British Heavy Tank Mk.V Male
Meng Model 1:35 Scale Kit #TS-020
Review by Terry Ashley
Part 2 the Kit Build

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Page 2 of 4
This step has the starter crank handle (G14) added and other details at the rear of the engine bed including the final drive covers and the cover on the right side is fitted along with part F36 which actually has to sit under part F17 when assembled, this can be a little confusing as the instruction illustration seems to show F36 over the top of F17 but it should be under, also I had to trim a little off the rear edge of F17 to allow F36 to fit correctly, but check your part before gluing to see if the is necessary with your kit?

There is one item missing from the kit interior and that is the Commander’s stand for when he stands in the top Commander’s cab, this stand should be located on top of the square frame resulting after parts F15, F17 and F38 are attached and you will need to make this stand from plastic card if showing off the interior. It is fairly easy to make being basically a square box stand that sits on this frame. Note I have made this stand based on the drawings in the Osprey book on the Mk.V but I have seen images with a different arrangement for the stand, as we know some details differed between vehicles this could also be the case here, or then again the illustration may be wrong?

Four small pads are added to the front hull floor and the front tow hitch attached before the completed engine/transmission assembly is fitted to the hull floor, but as I intended to have the whole engine assembly shown separate from the completed kit I skipped this step, image is just to show how the engine assembly attaches to the floor if you intend to fit it in the kit.


There were no problems assembling the water tank and radiator as everything fitted nicely, step 21 would have you attach the tank and radiator to the rear hull floor but again as I was going to display the whole interior separate I attached the radiator to the back of the engine assembly and not the floor. If you intend to build the kit with interior included simply glue the radiator assembly to the floor plate as per the instructions.

To attach the water tank/radiator to the rear of the engine/transmission assembly I glued the bottom pipe from the water tank to the radiator and then glued pipe G22 from step 24 to the water tank to the top of the radiator, also the rear mounted pulley F25 (from step 17) is glued to the radiator to secure the other side of the radiator assembly. And finally the top pipe G9 is glued to the water tank/radiator and to the side of the engine compartment (from step 24), this is then left to dry completely and will hold the radiator assembly in place quite securely to allow this to be displayed separate from the kit. (see images)

Images showing the points glued to fit the radiator to the engine assembly separate from the lower hull floor.

The radiator and engine assembly on the hull floor as per instructions.

The radiator and engine assembly separate from the hull floor.


The rear mounted fuel tank assembly comes as a separate tank with additional fuel lines (F33) added for good detail, the tank is attached to the lower plate that includes the lower grill platform with two small eye hooks as well as the rear tank armoured plate, this sub-assembly is then added the larger rear hull plate with all parts fitting perfectly without any problems. The top cover plate for the fuel tank has two separate hatches that can be shown open or closed as you wish to display the inner tank and fuel lines, these hatches have additional small grab handles for good detail, there are also two small etched hooks added under the lip of the top plate.

The rear hull plate also has the rear opening hatch as a separate part, this hatch can be shown open or closed with small pins on the hinge to fit in either position with you simply cutting off the redundant pin not required to allow for a positive fit of the hatch. There is also the Hotchkiss air-cooled .303 MG in the Skeens ball mounting added to the hatch and this the same mounting as on the front driver’s plate and the two sponsons so the assembly will be the same for all four installations.

The Hotchkiss has nicely done details on the receiver and barrel as well as an additional ammo belt that can be bent to shape as required although as you can’t see the receiver once assembled unless the hatch is shown open the belt can be dispensed with. It is best to first glue the inner ring mounting (K3) in place and let the glue dry completely before fitting the gun so this gives a firm footing for fitting the gun.

The MG is first glued into the Skeens ball mounting which also has the sight aperture included in the ball, also make sure to remove the mould line from the ball mounting so this will move within the mounting ring, the MG and ball are then slipped through the opening and secured in place with the front attachment ring (K5), make sure you use glue very sparingly when attaching the ring to allow the ball to swivel as there is not a lot of clearance and any excess glue will get to the ball mount. After assembly the MG/ball will move freely in any direction but as there is nothing to keep it upright in the mounting so just make sure it doesn’t sit on an angle, easily repositioned if it does.

Finally step 24 shows the entire rear plate/fuel tank sub-assembly is attached to the back of the radiator assembly but if you are leaving the interior separate as described above then glue the sub-assembly directly to the lower hull plate (B5) ensuring this is at right angles and left to dry for later.

The road wheels are assembled with 30 sets of the smaller wheel A and 24 sets for the larger wheel B and apart from being a little tedious with the sprue attachment clean-up on the 132 separate wheel parts assembly was quite straightforward, just make sure the two large road wheel with the flanges (J10) are aligned parallel as the spring moulded to the central axle stub can cause the wheels to site at an odd angle if not careful.

The two idler wheels are also fitted together without problems and I also assembled the two drive sprockets at this stage ready for fitting in step 28 and 32, this allows the glue to dry fully before fitting in place.

The first thing to mention here is none of these parts can be seen if the model is built fully buttoned up and none of the transmission gear can be seen at all as it’s hidden inside the large track frame assemblies (Rhomboid Hull sections) after assembly in any case so you may wish to bypass this section altogether to save a bit of assembly.
In any case the rear mounted transmission gear consists of the rear chain drives and smaller drive wheels designed to intermesh with the driver sprockets to drive the tracks plus the forward transmission gear. If using the inner drive wheels (H4, H5) make sure these can rotate after assembly but there was a problem meshing the drive wheels with the main drive sprockets that we’ll look at more closely in step 28.

The inner sponson bulkhead walls have nicely moulded on .303 ammo box faces and other details that went together without problems but as mentioned this can’t be seen after assembly, so it’s up to you if you fit these parts or not?

Here you attach the lower track frame bulkhead and the previously assembled sponson bulkheads and these need to be glued very snugly against the outer track frame hull section but the fit was good so there shouldn’t be any problems here?

The previously assembled inner transmission gear is now attached inside the inner right track frame hull and the rear drive wheel housing has to fit in between the drive sprockets discs which is easy enough to do if you assembled the full sprocket earlier, the instructions show to assembly the sprocket around the housing in this step but it is easier if the sprockets are assembled and the glue fully dry before fitting together.

There was a issue here in that I could not for love nor money get the inner drive wheels to intermesh with the drive sprockets, this was the same for both the left and right sprocket assemblies and after numerous tries I simply cut away a few teeth from the smaller drive wheel to clear the drive sprocket and glued the wheel in place leaving the drive sprockets free to rotate. As mentioned you can’t see these inner wheels so leaving them off completely wouldn’t cause a problem, they can only be seen if you are building the model with the track off the rear sections of the frame.

The top full length bulkhead is also attached in the step and there were no problems here but again make sure this is glued snugly to the track frame section.

Transmission gear fitted, note the teeth cut from the small sprocket as per above.


Firstly glue the seven etched divider panels between the road wheel axles take careful note of the different part numbers, I marked the etched part numbers with a fine felt pen to avoid any problems here and allow the cyanoacrylate to fully cure before adding the wheels.

The instruction illustrations are very clear on the location of the large and smaller road wheels and the smaller wheels intermesh between the flanges on the larger wheels so you need to fit these together as you slip them over the axle stubs which aren’t a problem once you get the hang of it. There is also the small rear brace (H22) and forward panel (N13) added and you are ready to attach the outer armour section.

With all the road wheels and the front idler in place you can fit the outer armour panel but first you need to add the inner rear louvers taking careful note of the louver orientation as per the instruction illustration and the forward track tensioning adjuster (H10) and the rear towing hitch.

The fit of the outer armour was good apart from one issue, the locating hole for the top mounted road wheel axle was way too small and needs to be drill out to 2.6mm diameter (the same as the for the lower road wheels axles) just make sure you don’t drill all the way through the panel while enlarging the hole.

Drill out top locating hole to the same size as bottom axle holes

When gluing the armour panels it is best to work from one end  and glue a small section holding tightly together till the glue ‘goes off’ and then move along and glue the next section until the entire hull sections are glued together. I did find that I needed to firmly clamp the hulls together at the corners of the lower sponson opening to get the tightest fit here and leaving clamped till the glue had dried completely, the result is a perfect fit of the track frames assembly.

There are additional smaller details added to the inside compartment but again these can’t be seen unless you are displaying the interior in some way otherwise you can just bypass adding these additional parts.



These steps are basically a mirror of steps 26 to 30 but for the left side track frames and internals so all the comments and issues above apply equally here also.

Note the transmission gear has been left out as it can't be seen and the small sprocket teeth trimmed as above.

The previously assembled main hull and the two outer track frame hull sections are joined and I diverted from the instructions by gluing the front glacis (C3) to the lower hull assembly before attaching the lower hull to the outer sections, this was to ensure the front join was the best it could be and if you allow the glue on this join to fully dry before proceeding it is one less thing you have to worry about while lining up the main joins. I temporarily fitted the lower hull to one side while initially gluing the glacis to make sure it was at the correct angle and then removed the lower hull to allow the glue to dry completely and squeeze the front join for the tightest fit.

The fit of the hull sections was good but you again need to work from one end and hold the sections tightly to together as you go for the most snug fit as there is a lot going on and you need to make sure everything is a snug as can be for the best result.

Image with interior fitted and left track frame attached.

Fully assembled main hull without the interior fitted.