WayneMac 1/48 U.S. Army Mk. VIII Heavy Tank

[Don Boose]

The next build in my series of U.S. Army WWI and Interwar tanks is Wayne McCullough’s 1/50 model of the Mark VIII International, or Liberty, tank enlarged to 1/48.

The build threads for the first two tanks in the series (M1918 Ford Three Ton Special Tractor) and M1917 Six Ton Light Tank in U.S. Marine Corps markings are at:
Kampfflieger 1/32 U.S. Army M1918 Ford Three Ton Special Tractor
WayneMac 1/32 USMC M1917 Six Ton Light Tank

I began construction of the 1/50 version of the Mk. VIII last August and had completed the hull and suspension when, last Thursday (23 September), the newly installed roof over our sunroom failed, precipitating (did you see what I did there?) a deluge. Lil and I managed to move a couple of hundred books to safety and the M1917 and M1918 Special Tractor survived, but my Fiddlers Green 1/32 Whippet now has a new and very different camouflage scheme (Image 1), and the Mk. VIII sustained some water damage (Image 2).

I had been thinking of starting over on the Mk. VIII anyway, because I intend to build all future small tank models in 1/32 and all big tank models in 1/48, and because I was not satisfied with some of the build (the width of the track overhang varies, for example.

So today I printed out the parts at 104 percent (1/48) on Neenah Bright White 67# paper 0.19mm thick. I will use used a 278*** Chrome Oxide Green Faber-Castell PITT artist pen and a Caran d’Ache Neocolor II 7500.225 Moss Green water-soluble wax crayon for edge coloring the hull and suspension parts. The Neocolor II 7500.036nRaw Sienna crayon matches the track color pretty closely. All gluing was done with Ad tech Crafter’s Precision Glue.

Image 3 shows the parts printed out on my desk/workspace. Image 4 shows the parts for the hull and the instruments of CON-struction (to paraphrase Arlo Guthrie). I strengthened the hull sides by laminating them to 0.7mm card.

In the next post, I will provide some information on the MK. VIII tank in general, and this model of Serial No. 67999 of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 67th Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks) at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1932. And I will show images of the construction of the hull (I hope).

More later,

Don

[Michael Mash]

One can see the water spots in the first two images. Amazingly it really does look like part of the camouflage. Good to read that it seems not to have delayed your work with your next project the Mk. VIII Heavy Tank. Looking forward to reading about it.
Mike

[Vinalssergio155]

What a mishap, I hope the issue of the leaks is solved.

[rmks2000]

Looking forward to see all these great builds next month in Virginia.