"Pete's" 1/35 Mk A Whippet WW1 MemorialGB

  • Thread starter Deleted member 5819
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Deleted member 5819

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Hi I would like to build this for the WW1 GB but for rereason I have already cut most of the parts off the sprues can someone tell me if I can still enter or not.

Kit parts.

Extras

Instructions with some of the mods I'll be adding.

Reference books for the build.

More mods I'll be adding.


History.
The Mark A Whippet .
It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.Whippets later took part in several of the British Army's postwar actions, notably in Ireland, North Russia and Manchuria.

On 3 October 1916 William Tritto , about to be knighted for developing the Mark I, proposed to the Tank Supply Committee that a faster and cheaper tank, equipped with two engines like the Flying Elephant, should be built to exploit gaps that the heavier but slow tanks made, an idea that up till then had been largely neglected. This was accepted on 10 November and approved by the War Office on 25 November. At that time the name for the project was the Tritton Chaser. Traditionally, the name Whippet (after the fast-running dog breed) is attributed to Sir William himself. Actual construction started on 21 December. The first prototype, with a revolving turret taken from an Austin armoured car — the first for a British tank design, as Little Willie's original turret was fixed — was ready on 3 February 1917 and participated (probably without one) in the tank trials day at Oldbury on 3 March. The next day, in a meeting with the French to coordinate allied tank production, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces Field Marshal Haig ordered the manufacture of two hundred vehicles, the first to be ready on 31 July. Although he was acting beyond his authority, as usual, his decisions were confirmed in June 1917. The first production tanks left the factory in October and two were delivered to the first unit to use them, F Battalion of the Tank Corps (later 6th Battalion), on 14 December 1917. In December 1917 the order was increased from 200 to 385 but this was later cancelled in favour of more advanced designs, the Medium Mark B, Medium Mark C and Medium Mark D.

This armoured fighting vehicle was intended for fast mobile assaults. Although the track design appears more "modern" than the British Tanks Mark I to V, it was directly derived from Little Willie, the first tank prototype, and was unsprung. The crew compartment was a fixed, polygonal turret at the rear of the vehicle, and two engines of the type used in contemporary double-decker buses were in a forward compartment, driving one track each.
When driving in a straight line the two engines were locked; turning the steering wheel gradually closed the throttle for the engine of one track and opened the throttle for the engine driving the other.The two engines were joined at their cross-shafts, from which the final drive to the tracks was by chains to sprockets on either side. When steering the clutches joining the cross-shafts were released, one engine sped up while the other slowed down, the turn being on the side opposite to that of the faster running engine. The steering effect could be increased by use of the brakes on one engine or another. This arrangement had the advantage over that of earlier tanks of being controlled by one man only, but called for great skill on the part of the driver, because one or both of the engines could be stalled if care was not exercised. Although in theory a simple solution to give gradual steering, in practice it proved impossible to control the speeds of the engines, causing the vehicle to take an unpredictable path. Drivers grew wary and stopped the vehicle and locked one track before every turn; this caused many track breaks, as the movement became too abrupt.Nevertheless, the vehicle could easily negotiate shell craters. Crews that believed that treads had to be as long as the hull, as with the heavy tanks, were surprised to see the Whippet, with shorter tracks, successfully exit holes .

The fuel tank was in the front of the hull. The sides featured large mud chutes which allowed mud falling from the upper treads to slide away from the tank, instead of clogging the track plates and rollers.

Armament was four 0.303 in Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns, one covering each direction. As there were only three crewmen, the gunner had to jump around a lot, though often assisted by the commander. Sometimes a second gunner was carried in the limited space, and often a machine gun was removed to give more room, as the machine guns could be moved from one mounting position to another to cover all sides.
Whippets arrived late in the First World War, at a time when the entire British Army, recovering from the offensives in Flanders, was quite inactive. They first went into action in March 1918, and proved very useful to cover the fighting withdrawal of the infantry divisions recoiling from the German onslaught during the Spring Offensive. Whippets were then assigned to the normal Tank Battalions as extra "X-companies". In one incident near Cachy, a single Whippet company of seven tanks wiped out two entire German infantry battalions caught in the open, killing over 400. That same day, 24 April, one Whippet was destroyed by a German A7V in the world's second tank battle, the only time a Whippet fought an enemy tank.

The Whippet was, a British tank veteran wrote, "the big surprise" of the Royal Tank Corps. Crews used their vehicles' speed to attack troops in the rear. They were so successful that by summer 1918 civilians called all tanks "Whippets", not knowing of heavy tanks' importance in breaking through fortifications and barbed wire. British losses were so high however that plans to equip five Tank Battalions (Light) with 36 Whippets each had to be abandoned. In the end only the 3rd Tank Brigade had Whippets, 48 in each of its two battalions (3rd and 6th TB). Alongside Mark IV and V tanks, they took part in the Amiens offensive (8 August 1918) which was described by the German supreme commander General Ludendorff, as "the Black Day of the German Army". The Whippets broke through into the German rear areas causing the loss of the artillery in an entire front sector, a devastating blow from which the Germans were unable to recover. During this battle, one Whippet – Musical Box – advanced so far it was cut off behind German lines. For nine hours it roamed at will, destroying an artillery battery, an Observation balloon, the camp of an infantry battalion and a transport column of the German 225th Division, inflicting heavy casualties. At one point, cans of petrol being carried on Musical Box's roof were ruptured by small-arms fire and fuel leaked into the cabin. The crew had to wear gas masks to survive the fumes. Eventually, a German shell disabled it and as the crew abandoned the tank one of them was shot and killed and the other two were taken prisoner.

The Germans captured fewer than fifteen Whippets, two of which were in running condition. They were kept exclusively for tests and training purpose during the war, but one of them saw action afterwards with the Freikorps in the German Revolution of 1918–1919. The Germans gave them the designation Beutepanzer A

After the war, Whippets were sent to Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War as part of the British forces there, serving with 17th Battalion, Royal Tank Corps.Seventeen were sent with the Expedition Forces in support of the Whites against Soviet Russia. The Red Army captured twelve, using them until the 1930s, and fitted at least one vehicle with a French 37 mm Puteaux gun. The Soviets, incorrectly assuming that the name of the engine was "Taylor" instead of "Tylor" (a mistake many sources still make) called the tank the Tyeilor. A few (perhaps six) were exported to Japan, where they remained in service until around 1930.

Thank you for looking in.
Pete.
 
B

Brad9826

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Peter I don't have a problem with that.
Are the mods in agreement please. Nothings built and some are still sprued and others are bagged.?
 

spanner570

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The G.B. started a couple of days ago, so good to go Pete!...........:thumb2:

Ron
 

JR

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Pete.
Very detailed introduction, :thumb2: The part about the twin engine and the steering was very interesting. Must have been a nightmare trying to control and not stall when turning .
Will grab a seat and join you .
John .
 

SimonT

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Nice set of photos Peter :thumb2:

I'm having a go at the Meng version

ps don't use that Bradford book for measuring from
 

Steve Jones

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Another Whippet!! Wonderful. This is going to be a Whippet fest!!.
Great intro Peter. Looking forward to seeing how you tackle this one. Good luck
 

Fernando N

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Great intro Pete and nice to see another Whippet.:smiling:
Interested to see how yours will go together as I already know how easily Simon's Whippet can be built...

Good luck.:thumb2:
 
D

Deleted member 5819

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Hi and thank you for dropping in you are all most welcome hope you enjoy this build .

If you have ever built any of the Emhar kits you know parts are rustic and the gaps are scary, but easy to build even I can I hope.

The drive & idler sprockts, track return rollers, trackside mud chute and suspensions side plates.




I checked the drive & idler sprockts for fit, to high so trimed they are olny spacers really.


Before & after.

Assembly


Thank to everyone who looking in all comments welcome good or bad.
Pete. :thumb2:
 
D

Deleted member 5819

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Hi and on to the upper hull and crew cab.

Hull parts.

Used gluing jig to hold parts square over nigth while drying.



Cab parts.


Drilled out and added missing gunner's vision slits to R/H side.Removed all moulded Loophole or pistol port covers (marked in black).
Replaced with photo etch ones, added a totally missed pistol port covers to the cab roof.



Armour petrol tank assembly



Thank to everyone looking in, all comments welcome good or bad.
Pete. :thumb2:
 

JR

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Nice use of the magnets Pete to keep every thing in place .:thumb2:
John .
 
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