This was sent to me by a customer. It has been painted at one point and then stripped. There was some green (looked US Army) showing and when I opened it up, there were drips inside. Definately Green US Army Paint color. So I stripped that off and washed it up. A nice casting but the metal is soft so you have to be careful. I dried it under my lamp, not in the toaster oven. Had a race car driver loose his head in the toaster oven. Melted into his lap. LOL I can get heads but it put the project off.


Anyway, here is the tank kit as it arrived.




























I took it apart and you can see the paint. Now go back and you can see the green paint under the tracks in the above picture.
















Nice set of chain tracks.









Primed and ready to paint


























First coat of British Army Drab Green

















Second Coat goes on
















After drying from the Third coat of paint

















Now, the final assembed Tank

















































Came out not too bad, if you ask me.

Looks awesome. Are you gonna paint the tracks black, or leave them as is?

I like to leave them as they are. Makes them stand out better.

Very Jim, thanks for sharing

I have a Volvo 122/124 white metal kit and two DD buses and boy is that metal soft!

Can't decide whether to give it a go or leave as it is

I would give them a go, Theo. Just take you time. Painting is no problem and I think up to about 100 degrees F would be fine. I used my infrared lights to dry this model. The metal is very soft and will bend if pressure is put on it. Unlike diecast zinc alloy that is quite strong.

I shall post some photos of them soon

 


That they do. Looks cool.

Thanks John. The owner is also very pleased.


Theo, looking forward to seeing the kits you have.

Jim--
that turned out very nice....well done as usual! One question, and I think I asked this earlier, but don't think it was answered: are these white metal kits more or less an exact copy of the original? Do they somehow make a copy or impression of it, or are the re-tooled from scratch? If they are an exact copy then it should be the same size, etc. It does look like an accurate version of the tank. I also like this tank....it has lots of interesting detail, and fits nicely in between the small light tank and the Centurion tank.

Thanks Terry, I enjoyed doing this model even if it was a bit to do with it being so soft.



From what I have heard and seen these are exact copies of the original. I would think they would be silicone molds and or spun cast molds. Not metal molds like the originals. Those would be very expensive to make these days even with computer controlled CNC machines. They are litte and made from White Metal so very soft and will bend or damage easily. Not a Toy but for Display Only.

Yes turned out very nice Jim, where did you purchase the model from? As i would like one of these as the original pre war versions cant get costly.

This was sent to me by a customer, I did not buy it for him. I would search the net if I were you. They are out there from what I hear.

what an unusual model. Very exotic.

do you know who produced it?

Well, the original was produced by Dinky Toys, of course. Who make the white metal kit, I have no idea. A google search may produce some results. That being said, there is this one up on eBay for £29.00 right now.


www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dinky-Toys-Metal-Kit-...m-Tank-/110836907275


And Dinky Club has a lot of 10 for sale. 


www.dinkyclub.com/dinky-toys-151a-medium...ten-kits--3273-p.asp

Here's a few pictures of the original  Dinky this white metal kit was based on... The 151A Medium tank based on the Vickers Pre WW2 tank in service with the UK Army...























Hard to get in any condition... usually bits broken off...metal fatigue can be an issue... Took me a few years to get this one.....


 


Niall