"Little Willie"
By Jim Hensley
The Commanders Kit
Commander Series Models released last year is the first in 1/35 scale model of Little Willie. The Commanders' kit is a resin kit cast in a light green color mostly although like most of Commanders kits there is a variety of other colors mixed in. There are approximately 100 pieces counting the tracks, which are link and length type. The hull is a one piece casting. There are instructions, which include some decent drawings and minimal explanation of steps. A photoetch set is also included with the unusual concept of giving the modeler the choice of using the original resin piece or using photo-etch. The tracks I got were very poorly cast with lots of holes. However, Ted Paris is very good at replacing any missing or bad parts. Since I was not impressed with the tracks in the first place I decided to use some I knew about that can be purchased from Panzer Shop for WWI tanks.
Construction Notes
There is a very large plug on the bottom of the hull that needs removing. The rest of the construction is pretty straightforward. The only real problem area was the tail, which because of poor instructions and poor reference material available was difficult to construct.
I asked David Fletcher about the color of Little Willie and he responded that Little Willie was British Army green when he arrived at The Tank Museum. He said he selected gray on two counts; for one both it and Mother were built, originally, under Royal Navy auspices, which argues for gray - the earlier Admiralty armored cars are also believed to have been gray. Secondly companies like Fosters, that manufactured traction engines, finished the product in what was known as 'works gray ' which acted as an undercoat for the customer's chosen color. Based on David's answer it seems I had to go with flat gray, which is the color he is today.
For a complete description on building this kit see the article in Military Modelling Vol 31, No 4 13 April 2001.
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