British Mk V Male Hvy Tank 1/35

The Mk.V while intended as a new design entered production as basically an improved Mk.IV with a new 150 hp, 19 litre six cylinder in-line Ricardo petrol engine coupled with a new Wilson epicyclic gear box with 4 forward 1 reverse gears. The use of this new gearbox meant the Mk.V only needed one driver and the crew was reduced to 8 men, 1 Commander, 1 Driver and 6 gunners.

Production began at the end of 1917 and the first tanks reached France in May of 1918 with a total of 400 Mk.Vs built, 200 Males with two 6-pounder (57-mm) 6 cwt QF guns and four .303 in (7.7-mm) Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns and 200 Females with six .303 in Hotchkiss machine guns. A few were also converted as Hermaphrodites (or "Mark V Composite") with one male and one female sponson fitted.

The kit:
This new kit from Meng of the British Heavy Tank Mk.V Male comes complete with full interior including a detailed engine/clutch/transmission assembly, full chain final drives, the driver’s station, full weapons stations (6pdr andHotchkiss) plus other interior details such a ammo storage. Much of this interior detail especially the engine can’t be seen after assembly but the full engine/transmission and driver’s station is basically a stand-alone assembly mounted on a lower platform/tread-way that is then fitted to the lower hull plate and therefore quite easy to display this sub-assembly separate from the completed model to show off the extensive details.  

The kit consists of:

465 parts in light beige plastic
192 individual track links in black plastic
50 brass PE parts
1 length of fine metal chain
4 vinyl poly caps
1 small decal sheet
36 page colour instruction booklet