The Kit

The Bronco offering of the Valentine tank comes fully packed in a sturdy box. Inside you will find 17 grey sprues, one clear sprue, 18 track sprues (12 links per sprue), two decal sheets, two photo etched frets (including an addendum instruction for the smaller fret), a box sized color poster of the Valentine tank, and a very well done instruction booklet. With a couple of exceptions the sprues are individually bagged. It should be noted there are no figures included with the kit.

Quality

I have to say that upon opening the box I was amazed at the quality of the molding. This is my first Bronco kit and I will be looking for another soon. The part detail is very fine and flash free. The links look to be top notch as well and as an added bonus the kit only requires 101 links per side so you have 14 extra links to be used as spares. The track links are attached at three points and it should be easy to clean them up without damaging the connecting pins. The links are non-workable, but Bronco does offer another set for sale that are workable. Bronco includes interior details such as the drivers compartment, turret interior as well as the engine and radiators.

Instructions

Bronco has printed their color instruction booklet on a high quality glossy paper. After the obligatory history of the Valentine borrowed from Wikipedia. Page two includes the basic building help statements followed by the color callouts. Bronco includes color codes for Mr. Hobby, Hobby Color, Humbrol and Tamiya paints. It should not be too big of a deal but three of the four colors blue black, light mud, and light stone are not reference to any of the paint manufactures. Bronco has broken the assembly down into to 32 manageable steps. They do a good job of clearly showing you where each of the parts attach to. The last four pages show the overall painting and decal guide for the four possible tanks you can model from this kit.

• Red Army, Eastern Front 1944 (Unknown Unit)
• 'Buccaneer’ of B Squadron, 50^th Royal Tank Regiment, North Africa February 1943
• Red Army, Eastern Front 1944 (Unknown Unit)
• 2^nd Armoured Brigade at Nuseiat Camp near Gaza Palestine October 1943

The decals appear to be well done and include some extra labels that many other kits seem to leave out.

Conclusion

Bronco has delivered a fine looking Valentine tank. Admittedly the Valentine doesn’t have same the fan following as the T-34, Panzer IV or Shermans but never the less this kit will make a fine addition to your armor shelf. I would like to pass along my thanks to Dragon models USA, Bronco Models and IPMS USA for the opportunity to review this fine kit.