Mark IX 1/50 - Duck

**CharlieC** · #1 01-31-2017, 12:37 AM

An earlier thread - Ok gurus - what is it? - talked about this strange prototype tank. This is the build of Wayne's Mark IX Duck design rescaled to 1/50.

The build was fairly straightforward having recently built another Mark IX model. The tiny brackets to hold the flotation tanks were a trial - especially when I dropped the container they were in on the floor. I was seriously grateful that older houses in Queensland don't usually have carpet. I'm not sure why the two added parts compared to the older Mark IX are a different colour - perhaps my printer was complaining about the heat/humidity here.

I did the same laminating and embossing on this model as I did for the previous Mark IX build. I think the card for the centre section should have been doubled - it's just too floppy as a single layer in this scale.

Regards,

Charlie

**rockpaperscissor** · #2 01-31-2017, 08:00 AM

Very nice model, Charlie. I'd love to build that beastie, is Landships II hosting it? An ingenious propulsion method when in the water, but I wonder how the hinged track paddles performed once on land.

**Don Boose** · #3 01-31-2017, 08:10 AM

Excellent work, as always, Charlie.

Don

**CharlieC** · #4 01-31-2017, 03:27 PM

Eventually it will appear on Landships II - I'll announce it on this forum. Wayne has a bunch of projects running at the moment so it might take a while. There's another tank project coming.

Anyone want to do a WW1 aircraft beta build for Wayne - if so PM me? I would try but I haven't built many planes.

The hinged paddles on the Mark IX Duck are a matter of some speculation - there's no original documentation. It's thought the paddles were lightly sprung loaded so they would lie against the track when out of the water. The video of the Mark IX Duck shows it travelling on land with no particular problems - how long the paddles would have lasted is another matter.

I think the video of the Mark IX Duck needs a sound track - initial thoughts were Flanders & Swan "The Hippopotamus Song" or perhaps Richard Wagner "Die Fleiger Hollander" overture.

I tracked down the colour difference in the model - it's card from two different manufacturers. Most of the model was printed on Mondi card the mismatched parts on a sheet from another manufacturer. The camera, of course, exaggerated the difference, it's nowhere near that noticeable in reality.

Regards,

Charlie

**Don Boose** · #5 01-31-2017, 07:22 PM

Definitely Flanders and Swan hippopotamus song!

About 40 years ago, Lil and I and the two youngest kids, then around nine and 13, did the long hike down into the Grand Canyon and then back up again. They were then enamored of F&S and sang the hippo song the whole way. You have not lived until you have spent two days on the trail with a couple of youngsters singing "Mud! Mud! Glorious mud . . ." the entire time.

Sorry for the diversion from serious military matters, but you brought back some memories.

Don

**CharlieC** · #6 01-31-2017, 08:26 PM

Agreed - I think we've lost a lot from our culture when people no longer understand the sly, clever humour of performers like Flanders & Swan. I think I'd wonder what major sin I'd committed to be consigned to a purgatory of endless "Hippopotamus Song".

Speaking of hippopotamus' this discussion disinterred a memory from that organ I laughingly call a brain of a British TV show where the main character saw a vision of a hippopotamus whenever his mother-in-law was mentioned. The show was "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" - I think it's on YouTube.

A question for the gurus - what German WW1 tank was named after an administrative region of Germany?

Regards,

Charlie

**Don Boose** · #7 01-31-2017, 09:04 PM

It can only be the Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia).

Don

**looker** · #8 01-31-2017, 09:50 PM

Well that was a tank project but there was also an individual A7V at one time named for Baden, see Chassis number 505 at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A7V#Naming
and
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bad...-state-Germany
so that also answers the question as asked.

Nice build Charlie, as always.

**CharlieC** · #9 02-01-2017, 01:09 AM

I was thinking about the Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia). You could make a case for A7V #505 Baden I but this tank was only known as Baden I from April to May 1918 when it was issued to Abteilung 3. It seems to have been nameless before this and was named "Prinz August Wilhelm" in May, then "August Wilhelm" after 9th June.

I've always been puzzled by the Oberschlesien name - since the tanks were being built at the Eisenwerke at Gleiwitz. I suspect the name may have come from the Allied Control Commission.

Regards,

Charlie

**B-Manic** · #10 02-01-2017, 02:20 PM

"The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" is excellent entertainment