The model is great, however it did take quite a long time to ship. It's a little smaller than I had anticipated but it shall nevertheless be an entertaining and exciting model to make a build

A very nice model of a rare WW I tank. Excellent detail and fit.

One of the few WW1 tanks out there, and it made by Tamiya.

Absolute accuracy, flawless engineering. This is one of the finest 1/35 scale kits ever produced by Tamiya, and it sets the benchmark for any other Great War tank kits on the market. It perfectly captures the crude but powerful aura of the early tanks, and with just a bit of imagination it's possible to conjure up a sense of how loud, hot, and dangerous service as a crewman in one of these beasts must have been.

With over 300 parts, not to mention the 170+ tread links, this is NOT a simple model by any means. Assembly is done in 37 separate steps, outlined and detailed in a 16-page instruction booklet, and anyone undertaking a build of this model is well advised to follow the instructions precisely: this is unlike any other tank model you've ever built, so there are none of the usual shortcuts that you can take to speed up the process. Having said that, it's worth noting that the actual assembly process is straightforward and without unnecessary complications. The moldings are flash-free, completely devoid of sink marks or ejector pin imprints, and cast with amazingly sharp detail, especially of bolt heads and rivet heads. Wherever armor plates were butted together on the original tank, a recessed panel line marks the join on the kit, adding futher visual depth to the finished model. Some panels are designed to be removed in order to allow access to the interior of the model; so well-engineered is this kit that unless you know which panels are such, you'll never know they are there.

Now, in one sense, this kit is a throwback to the days of Tamiya in the 1970s, when most of their models were motorized. The Mark IV Male kit is motorized, but whereas back in the bad old days Tamiya would sometimes (OK, often) take liberties with dimensional accuracy in order to accommodate an electric motor, gearbox, and batteries, on the Mark IV Male, no such compromises are made. To begin with, this is a damned big model for 1/35 scale -- at 9 1/2" long, 4 1/2" wide and 4" high, it's "display footprint" is as large as an M1A1 Abrams in the same scale. So there is plenty of room for the motor and drive train. Better yet, because of careful engineering, none of the drive components are visible outside the tank. Even the on/off switch is concealed on the bottom of the vehicle.

Adding a dimension to the motorization are the tracks -- each side made up of 87 separate links that literally snap together. As much attention has been paid to the details of these tracks as to the rest of the kit, with their subtle curves and riveted structure being carefully reproduced. Ultimately the motorization is sort of an added whistle and bell for the kit, as it does nothing to compromise the accuracy of the model.

Bottom line is this: the British Mark IV (Male) Tank is a wonderful model, whether built up solely for display or to take out for the occaisional crawl across the carpet. It's worth every penny spent on the price.

Landship was entertaining to build, unpainted it but it still looks great, and its motorized feature is great in a way that it actually functions almost like the real thing (without steering)/