Scale: 1/72nd

Country and Era: Germany, World War I

Options: Decals for 4 different vehicles. No build options

Although there have been A7Vs in resin in this scale, Emhar�s is the first in plastic, and it�s a good effort. Built by the Germans in response to the appearance on the Western Front of British, then French armor, the A7V was a fairly poor effort, and the Germans eagerly snatched up and repaired any British tank they could lay their hands on, putting into service a respectable number of Mark IVs to supplement the A7Vs. Approximately 24 A7Vs entered service; there is one survivor, tank 506 Mephisto, captured by Australian forces and preserved in Australia; the German Army recently commissioned a replica A7V for their own museum, to fill a major hole in their collection of German AFVs.

Emhar�s A7V portrays an early A7V with the original buck mount main gun and female front. Only one �true female� (i.e. machine gun armament only) tank was finished, 501 Gretchen, and even she was eventually converted into a male with a cannon. It would be very easy to model Gretchen from this kit by buying two kits and removing the escape hatch from the rear plate of one, using it to replace the front plate of the male tank. Building one of the three �true male� tanks would involved sanding off the large flaps on the front plate on either side of the gun mount and replacing them with the smaller apertures of the true male front. Another variation that would be more difficult to model would be the tanks with multi-piece side armor, since the kit depicts the one-piece side. Unfortunately Emhar provides only the early buck mount gun, although a conversion to the later socle mount weapon would not be too difficult. All of the A7Vs seem to have varied from one another in small ways, so try to find as much reference on your chosen tank as possible. Decals are included for four A7Vs: two schemes for 506 Mephisto, one each for 505 Baden I and 507 Cyklop.

Building the Emhar A7V is straightforward with no show-stoppers. Emhar have cleverly used the same molding for both sides of the suspension, and so molded the suspension with drive sprockets at both ends. Carefully trimming the sprocket teeth from the front idlers will greatly improve the appearance here. The fit of the large side and back and front plates to one another seemed a little loose, so I backed the joints with rod stock for extra strength. The detail on the buck mount is soft and the sight opening could be improved; make sure to drill out the end of the gun. The machine gun mounts are very clever and probably are intended to remain movable, but it seemed safer to pick a pose and glue them in place. The only major addition I made to the exterior was to add door handles and grab handles from wire. Filling the seams was a little iffy; be careful not to damage the extensive rivet detail.

I painted the A7V with Humbrol and Model Master paints, gave the tank an overall wash,  pin washes around detail, and used a colored pencil to add some restrained rust streaks. Rust can be overdone, but on something that looks suspiciously like a slightly mobile boiler it seemed appropriate! Judging from photos of the real vehicles, heavy weathering and lots of mud and dirt are appropriate. The tanks also seem to have been repainted frequently and some were even renamed as their careers continued. The tank I modeled was 507 before it was named Cyklop; its early paint scheme was feldgrau with a pale green flame pattern.

The decals respond well to Solvaset and are thin, but are out of register. I used only the crosses; you might want to check your hobby shop for substitutes. Archer, anyone?

Overall a very nice kit of a rare early tank. While the suspension detail is simplified, it�s more than adequate for this scale. Emhar would have done well to include the later socle mount cannon, but this is a welcome addition to Emhar�s 1/72nd WWI tanks.

A necessary reference if you�re building this tank is The German A7V Tank and the Captured British Mark IV Tanks of World War I by Maxwell Hundleby and Rainer Strasheim, published in 1990 by Haynes (much better known for their car manuals!). This includes a history of the A7V and detailed chapters covering the chassis, armor body, armament, use in battle, paint schemes and markings and more, as well as extensive information on German use of the British Mark IV. It includes many photos of the preserved A7V Mephisto, contemporary photos, and drawings and plans. Hard to find, but well worth having.

Back to Model Reviews

 

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1