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!

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

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. 

Gamera,

Thanks for following and your feedback

Oh cool!!! 

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

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

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

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 

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

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 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

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

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

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 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,

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) 

Yeah, I love those! 

I saw a colour profile of 'Le Fantasque' a few years ago and one day I want to get around to trying to do a Char B up in that scheme. 

Gamera,

Hi.  Thanks for the feedback.  The French had some really fascinating pre-war/early war camouflage, but I don't think my painting skills are up to anything too complex.  My favorites though are probably the Char B1 bis tank "Fantasque" and some of their early 6-tone schemes.

PF

Those look really good! I like the looks of the French camo, they're going to look cool in it! 

Hi,

I'm making progress with my Hotchkiss tank and just recieved my tracks for my Renault R35, so I hope to start putting together tracks for both them soon.  I still have to add a few more small details though and then figure out how I want to paint them.

In general for the Hotchkiss I have been thinking about doing a late Battle of France, green and brown scheme like shown below.

(Source Wikipedia)

And for the Renault I was thinking of a three tone scheme maybe similar to these two tanks.

After that, I also went out and bought a 1/35 Tamiya Char B1 model to add to my collection (but it'll be a couple weeks before it gets here 

PF

Hi,

Here is an image of my in-process Hotchkiss tank along side my Renault tanks (that is awaiting final painting, decals and its new tracks).  The black shape to the right is an early French WWII turret with the longer gun, that I 3D printed from a file that I found on the internet.  Unfortunately I think I may have mis-scaled it a bit as it came out noticeably small than the Bronco and Hobby Boss turrets.  I will double check my numbers tomorrow and try and reprint it again, so that I can clean it up for use on the 2nd Renault body that I have.

PF

Hi,

I started my Hotchkiss model yesterday and it is coming along fairly well.  Though, I have to admit that I was a bit surprised by a couple things.  There is nothing at all wrong with the kit though 

• the instructions seem kind of vague in some areas
• the plastic is kind of soft and a bit flexible (and reminds me a bit of the plastic on my Emhar WWI kits)
• there are some noticeable ejector pin marks, though Bronco appears to have made an effort to put them on surfaces that shouldn't really show 
• the track pieces are extremely small and I am having alot of difficulty trying to connect the links 
• there are one or two pieces that really confuse me

Overall though, I'm not unhappy with the kit at all, but at times have either been scratching my head on whether I am putting some of the parts together correctly, or left wondering "why did they do something the way they did".  

PF

Hi,

I agree.  Some of the interwar and early war planes, tanks and other equipment are really fascinating but often get overlooked.  I am really looking forward to building the Hotchkiss tank, since it has a lot of the interior modeled.  Its always been of interest to me to be able to look inside the "shell" of a plane, tank, or car, etc and get a little better understanding of what is inside.  I'm kind of glad though that I started with the Renault models first, since they are fairly easy kits, in order to help me build up my nerve to try and tackle a more detailed one.

It is odd how all three companies appear to have assumed a slightly different distance for the turret ring though.

PF

Now that's interesting, funny how three companies all have different measurements. I'd love to try to measure the real deal and see which is closest. 

Would love to see you build that H39, looks like a nice kit. The early war Frence stuff doesn't get enough love.  

Hi,

I just recieved a 1/35 Bronco Hotchkiss H39 tank that I was able to get for a (hopefully) good price off eBay. 

I'm really excited to get this kit, as it comes with interior details such as the driver's seat and controls, the engine, and other drive train components.

As I understand it the H39 Hotchkiss tank was an update to an earlier H35 tank that was initially designed to the same spec as the Renault R35 tank, so that they have alot in common.  I believe that a couple of the main differences between the H39 and H35 Hotchkiss tanks were differences in the engine and the fitting of a longer calibre 37mm gun.  However, I believe that the H39, H35 and R35 tanks were all designed to fit the same turret, and as such I believe that they should have the same turret ring diameter (though I'm not 100% certain).

As such I went ahead and laid the Hotchkiss and Renault turrets side by side, and upper parts do look as near identical s I can see, as shown below.  (Sorry its a little fuzzy, my phone isn't so great with close ups).

Interestingly though, when I compare the turret ring diameter of the Hobby Boss turret to the Bronco turret I find that I can "just fit" the Hobby Boss ring into the Bronco ring, as shown below.

Here the gray parts are from the Bronco H39 model and the beige turret is the Hobby Boss turret.  As shown above I can fit the turret ring of the beige turret just within the turret ring of the gray bottom part of the Hotchkiss turret.

As such, it kind of looks like Heller, Hobby Boss, and Bronco may have all used slightly different assumed diameters for their turrets. 

PF

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the feedback.  Here is a picture of my build with the adapter ring fitted.

It may be a little hard to see since I printed it in black, but since my black filament is almost used up right now, I figured it didn't make sense to change it out for just this print.  If you click on the image you can see it more closely.

Anyway, in looking up stuff on the Hobby Boss kit on the internet I see that they kind of model the ring as having an outer larger diameter and a smaller inner diameter, as shown below.  As such, I am left wondering if Heller just made there connection match the outer radius while Hobby Boss made their turret match the inner ring radius.

PF

Those look great PF! 

I have not built the Heller R35 but I did build their Somua S35 years ago and it did have the 'rubber band' type tracks. Interesting that the Heller and Hobby Boss kit should be that different. Maybe the HB one is based on newer data? Seems odd to me though that a French company like Heller couldn't just measure the size of the turret ring right off a R35 in a French museum though. 

In any case your results look really good! 

Hi,

I still have to add the machine guns and do a few more paint details, but my 1/72 scale French WWI Schneider tank is almost complete 

PF

[The Schneider is the one in the center of the front row]

It's such a broad subject that it goes way beyond what models are available, when one considers combat effective hardware in time and place.

The ruling units in war were always artillery, after about the American Civil War.

Certainly in WW1 artillery on land controlled the battlefield, and at sea it was respected for it's relative and destructive power.

Tanks certainly played a role in WW 2 on the ETO, not existent in the PTO.

 But other more understood tactics and technology controlled the outcome.

The point I am making is that the interwar arms technology was primarily artillery and aircraft. 

In the navies, aircraft carriers, not gun ships.

Consider the development of artillery in the interwar period, whether on land or at sea, as a major modeling subject.