Santa Tank complete

Job done - I'm ready for the festive season.

It's difficult to fault the Meng kit. Despite the comedy subject, it's an enjoyable build that is pleasantly involving. Taking care to clean up (not much required) and seat all the parts correctly is worth the effort. Some of the components are very small but generally locate well without glue.

If I've been a bit less glue-happy, perhaps the tracks would revolve on both sides, but then I'm not losing sleep over this.

I suspect that there will be some weathering experts out there who will go to town dirtying this model down with both grime and rust. The idea crossed my mind but I was enjoying the build so much, I just wanted to get on with things. Seeing their results will be a pleasure though.

Overall - an excellent and enjoyable build. You could happily point a young modeller at this as a less than serious project and I think they would have as much fun as I did. Model making doesn't always need to be serious and cartoon subjects done well, a challenging job for a designer, add a bit of variety for side projects. I could see many people making them the theme of a collection too.

At 7cm long and 9cm tall with Santa in the turret, the model isn't a big shelf-space hogger and at £17.99, not the most expensive kit in the world either.

A couple more kits from the range are now awaiting building, which tells you all you need to know.

Building the Santa Tank

Blimey, this Meng kit goes together well!

Designed to be pushed together without glue, I can't resist using both cement and solvent to make sure everything stays where it should. Something about building a plastic kit without glue seems fundamentally wrong to me.

Despite the designed ease of construction, it still takes around three reasonably leisurely hours to put everything together. This isn't a simple kit, all the bits you'd find on a real Sherman are present, just a bit cartoony. Then means each handrail and light protector needs to have the connection to the sprue cleaned up, and some of them are very small.

Only the hatch covers proved tricky. I need them to hinge properly so Santa can be lifted in and out, and one of the hinge pins broke. It doesn't seem to make a huge difference, and the big fella is probably going to spend most of his life enjoying the ride anyway.

In theory, the wheels and tracks rotate. Most of mine do except for the outer ones on one side, because I got glue in the wrong place. Never mind, I don't plan on pushing the model around anyway.

One appealing aspect of this model is the colour. For no reason I can understand we have several cans of Humbrol red spray paint, so the choice of colour is simple, red arrows red.

The two halves were propped up on sticks and Blu Tack and sprayed in the garden. I love this paint, it goes on in nice thin coats perfectly. I had thought about some weathering, but the finish is so good I'm going to leave well alone. I'm sure a military modelling expert will go to town on this model and it will look amazing. I'm just having fun.

Santa Tank kit

Silly kit time.

I spotted this Meng World-War Toons Sherman Christmas Edition a few months ago. It ticked me for being so daft, well designed, and also not too expensive. I placed an order and waited - for two months. In mid July the postman delivers, giving me plenty of time to have it ready for the festive season.

The kit finally appeared and it looks great.

Everything is nicely moulded and designed to be assembled without glue. Instructions and transfers are included.

There's even a painting guide for Santa!

The kit sat around for a day calling to me. I know that I really should carry on with some existing projects, but you know what, it feels really decadent to dive into a model as soon as the box arrives, but this one can jump the queue...