Been available for a few days now, but thought maybe you'd missed it!

Master Box have released a new pair of Tank Mark I kits. These are Male and Female, and are tail-less. The box art describes them as "special modification for Gaza Strip", but that's a red herring; by the time of The Battle of Arras, Mark I tanks had no tails, and the rooftop jib was used, in any location, to assist with the mounting and demounting of the sponsons.

Master Box Website

Already placed my order!

They did have modifications courtesy of Major Nutt and his men- appliqué armour -eg. palm tree, luggage carriers , bit and bob carriers for the roof, rudimentary sand shields for the intakes, etc. These exist in a few photos and anecdotes but would be difficult to incorporate in a model as they were not only sketchy but were changed frequently. According to some photos some tanks kept their tail wheel lifting gear hydraulics complete with armour as in the model so that bit is correct.
The sponson lifting gear( Fletcher calls them trestles but the top inverted "t" section must be a jib) was needed to take the sponsons off for rail travel as tanks with sponsons did not conform to most European and elsewhere wagon loading gauges. Early War they used railway companies(lots then like now) existing bogie bolster wagons like the GWR Macaw but the WD did the purpose built Warflat and the Rectank (influenced by the Landships committee)wagons later in the war. These ROD or WD wagons went far and wide and also did for WWII. They were also introduced at the same time later marks (IV onwards) of tank had sponsons that could be stowed inboard. When transported by rail most tanks were sheeted with tarpaulins either the central part or the whole tank. It may seem unnecessary to keep them dry, which it was of course, but the tarpaulin also tended to keep the bits together as with all sheeted loads. BTW I would have thought the sponson lifting trestle and jib on the MkI would have easily exceeded the loading gauges so it would have to be taken off for transportation.

The first two tank models are good but no decals/transfers are included. The Gaza tanks at least should have a full set.

Are these quick kits? Some of the drawings sort of look like they might be!

No, they are not quick builds. But neither are they complex builds such as RPM make, for example.

There is a review of their Male Mark I on Landships, which might be useful for you, Bert.

Nice to see I hope there will be more from MB...


Cheers