Part 1 Review – Kit Contents & Interior Assembly

This is the first of a series of reviews of the MiniArt AEC Mk. II Armoured Car kit. Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC) has generously provided the review sample to IPMS. This part reviews the kit contents and assembly of the driver’s compartment. Subsequent parts will include the engine, chassis, exterior, and turret.

Background

The AEC Armoured Cars are a series of heavy armored cars built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) during the Second World War. The first example, Mk. I, was demonstrated in early 1941 and an order was placed in June of that year.

The Mk. I version carried a Valentine Mk II turret with 2-pounder gun. Vehicles of later variant designs carried heavier armament. The Mk II version has a heavier turret with a 6-pounder gun, redesigned front hull, and 158 h.p. diesel engine. The weight of the Mk II is 12.0 tons.

When I first saw this model kit as being available to review for IPMS/USA, I must admit I was ignorant of its importance in the history of tank development and warfare. Developed from the British Vickers 6 Ton tank of the late 1920s, the T-26 series of tanks was one of the most important of the 1930s, and together with the Soviet BT series, provided the backbone of Soviet tank forces in the interwar period. The T-26 was the most numerous tank of the Spanish Civil War, provided a large component of Soviet tank forces during the Finnish/Soviet conflict of 1939-40, and despite falling behind in design compared to improvements in anti tank gun development, was the most numerous tank in the Soviet arsenal when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941.

The 100^th Anniversary of the tank going into combat takes place in September 2016, and as this anniversary draws closer I have become fascinated with these first creaking, clattering vehicles of death; part of the first modern industrial war in history. And while the British Army’s rhomboid shaped monsters that took part in that engagement at Flers-Courcelette during the Battle of the Somme were the first tanks to see service, the diminutive French FT-17 can legitimately lay claim to be the great grandfather of the modern tank: the first fully tracked armored vehicle with a rotating turret. And as luck would have it, Meng Models have produced a simply magnificent model kit of this seminal vehicle. Not only is this model exquisitely detailed, it is fully detailed, as it comes with a very complete interior.

Following on from their superb yet diminutive FT-17 WW1 French tank, Meng Models of China provides the modeling public with a colossus of a tank model, the French Char 2C. Like the FT-17, the Char 2C was born during the years of battle in World War One, but came too late in the piece to see combat. Before the prototype was even completed, an order was placed for 300 of these gargantuan beasts, but due to the war coming to an end, this order was subsequently cancelled, and only 10 Char 2C’s were eventually delivered in 1921, becoming the largest tank ever to enter service in any of the world’s armies. The 10 vehicles went on to become mainly propaganda vehicles, “staring” in various cinematic productions to show the strength of the French military machine. Each of the ten tanks was named after the ancient regions of France: Poitou, Provence, Picardie, Alsace, Bretagne, Touraine, Anjou, Normandie, Berry and Champagne. Normandie was renamed Lorraine in 1939.

Achzarit – (“Cruel” in Hebrew with female inflection) is the name given to one of the IDF’s newer Armored Personnel Carriers. The other is Namer and based on the Merkava Chassis. The Achzarit is based on the Russian T-54/55 chassis that the IDF captured so many of in the previous wars with her neighboring Nations. No matter what name the IDF gave it, it could not describe near perfection. The Israelis are the ONLY Nation that has ever put crew protection and survivability forefront in the design of armored vehicles. The Achzarit is referred to as a heavy APC and rightfully so. It weighs in at 44 tons and is designed to transport the troops into combat and also survive confrontations in urban scenarios. It carries a dismount squad of nine and three vehicle crew members. It mounts three 7.62 FN Mags and another FN Mag mounted in a Rafael OWS for the vehicle commander.