Carden-Loyd Mk VI Tankette

[CharlieC]

The Mk VI tankette was the first adopted for use by the British army in 1927 (some 450 were built). It was copied and redesigned by a number of countries in the 1930s. The Mk VI was designed as a vehicle to carry a machine gun and protect the crew from small arms fire. The machine gun was deployed off the vehicle before it could be fired.

Oddly, there is no current commercial model of the Mk VI. However, Zio Prudenzio designed a 1/35 version of the Mk VI in 2000 (http://digilander.libero.it/zioprudenzio/fokker.html). It can be purchased from http://www.teuton.org/dbarnett/ although you'll have to e-mail to order.

I've rescaled the original model to 1/25, even at this scale some of the parts are very small. The hull has no frame so I've strengthened the sides with 1mm card and added reinforcement across the hull where it seemed necessary. Unlike the T-27 I opted for adding rivet detail by embossing. I forgot to put the scale cube in picture, I'll remedy that in later images.

Regards,

Charlie

[Phil]

Nice selection Charlie! This is my favorite paper tank...er, tankette!
Most other tank models are either too detailed, or not detailed enough. This one slides in between nicely.
Plus the fact that I LOVE Prudenziatis models.

Nice touch by adding reinforcements to the hull interior!

[CharlieC]

Added some of the hull detail. I found I could leave the bottom plate of the hull off - this made it a lot easier to position the hull parts.

I made my own pick - the designed part wasn't very convincing. The gun isn't glued down yet - couldn't resist adding it to the front shot.

Regards,

Charlie

[Don Boose]

Nice work, as aways, Charlie!

Has anyone ever produced models of the Japanese Type 94, 95, and/or 97 tankettes?

Don

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by boosed

Has anyone ever produced models of the Japanese Type 94, 95, and/or 97 tankettes?

Don

Not (afaik) in 1/25 although there are a few models in small scales. The IJA vehicle park isn't well modelled.

Regards,

Charlie

[Zathros]

Really neat model CharieC. I would love to see a Bren Gun Carrier next.

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by Zathros

Really neat model CharieC. I would love to see a Bren Gun Carrier next.

So would I - but the Universal Carrier hasn't been modeled in 1/25. There are so many possibilities with a Carrier from the standard Boyes AT rifle/Bren gun to the Panzerjaeger Bren. There was even a rocket powered Carrier - after WW2 to test the German idea of extracting bogged AFVs with strap on rockets.

It would nice to see a model of the Loyd Carrier as well.

Regards,

Charlie

[Jim Nunn]

Looking good Charlie

Going to show us the T-34?

Jim Nunn

[CharlieC]

Now with suspension......

I didn't like the way the springs were modeled so I used parts from the T-27 model. The suspension units aren't located on the hull very well - I had to use a pin inside the rear mount to locate and support it. I'll have to leave the drive sprockets until the tracks are done. The tracks are designed so they won't just wrap around the wheels.

Regards,

Charlie

[KCStephens]

Charlie,
This is a fantastic looking model, I particularly like the way you embossed the rivet details. Can you please share your technique with the rest us.