Review of Valentine Plastic Soldier Company 20mm (1/72)
By Wargamerabbit
Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) released their plastic Valentine Infantry Tank in 20mm and 15mm scales. Back on April 18, 2018, the PSC 15mm kit was reviewed by Troy Hill (NDNG Editor) and this review follows in similar fashion for the 20mm or 1/72 scale model. These model tanks are a welcome addition for any gaming rules using 20mm models, with an eye toward North Africa, the Italian campaign up the long boot of Italy, or even the Eastern Front with Valentines as Lend-Lease.
First Look:
First off, the 20mm dual sprues are impressive, cleanly molded, and with little flash or heavy mold lines. Only the inner edges of some turret parts have a fine edge of plastic over flash, easy to clean off with a sharp hobby knife or file. Each Valentine tank model consists of two plastic sprues, with a total of six plastic sprues, for three different or the same version Valentine tank models included in the kit box.
First off and clearly seen are the two Valentine one-piece hull tops. One with molded side skirts for the majority of the North African theater, the other hull top without the skirts, for early desert 1940, for the later 1943 Italian campaign, Soviet Eastern front, and early Normandy. The instruction single double-sided printed sheet, following PSC’s color-coded instruction sheet format, lists the side-skirt hull version for the Valentine MkIII model and the non-skirt version for the MkII and MkIX models.
Reviewer wonders if the side skirt version could also be used for the MkII Valentine tank model, not all Valentines in the desert used the side skirt version. The other major parts are the two-track bogie assemblies; one is for the early period MkII version, the other for the later MkIII and MkIX versions, again color-coded on the printed instruction sheet. Finishing off the sprues first glance, the three different turret assemblies are noticed, for three different versions of the Valentine Infantry tank…. MkII, MkIII, and MkIX versions.
Top view of the dual sprue. Note two hull tops and two different track sections (early and late style).
Reverse or underside view of the same Valentine dual sprues.
Part count totals 43 pieces on the two sprues to make a single model. Eighteen (18) parts build the Valentine MkII 2-pounder variant. Twenty-two (22) parts build the MkIII model and eighteen (18) completes the MkIX model. Note that several parts are interchangeable and cross-used for each variant.
As noted for the 15mm PSC Valentine kit review, the photos on the printed double-sided instruction page assembly is rather dark and obscured at their small scale, and noting the orientation of the small parts is difficult. This is one area PSC needs improvement. A simple line drawing would be a better view. On the reverse side of the instructions, the assembly steps (twelve step views) and the labeled parts identification list is given. The assembly step instruction shows the building of all three variants intermixed so careful reading of each step required depending on which variant desired, minor raised rivet removal as required to fit parts, and always cross-reference the color-coded parts for each variant before applying glue.
Assembly:
For the lower hull and track assembly, you’ll need to figure out the orientation. Again the instruction sheet tells you to assemble them but doesn’t give the left to right orientation of the tracks. The lower hull part has both pins and slots. Be careful when removing the lower hull to not trim away the protruding pins for the forward and rearmost bogie attachment. Quick method for orientation, look for the molded “notch angle part on the track bogie assembly. This is the rear portion of the track / hull assembly. This matches up to the upper hull molding. Also, the Valentine tank is rear drive so the drive gear (teeth) is orientated at the rear of the tank hull if any doubt for orientation.
When gluing the upper hull to lower hull, look again for the notch at the rear of the lower hull. This will fit with the opposite cut out on the upper hull. During assembly, this reviewer noted the small gap near the model front, under the hull front fender. A quick check that the rear and front plate hull edge were aligned, and the hull notch was fitted correctly, thus confirmed that there is a notable gap. Before any modeling putty applied to fill the gap, reviewer dry fitted the track assembly, which covered the gap when viewing the model side on, therefore no additional work was done to fill the gap.
To install the front and back plates, be careful of the orientation. For the front hull plate, you just need to remember that the fully flat side faces down, while the side with the two bevels faces up. The rear hull plate is not the muffler cover but the narrow plastic strip looking part. Check the part identification list for any doubt on the correct part.
Turret Assembly:
This PSC kit has three different turret variants. The early MkII with 2-pounder and small two crew turret (commander and gunner), the MkIII enlarged turret with the same 2-pounder cannon but includes a third turret crew member as loader to relieve the commander, and the MkIX turret with the up-gunned and designed 6-pounder cannon mount, again with the three turret crew. Note, the Valentine MkVIII had basically the same 6-pounder turret, with no coax Bren machine gun due to the early 6-pounder mount design till the MkX variant came out.
So, if desired, the gamer could use the MkIX turret variant as a MkVIII variant on the tabletop, overlooking the very slight outwards turret appearance difference. At the 20mm scale, the small cannon barrels are thin for the 2-pounder and somewhat fragile, so be careful when removing from the sprue. The thicker 6-pounder barrel can stand more stress but still be careful when cleaning the barrel part. The completed turret to hull body connection is drop-slot and twist format, classic to many other tank kits at this scale. If completed turret ring is found tight fitting, a light hull ring filing will solve the issue before painting.
Extras and Accessories:
The two larger storage or toolboxes have a slope to them. A careful look at the assembly instructions and a quick glance at online photos of Valentines from the period show the proper orientation when gluing on the upper hull surface. Note the “middle” storage/toolbox pictured when glued after “dry fitting”, doesn’t extend past the molded “square hull corner” or block the crew hatch opening. These storage boxes are common to all Valentine variants. The smaller storage box is only used for the MkII and MkIII variants and requires a little “rivet sanding” for proper placement on the forward right fender.
There is also a rack of water or gas/diesel fuel cans and a spare piece of track that can be used for stowage on the hull. The rack with water/fuel cans is glued to the rear hull “downward sloping” plate of the upper hull, poorly shown “in the dark zone” on the assembly instructions at Step 8. Interesting to note the finished MkII and MkIII photos on the sprue page doesn’t show the water cans, but the MkIX model pictured has it.
Three upper body commander turret hatch figures are also included on the plastic sprue, two British and a Russian. Commander A is Russian, Commander B is North African theater (beret) and Commander C with separate arms is Italy and possible Normandy 1944 era. Some “hip” trimming work is required to fit the chosen tank commander into the MkIX square hatch opening.
Additional thought for the MkIII turret commander hatch. This reviewer left the commander hatch piece unglued on the turret and therefore can swap out the closed hatch and the open hatch look. Press the “open hatch with commander” piece into the turret top opening or press the closed hatch look in the same turret opening, depending on scenario needs. Lastly, the turret rear storage box is glued on turret rear face on either the MkIII or MkIX version but not the MkII variant.
Comparisons:
The only other 20mm (1/72) models reviewer has to compare these PSC Valentine models are the older Esci / Italeri and the Fujimi 1/76 model kits. The hull details are slightly different, especially in the tools and storage box placement, but the size of the 1/72 side skirt models is very similar (PSC 81mm x 38mm vs. Esci 77mm x 38mm).
The Fujimi kit, being 1/76 scale, is slightly smaller in length and width (PSC with side skirts 81mm x 38mm vs. Fujimi 76mm x 37mm). If the PSC kit is correct scale size, then the Esci kit is slightly undersize…. or vice-versa the PSC is oversize. Note the measurements are with side skirt, which widens the hull width by 2mm (PSC is 81mm x 36mm w/o side skirt) as seen in the finished MkIX green variant. Overall, a modeler would be hard pressed to quickly see the differences in size between these three Valentine kits, assuming models with side skirt (or not) in comparison.
Note: This reviewer’s preference is to mount all his vehicles on 1/8” thick flooring tile, cut to the basic measurements of the vehicle dimensions, with a small edge protection overlap. This protects the finer parts of the vehicle tracks and wheels from damage during games and gives a flat surface underneath for labeling the unit and vehicle identification.
Rating:
Overall: Solid 4.5 out of 5
Upside: Three choices for the different Valentine variants, covering the improvement and armament changes from 1940 into 1943. Models are quick and easy to build, especially once the minor small parts are identified.
Downsides: None to really mention for this fine kit from the model itself. Having the hull detail molded as one part leads the process to “smooth out the detail” compared to actually gluing parts to the hull surface. No decals are provided in the kit so the modeler is left to paint or find another source for the unit markings. This just leaves the assembly instructions and photos, which clearly could be improved upon, thereby aiding the modeler.
Previous NDNG 15mm
Options:
What to do with the extra parts? This reviewer decided to glue the extra early tracks to the MkII upper hull. Then the MkII turret was built. As seen in the photo above, the Valentine MkII appear complete, just lacking the storage/tool bins on the right fender and the exhaust pipe (muffler) covering on the left fender. Only if the tank model is viewed from the front or rear is the missing front armor plate or rear armor plate noticeably missing. Quick use of plastic card can fix that, the storage bins made from kit spares, a few spare tools, and thereby another tank joins the wargame North African collection. Or build a “tank pit” for the Valentine model without lower hull clearly showing. Some desert dirt, rocks, and placed foliage should finish the model piece, hiding the missing pieces.
Wargamerabbit (AKA Michael) is a resident of California and drives a really fast carrot… er… Corvette. His interest in wargaming began on a train trip from London to Hastings (UK). He purchased a copy of John Tunstill’s booklet “Discovering Wargames” from a news vendor for the ride.
Since then his collection of wargaming models numbers well past 10,000 individual figure. His gaming interests are as wide as his collection: Ancients to Dark ages (25/28mm) using WAB 2.0 or Clash of Empires (COE), 15mm for TYW, ECW, and ACW. Horse and Musket period well covered with WSS & some SYW (25mm), French Revolution to late Napoleonic wars (25/28mm), Other favorite periods are WWI (Wings of War 1/144th), WWII 20mm or 1/72nd using core FOW 3rd ed rules, and finally, a collection of 1/3000 modern naval.
Michael maintains his own warren of gaming stories on his blog