Emhar's 1/35 Mk A Whippet
by Eugene Sautin

The Whippet was designed by Sir William Tritton, as a fast tank to exploit advantages made by the bigger tanks. The fighting compartment for the crew of 3 or 4 was at the rear with two engines at the front. The armored fuel tank was in front between the front horns. A separate engine drove each set of tracks through its own gearbox and transmission. Steering was effected by accelerating one and slowing the other at the same time! The whippet was armed with three or four Hotchkiss machine guns. The Whippet was powered by London bus engines, with top speed of 8.3 miles and a range of 80 miles. Production started in October, 1917. First used in battle on March 26^th 1918 to repel the great German offensive. On April 24^th 1918, the drivers of several Whippets witnessed the first battle of tank versus tank, when two A7V Sturmpanzers faced of with an Mk.IV male. Whippets are most remembered for their role in the Amiens battle on August 8^th 1918, when 96 Whippets of the 3^rd tank brigade were assigned to the Cavalry corps. On November 5^th 1918 eight whippets took part in the last tank action of the war. For more info on the Whippet, click here!

Click on the pictures for an enlarged version!

Of all the kits that Emhar makes in both scales this one, has the most differences from its 1/72 scale cousin. The kit in 1/35 scale has a lot more parts, rubber band tracks, less decal choices (no Russian Sphinx, or Japanese 201) different machine guns, and far less problems than the 1/72 does.

The kit comes with great instructions on how to build it. The only problem is that all the paints are in federal standard, so you need to have a federal standard book to find the colors. Building the kit is very easy; this is no Timya T-34 with over 800 parts. If you work at a good pace you could finish this in two days.  The only part that takes a bit of care is the assembly of the tracks; the tracks are low quality and are just like the ones from Mk.IV series. I really wish they would make single link tracks; they are pretty easy to assemble in this scale and turn out great, compared to what you get with the tracks you get.  

If you are doing a British version than you should airbrush the tank with olive drab green, and paint the machine guns steel, and tracks burnt steel, the exhaust pipes should be painted rust. If you are doing a German variant than you should follow the illustration on the box for painting. Decals don’t stick very well, so clear gloss should be used to prepare the surface. Weathering should be done, I haven’t found the time yet, but I’m going to do it.

There are a couple of easily fixed problems.  First, there is no vision slit above the Hotchkiss mount on the port side of the fighting compartment, this can be drilled out. Second, no matter how hard you try, the top for the drivers cab won’t be glued without a space at the part when it’s joined with the driver vision slit part, that space can be filled with putty. The fastening rods for the mud flops need to be trimmed in the front as well as in the back, if you want too, you can scratch build the mud flops.

I think the real challenge are the decals for the outer side of the track horns, the rivets make them really hard to put on, so it’s better to just paint them. Many of the problems that plague the 1/72 scale whippet don’t exist in this scale making this a pretty stress free kit to build.

You are able to buy this it from most well-stocked firms, including Hannants and Jadar.
 

This is a great kit of the first order, while maybe not as good as the RPM FT-17 in 1/35 scale, this is a fantastic kit, that deserves your hard earned money. While it maybe a bit simple it gets the job done in making an accurate model of an Mk A Whippet.