Al McNeilly reviews MiniArt's Valentine Mk IV with crew.



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Thanks!

A good review Alan. I will get you some pictures and a tooth count.

Nice review Alan, thanks for the various road wheels types and sizes used.

Hi Darren,

Thanks.

Hi Dave,

Glad you found it useful.

Al

Many thanks for the informative review Alan. I just received one in the post this morning and what a difference when compared to the old VM/Dragon/Alan kit.

cheers
David

Hi David,

Thanks, Look forward to the build. Should be lots of options with this one.

Al

Great review Alan, thanks

So this kit, with the exception of the crew figures and decals, is identical to the upcoming release of the Valentine ll in British colors? And if I didn't want to wait could I buy this Russian version and build it as British (providing I supply my own decals and alternate crew)?

Looks a lovely detailed kit - shame about the individual track links though!

Look forward to the British boxings (and of course the Archer & Bishop )

[quote]So this kit, with the exception of the crew figures and decals, is identical to the upcoming release of the Valentine ll in British colors? And if I didn't want to wait could I buy this Russian version and build it as British (providing I supply my own decals and alternate crew)?[/quote

No Not identical as the Mk II British Version comes with the sand shields and this version doesn't. Are there any other differences well obviously the crew but as I haven't seen inside the box of the British version I really can't say.

My advice would be to check your reference pictuers, decide what you want to build and buy accordingly.

Chris,

Thanks. Yes, possibilities here

Neil,

Indies are great

Al

BTW the British Version has now been released. I saw it available on line this evening.

Al

Hi folks,

I have had to alter the information in the review based on some further clarification I have had on the wheel size.

The diameter of the Large Road Wheels/Idler wheels was 24 inches.

The diameter of the Small Road Wheels was 19.5 inches (these are referred to as 20 inch wheels which is where the confusion came in)

Both styles of wheels came in 5 types as reported in the review and these could be mixed and matched providing the diameters matched.

The kit large road wheels and idler are therefore undersized as they measure in at 20 inches in diameter, so there is an AM opportunity there or a fix from MiniArt. needed.

Apologies for any confusion.

Al

I'm looking forward to the future British releases of this series. It seems like it's been a long time in coming.

Reguarding the wheels....they look OK on the built up kit ( # 35902 ) on the MiniArt site. Checking their layout of the kit sprues I noticed that the smaller " 20" inch road wheels come as one piece And the larger 24 inch wheels come as two pieces , looks to me like a 20 inch disc ( part # 1 ) and a seperate rim to represent the rubber tire ( part # & ) Part # 2 is the idler wheel , if you zoom in you can see the grease nipple .. Could this be the reason we are getting confused as to wheel sizes . Once you put the 2 parts together the larger wheel should look right .

Hi Jim,

The small road weels were 19.5 inch in diameter (referred to as 20 inch wheels) these are parts 4 & 5 on the kit and are fine.

The larger road wheel should be 24 inches in diameter these are parts 1, 2 and 7. The diameter of these is 20 inches that is edge of tyre to edge of tyre and that is why the gap between the small and larger wheels looks odd. It is these that are wrong.

I've sent off for a set of ther Accurate Armour ones to compare them against and hopefully to fix the problem. A fix is being discussed on ML to lessen the gap but I don't think it will cure the size issue although it will make for a better looking finish.

You could of course just build OOB and not worry about it.

Al

Hi guys,

Following on form the build blog I have added a Post Script to the end of the review. I felt this was only fair given the easy fix for the road wheel spacing that came to light during the build.

Al

Thanks for the update Al. Great review and build as well, looking forward to the blistered paint effect