Landships,

British World War One Armour.

After the appearance of the first tanks on the battle field all countries started developing these vehicles.
Not only were new vehicles designed but also old designs improved and new ideas tried out.

"Gun Carrier Mk I, 1/72 scale model by Exokit.
The Gun Carrier Mk I Can can be called the first self-propelled gun.
It design started even before the first tank actions. As can be seen although it is a completely different vehicle a lot of the components were taken over from the Mk I tank. It was designed to carry a 6-in howitzer or a 60-pdr gun over the battlefield into action.
Very few gun carriers were used in their intended role. In most cases the guns were removed and the vehicles used as supply carriers. As such they had much success, one carrier with a four man crew could do the job which otherwise needed 1000 man.

As can be seen the Gun Carrier had similar steering wheels on the rear as the Mk I tank.
The Exokit 1/72 model comes without a gun a 60-pdr gun is separately available. The castings of the chains supporting the panels between the drivers cabs and the superstructure were crumbled and broken in my kit. Instead I used a fine brass chain.
The tracks are rather crude lacking any detail. I intended to replace them with Emhar Mk IV tracks but as these were to narrow I finally covered the with "mud".
If you decide to make a supply carrier version you can leave the tail wheels off. Like with the Mk I tank they were removed as soon as it became clear that these were useless.

Heavy Tank Mk V* Male, 1/76 scale Cromwell model.
One of the defence measures of the Germans against the tanks was to widen their trenches. To make it possible to cross these trenches a lengthened tail was designed which could be fitted on any tank. When it became clear that this idea did not work it was decided to make a longer version of the Mk V tank which was then in production. The result was the Mk V*.
Later an even longer version was produced the Mk V**.

The Mk V* Female, except for the machine gun sponsons it was similar to the male version.
Cromwell makes a nice model of this tank, it is delivered with both male and female sponsons.
Do not throw the left over set of sponsons away, you can use them when converting the Airfix Mk I to a Mk IV tank.
Another conversion could be to cut the model in pieces
When you remove the extra hull section you have the original Mk V again.

"Heavy tank Mk VIII International, a 1/76 Cromwell model.
The Heavy Tanks Mk VI & VII were never put into production. The next o type the MK VIII was. Unlike the previous tanks which were all improvements of the Mk I this was a completely new design.
It was planned that Britain would deliver the armour plates and the USA the automotive parts, the tank would be assembled in a factory in France. It was a real International tank.
However the war was over before production could be started and finally only a few prototypes were produced in Britain and 100 vehicles in the USA.

For more information about the Mk VIII goto:
AFV Interiors Mk. VIII Heavy Tank Archive

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