The Matilda tank was the best tank the British could field in the start of World War II. Numbers of the Matilda were limited in the battle of France in the spring of 1940, but the Matilda came into it's right in the early Desert War, were its superb armour made it almost invulnerable for its Italian and German opponents, and its small 2-pounder gun was sufficient to deal with most enemy tanks at normal combat distances. Here is were it deserved it's nickname 'Queen of the Desert'. From the second half of 1941 the Matilda was gradually replaced by its successor, the Valentine tank.
The kitThis is another nice old Airfix kit, first issued in 1973 in a so-called plastic blisterpack. My box is re-issue from 1997, but still with the old original box-art:
And what's in the box?
Well, not so much. A few small sprues. It was quite a small tank, and Airfix did not succeed to fill it's standard size box with it.
Typical old Airfix: some sloppy looking sprues, roughly broken from the central injection point. But the kit is complete and undamaged. A bit of flash, some sink holes and some ejector pin marks, so some cleaning up is needed. But that is what you expect with these old kits. And of course the old and horrible plastic band tracks. But I do not expect too many [problems with these as they will be largely hidden under armour.
A small decalsheet for one desert version in the interesting Caunter camouflage scheme.
There are not a lot of decent reviews of tis kit, but it appears to be a reasonable accurate model.
So, let's start!