Finn

1/35 scale Valantine Mark IV (Tamiya kit)

Inspired by the decals included in the kit and the historical photo on slide 10, i decided to turn this kit into a Russian lend lease version of the British tank and as such i decided to give it some heavy weathering and mud splatters to fit the Russian climate it would have been fighting in. The writing on the side of the turret translates to 'For Stalin!'

The Valantine was britains most produced tank of WW2 but has been a bit forgotten about in my opinion, perhaps because the majority of them were sent to aid the soviets so they weren't as common in on the western front as tanks like Churchills and Shermans. Ive always been a fan of their design however and it seems the russians took to them aswell as while not as powerful and well armoured as Russian made tanks, they were more reliable and versatile. The photo this one is based off was taken of a knocked out tank in the fields outside Stalingrad

I had a lot of fun creating this kit and got to experiment with lots of new techniques such as 'post-shading' and 'pre-dusting' to add some extra realism to the weathering. The tracks were an absolute nightmare however as i used a set of plastic track links i found in a different kit with miniscule pins to hold each one together and they all started snapping just as i tried to attach the finished set of links to the model