1:35 Vickers Medium Tank MK I

A turret that finally turned all the way round

The British Vickers Medium Mark I entered service in the middle of the 1920s and made a fundamental step in armored vehicle design. Unlike the heavy giants of the First World War, it carried its main weapon in a fully rotating turret, and its sprung suspension let it drive several times faster than its predecessors. The crew was five men, and the main weapon was a light quick-firing gun supplemented by machine guns.

A school of tank warfare

It was on these machines that the British army learned what to do with a tank in the field. The vehicles served with the Royal Tank Corps and took part in the experimental mechanized formation exercises on Salisbury Plain, from which the first rounded ideas about handling armored units came. The tall, slim silhouette with its prominent superstructure above the tracks looks archaic today, but in its day this was the most modern tank in the world. The arrangement of machine gun barrels sticking out of the sides of the superstructure in several directions at once is unusual too.

The model in 1:35 scale

The real vehicle was over five meters long, so the finished piece will fill about fifteen centimeters of shelf. The parts first have to be cleaned of sprue remains, joined and finally painted, and only that makes a finished tank. The tracks and the suspension are the most conspicuous part of this type, so it pays to spend time getting them aligned. The interwar British scheme with brown and green patches is a rewarding chance to step away from the usual wartime camouflage. Period photographs from the exercises show vehicles with striking tactical markings, so there is plenty to choose from.