Australian Military Vehicles Review

Following initial combat engagements with Japanese forces in the South-West Pacific area of operations during the Second World War, the Australian army recognised a need for a tank-mounted flamethrower to help destroy the Japanese fortifications that its troops were likely to encounter in the future. The tank chosen for this conversion was the Matilda - in all some 20 tanks were converted in this fashion (codenamed "Frog"), a small number of which seeing action on Tarakan and Balikpapan with the 2/1^st Armd Bde Recce Squadron in 1945.

MR Models of Germany have released a fine Australian Matilda Frog conversion set (MRA-35146) for the Tamiya Matilda II kit (no.35024), consisting of 25 resin parts, two turned aluminium pieces to depict the flame gun barrel and separate muzzle counterweight, and a further 35 parts cast in white metal. This kit supplies many of the features seen on the later Australian Matildas, including idler guards, tank-infantry telephone box, low commander's cupola, POL tin carriers, and turret ring protectors.

  The casting quality of the resin and white metal parts is very high indeed. This is particularly evident around the new resin turret with some fine moulding to produce the "splash protectors" around the gunner's periscope, a lovely rendition of the sunken screw heads that hold the circular turret roof plate in place, and a subtle cast texture. Very few air bubbles could be seen in my kit - the only examples being on the edges of the front sections of the turret ring protector and in the rearmost edges of the gun mount (these would be covered following the placement of the kit mantlet).

One point to note is that, in comparison with the real thing, the raised pyramidal edges on the upper surface of the loader's hatch flap appear to be a little too sharp (see photo below) - a gentle "once over" with a piece of fine sandpaper would help give a more rounded appearance. Otherwise, all that needs to be added is a diagonal lifting handle.

Actual loader's hatch flap

In an interesting move. MR Models have depicted the circular turret roof plate as being slightly raised above the level of the sides of the turret. While this may well be accurate for some specific Matildas (given that these vehicles were, in effect, "hand made"), on all of the vehicles that I have examined this roof plate was flush with the turret sides. You may decide to do something about this feature (Steve Zaloga did an excellent job in fixing the Tamiya turret in his Military Modelling [Vol30 No.121] BEF Matilda article) - personally, I don't think I'll bother. Unfortunately the commander's cupola is moulded in place, with the hatch flaps fixed in the fore-aft position, but again this isn't a major problem. The hatch flaps are nicely cast, with detail both inside and out (including hydraulic rams) - the only thing needed are lifting hooks on the cupola sides.

  MR Models turret 

One area of this kit that you might consider improving is the muzzle counterweight of the flame gun - MR have depicted this with a solid piece of turned aluminium, whereas the actual counterweight is somewhat more complicated (note the slots in the photo below).

  Actual Frog muzzle brake

I would heartily recommend this conversion set to anyone with even a fleeting interest in the Matilda tank, let alone those interested in Australian military vehicles. While not a particularly cheap kit, given today's relatively poor $A exchange rates, it is one of the best looking conversion sets that it has ever been my pleasure to buy - I am definitely looking forward to building this one! And, who knows - I might even buy MR Models' other Aussie Matilda sets too…

MR Models have also released an Australian Matilda CS conversion (MRA-35147), an Australian Matilda 2pdr gun tank conversion (MRA-35148), a Matilda turret set (MRA-35149), and CS howitzer and mantlet (MRA-35150). MR Models conversion sets are available direct from the manufacturer (http://www.mrmodellbau.de/e/index.html), or from the Armour Distribution wing of Accurate Armour (http://www.accurate-armour.com/armourdist.cfm?CFID=35636&CFTOKEN=13184661&navlevel=1).