Hi,

I've added some brown patches and then gave it all a light "mud" wash, to see if that would darken the colors a little.  After this I'm going to give the upper parts a coat of clear gloss/Future and apply the decals.  Then all I have to do is add the tread, give it a dull coat and do a little more weathering.

I'm kind of nervous i that I chose not to add the treads during the build, as was suggested in the instructions, since I didn't want them on while I did the main painting and camouflage.  However, I have been having trouble with putting the tread links together and in some other builds of this kit that I have seen on the internet those builders have noted that they had had difficulty trying to attached the treads at the end of the build.  So, that has me a bit nervous.

PF

PS.  The black items to the right are turrets that I have tried to 3D print.  The upper one was supposed to be similar to the turret on my green and brown build, but I accidentally mis-scaled it.  The black and white one (bottom right) is actually a slightly larger turret from a 3D Char D1 model that I found on the internet.  It had a slight glitch when I printed it out, som I added some puttty.  If it cleans up well enough, I hope to print out most the other parts to the Char D1 tank to add to my French Tank collection (since its a tank that I haven't found kitted in 1/35 scale yet) 

Looks cool! 

I always add the threads last. But the links here would be tiny. On my Hobbyboss T-26 the threads were about the same size. I added them before painting and then hosed them, the running gear, and the whole lower hull with mud coloured paint. 

Hi,

Here is where I am right now.  I hope to start adding decals soon. 

For the lighter colored (Renault R35) tank I tried to loosely model the paint job off the image below.

PF

Looks good! Looking forward to seeing all weathered up and finished. 

Hi,

Here are a couple in process images.  I still need to try and put the tracks together 

Pat

PS. I think the last one may have been before I put the flat coat on. 

Pat

Hi,

I just picked up a track alignment tool, so I'm hoping to try and see if I can get the treads done up soon.

Pat

Cool, love the camo! 

And good luck with the alignment tool. Never tried one but hopefully it will help on those awful teeny tiny track links. 

Hi,

I'm hoping it will.  I tried to put a couple links together by hand and they were so small that I had no luck.  Unfortunately now I can't find two of them .  Hopefully they will turn up, or hopefully maybe they provided a few extra in the kit

Pat

Hi,

Although I'm trying to cut back on my purchases I stumbled across a lot of two Heller Tank kits on eBay that were discounted because the boxes were water damaged (though most everything else was still sealed in bags and fine). 

Since one of these was a Somua35 I decided to pick it up.  The other kit is a Heller Hotchkiss H35, but it has the parts for either a H35 or an H39.  Since I am finishing up my current Hobby Boss H39 build I figure I can do this new kit as an H35 and save the spare main gan for my spare R35 hull.

The other potentially good thing is that if I have any trouble with fitting the multi-link treads from my Hobby Boss kit to the nearly complete hull, I can maybe instead use the soft rubber "one-piece" tracks from the Heller kit on my current build, and save the multi-link tracks for the later build.

In general I wouldlike to keep the Hobby Boss treads on the Hobby Boss kit, but since I waited til near the end of the builf to try and fit them, and since space is kind of tight between the fenders, drive wheels, idlers and eeturn wheels, I thinking that it may be a bit easier to try and thread a one-piece track into place then ti try and do that with the built up multi-link one.  And since I now have a new Hotchkiss tank in my stash, I'm hoping that maybe I can be a bit smarter the 2nd time around and try and fir the built up treads a little earlier in the build, before all the fenders and such are in the way 

Sounds good!!! Nice find, as long as you replace the decals I'd guess water damage shouldn't be a big problem. 

Hi,

I more or less finished up my Hobby Boss Hotchkiss tank today.  I went ahead and used the one-piece Heller tracks on this kit, since they appeared to be a bit easier to install on the mostly completed build.  All I have left is to try and weather the tracks and touch up the paint in a couple spots, and maybe give it another layer of flat clear paint to try and take some of the shine off it.  Next I hope to try and finsih up my Renault tank and Mini-Space Shuttle for the Race into Space group build. 

Although I'm not a great builder, and am still learning alot, I had a lot of fun on this build and learned alot. 

Pat

Oh cool!!! 

Does look shiney in the photos, an extra coat of matte sounds good. 

Gamera,

Thanks for following and your feedback

Thanks for letting us follow along. As much as I like Shermans, T-34s, and Panthers it's always nice to see something a little different for a change. 

Hi,

Although I have some interest in armor, due to my job, until fairly recently I had only built a very few armor kits.  Instead my model building interests always seemed to be more ships and planes, with a few car models thrown in.  However recently, I have kind of caught an "armor building bug" at least with respect to the WWI through to early WWII eras go.

Because of this I have become fascinated with French tanks (as well as Polish and Swedish ones too).  I guess maybe this is in part because they seem a bit different than the typical IK, German, US and USSR tanks from later in WWII.

In reading about French tanks though it seems like although in general they had similar ideas to other countries at the time in some aspects some of their ideas were just a "little" different from what other countries ended up doing.  In particular their Char 2c and Char B1 seemed kind of unique as did their planned Char G1 and F1 (in particular).

Pat

Char 2c

Char B1 bis

Char G1 Concepts

Char F1 Concept

The French had some pretty darn cool ideas. I would have loved to seen what they'd come up with if they hadn't been knocked out of the war so soon.

I love the AMX-40. Such a cool looking vehicle!