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Tankette Review Vol 60/6
Freshly arrived from the printers is Tankette 60/6, the last issue fro 2025. Yep, it’s theend of another year already….
The cover photo, supplied by John Woolford, is of a venerable Bedford MK GS 4 tonner, at the ‘Temple at War’ show this year. The workhorse of the British army for many years, now maintained in the military vehicle show circuit.
Inside the cover is the regular ‘Member’s Models’ page which showcases the work of our members. This time we have some excellent examples of scratchbuilding and conversions of kits to produce variants that are not (yet) commercially available.
On the admin. page, Robin delivers his editorial with the sad news of the passing of Geoff Lacey at the age of 95. Geoff is acknowledged as being one of the last ‘old school’ draughtsman with a prolific output of drawings in 1/76th scale. A sad loss for MAFVA and the hobby in general. Luckily we have many of his drawings in back issues of Tankette.
Dick Harley continues his excellent series on the Cromwell File. This time, with part seven, we look at the welded Cromwell variants with more of Dick’s excellent drawings to support the information in the text.
A short piece is inserted as a space filler looking at a silk escape map of North Africa. An extremely rare piece of memorabilia.
‘Red all over’ is the title of the next article by Graham Cobb, where he describes building a pre-WW1 French Berliet Fire Engine. A fascinating read for the techniques used to produce the odd shapes needed.
Mark Hazzard brings us his summary of the kits available to build the various Sherman tank variants used by the Israeli Army. A very useful set of information for those building Shermans of that era.
We then have a build article by Andy Lang showing how he constructed a 1/76th scale model of an Irish Army Ford Mk VI armoured car. As usual, Andy produces a little gem of a model in his unique style.
The Berlin Urban Camouflage Scheme is the subject of a short piece detailing this ‘Rubik Cube’ paint scheme developed for use inside the German city of Berlin in the Cold War.
By way of a tribute to the late Geoff Lacey, the next item is his 1/76th scale drawing of the French AMX-10RC armoured car. Five views provide enough information to scratchbuild this big AFV.
‘The Case for Books’ brings us short reviews of six recent books to keep us up to speed with recent publications.
‘Out in the Marketplace’ is where Robin guides us through a selection of recent releases in kits, figures and accessories. This time we look at 3d printed and injection moulded kits in a variety of scales. Plenty out there to whet our modelling appetites.
AFV guru David Fletcher presents the Motor Plough of 1913, which was a predecessor of the Tank, and used as an artillery tractor (of sorts).
Editor Robin Buckland uses the colour pages at the end of Tankette to illustrate the colouring of various weapons with photos of small arms from his personal collection. Seeing just a small portion of his collection indicates a robust approach to ‘Neighborhood Watch’….
Another excellent issue of Tankette to close the year, as always collated by Robin from material supplied by the membership.
Paul Middleton
MAFVA 1528