I have always been fascinated by the appearance of sheer power and elegance of this early tank - it is a true behemoth of steel, something you would not want to be on the wrong side of. When I saw the Emhar kit in a model shop, I just had to have it.
The parts fit together effortlessly, requiring only minimal filing work. One thing I had major problems with were the tracks - after experimenting with various brands of superglue, I finally fixed them to the tank with epoxy. The overall detail level is quite good, all the little rivets and bolts on the side panels look convincing enough. The main guns have to be bored open (which is not unusual with 1/72 tank models), the machine guns and the unditching rails look pretty clumsy, the rails having little in common with what the original looked like (although I must confess I was too lazy to replace them with better designs).
I decided to paint the tank in a navy blue/black camouflage scheme I have seen applied to several Mk.IV and Mk.V tanks on photos in my various tank books. Exposed parts of the main body and the tracks were highlighted with silver, the model was then coated with Rustall and sprayed with a deliberate sprinkle of dirt.
The diorama base came about rather by accident: it mainly consists of a lump of moltofill I had strategically placed on a piece of paper to throw away later. When it had dried up, I realized that it looked like a nice little rock, so I mounted the whole piece to a small slab of wood and painted it with watercolors. When working on the Mk.IV, I one day placed it on the rock just because there was no other free space available - the combination of rock and tank looked so convincing that I decided to permanently mate them.
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