of when or what MK but the later ones were a brown color.  The pics I posted are hard to tell but used Russian Earth Brown for the base color.  It looks more brown here in person but it is close to a olive drab think maybe the flat black pre-shade might make it look this way?  Thanks for taking a look.

If you build another one sure would like to take a peak at her

PANZERWAFFE

DM - "Machine Gun Drains" ?  If you mean for the barrel, I had drilled out the water jacket and used 1/32 brass rod for MG barrels or is there something else I'm missing?

Did this to all the MG's, just hard to see in the pics I posted.  If it was something else let me know, your advice is always welcome and appreciated.

 I guess my term "bullet drains" was a bit too vague as I did mean the hole in the barrel..... shoulda said that.

Just tryin' to help before you started painting.

  My bad there.

They looked like sprue nibs because I couldn't see them that well in the previous pictures.

Not to be a pest but still wanting to know:

on your preshade....did you paint the whole thing black then fill in the panels or did you shot black around the panels the paint light coats?

HERCMECH, ANDY - You guys must have posted same time as I, did not mean to make you wait.  Gave the subject 2 / 3 bathes, let dry then started paint.  Normally I prime everything this is the first that I did not.  Wanted the dark gray to maybe give a deeper effect on the base color.  So used flat black and just sprayed around the panels.  Was not to neat about it, figured there was no reason to be.

Then sprayed the inter parts of the panels with Russian Earth Brown.  Finally gave the whole thing a light overspray with the earth brown to blend it all in allowing just a little of the black to show through.

9.5! Thanks.  could always put German markings on....but she will stay a Brit. 

DM - Thats what thought ya were talking about.  I probably should have thinned the water jackets a bit more though.  Thanks for the help and keeping an eye out and dont eat to many of those mushrooms

More grist to the Colour controversy mill....

Originally, The Landships were designed by the Royal Navy, armed with Navy weapons, crewed by navy crews & painted Battleship grey......

By Mk IV, they were Army weapons, painted.... erm..... Green, Brown, Buff or Camo'd.... so whatever floats your landship as it were....

see The Tank Museum... http://www.tankmuseum.org/ixbin/indexplus?_IXSESSION_=bwsUtYCtF6s&_IXSPFX_=templates/summary/tvod/b&_IXFPFX_=templates/full/tvod/t&_IXMAXHITS_=12&$+with+mus_catalogue=.&:text=%22WW1%20Hall%22+in+mus_current_location_Section+index+mus_text_location&:mus_administration_name=VEH&_IXACTION_=SUMMARY&_IXMENU_=Vehicles

Coming out wonderfully... Having built the Mk. IV Tadpole, I am very impressed with what you are doing here!

Thanks for the reply back on your paint process. I think it came out great and will file it in my febile mind for use later.

Oh sorry Rob, for some reason to my eyes she looked sorta olive drab, now that I go back and look and yeah she looks more brown.

Thanks, one day I'll build another, way too much stuff on the plate right now . Still even even beyond the historic importance it's just a cool looking tank.

I love it that you put some effort into improving it. God, how I wish Tamiya or DML would come out with a killer-molding of this whole line! With interiors!!

Nice job so far!

 JON A ITS - Great info, thanks.

MINIMORTAR - Thank you much, how about a pic of your Tadpole?

HERCMECH, GAMERA - Thanks for the comments.

DOOG - Could not agree with you more.  Would love to see any o the big companies put out a line of all the WWI tanks!  Do you think the market would be there for them besides you and me?  Thanks for stopping in.

I would love to build those WWI tanks if they are readily available from DML or Tamiya so it makes three of us now.  I am surprised they haven't done it yet especially there are only very few tanks built for WWI.  I can only think of four at this moment...

PANZERWAFFE

MINIMORTAR - Thank you much, how about a pic of your Tadpole?

Sure... I've got a bunch of them here,

MINIMORTAR - That is a fine looking Tadpole, thanks for posting it 

Been awhile so hear are a few updates.

Stenciled and painted the call sign numbers, scratchbuilt unditching beam (still needs chain) and started the weathering.  Next will be the tracks, they are the individual link tracks from the Model Cellar.