Review - Bolt Action ValentineTank

The Warlord Games Valentine is a great kit. The bulk of it is in four resin components: hull, left track, right track and turret, with additional metal bits and pieces. You get a commander as well. I chose a closed hatch as I intend to use it for both my British and Soviet armies.

The detailing is really crisp and there is little in the way of flash. I had very little cleaning up to do before assembly. Then it was simply a case of washing, spraying olive green, washing with MIG 'black oil' and drybrushing.

The Valentine was the most successful British Tank of World War II, which is all the more surprising when one considers that it was really intended to be just a stop gap. After Dunkirk new tanks were needed quickly and Vickers had a private design 'in hand' based on the mechanics of the A9 and A10 Cruiser tanks.

By WWII standards, the 16 ton Valentine was only a light tank. Marks I to VII were equipped with the 2 pdr anti-tank gun and had a three man turret crew (plus driver). Mks VIII to X shoehorned in a 6 pdr by reducing the turret crew to two and the XI had a 75mm general purpose gun.

The Valentine fought with the British Army in North Africa and was incredibly reliable - some managed 3,000 miles. By 1944 it was considered obsolete by the British and was replaced by the Churchill.

Around 8,000 Valentines were manufactured in Britain and Canada. Around half went to the Soviet Union who requested the production lines be kept open long after it had been phased out from the British Army.

The Red Army valued its reliability, small size, quite transmission, low silhouette and decent anti-tank gun. They seem to have used it as a specialised tank stalker. At close range (and the Valentine could get in close) the 6 pdr could take out any German tank with a side shot.

Soviet tankers used the Valentine from the Battle of Moscow to the final victory in 1945.

Highly Recommended