Monday, 1 August 2016

Keeping it Semple

It has been some time since I last updated my blog...real life has been keeping me rather busy! Recently I celebrated my birthday and amongst the various nice things I was gifted, I also received this very nice 1/72 Semple Tank from my mother in law, Elaine.

The Semple Tank has been a vehicle that has intrigued me ever since I first heard of it, so I was delighted to finally have one in 20mm!

The Semple Tank with Airfix WW1 British infantryman for scale.
To those unfamiliar with the awesomeness of the Semple Tank, I suggest a quick look at the Youtube clip below:


And of course additional information can be found at this rather harsh Wiki entry here, which at the time of making this blog entry has the final result of the project summarised as "In the end, due to their impracticality, the tanks were rejected. New Zealand has yet to create another abomination of this caliber." The Military History Now article here at least mentions the positive effect that the tanks had on public morale at a time when better alternatives were sorely lacking.

The model was designed by the very talented Fitz over at Shouting into the Void (click here for his post on designing the beast), and can be purchased at his Shapeways store here.

Now I just have to paint it, and give it some CD 3 statistics. I finally have some Allied armour that will make Japanese armour look awesome by comparison!
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12 comments:

  1. tradgardmastare2 August 2016 at 02:23

    Sempley wonderful tank,I look forward to seeing it painted!

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    Replies
    1. Uncle Brian20 August 2016 at 21:00

      Thanks tradgardmastare,
      I am looking forward to doing so!

      Delete
  2. Mr Grant2 August 2016 at 08:07

    Great stuff! That'll have those Japanese quaking in their boots!

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  3. Al2 August 2016 at 21:14

    Cracker!

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  4. Hugh Walter3 August 2016 at 02:58

    What a wonderful model! I still have the old Military Modelling magazine article, follow-up and following-up letters all pasted into a scarp-book somwhere on the Semple...it's a fine bit of Steam Punk too, no?

    H

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    Replies
    1. Uncle Brian20 August 2016 at 21:10

      Thanks Hugh!
      That Semple scrap book assemblage of article and associated letters does sound very interesting! As to steampunk - I think that works!

      Delete
  5. Paul Foster4 August 2016 at 22:29

    Now all you need is a few infantry stands with Charlton Automatic Rifles.

    Good score mate!

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    Replies
    1. Uncle Brian20 August 2016 at 21:25

      Thanks Paul!
      As soon as I read your comment I started thinking about just how to do that. I think I have a plan on how to convert a couple of figures, but I'm not sure what the planned scale of issue was for the Charletons. Once I figure that out I will start converting an appropriate amount of figures.

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    2. Paul Foster28 August 2016 at 17:53

      Nice!

      I think they intended one magazine per gun so you might have to add that into any stand rating.

      Surely section support weapon, since it was making up for the Bren shortage.

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    3. Uncle Brian11 September 2016 at 19:24

      Hi Paul,
      Interesting stuff!
      If it was going to be a straight replacement for Bren guns in the section then I would probably just keep the stats exactly the same as the basic infantry stand. Of interest though is the manual for the weapon that refers to it as a self loading rifle rather than a machine gun:
      Charleton Manual

      Delete

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