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Hungarian Light Tank 43M Toldi III (C40) HobbyBoss 1:35 History The Swedish Landsverk L-60 was licensed in 1938, bought MÁVAG and Ganz factory plants. On paper, the new model the armour was slightly decreased to allow a greater supply of ammunition, and agility. On 17, august, 1937, the V-4 was tested with an all-Hungarian Armament. At that time, the Hungarian armies most likely enemy was Czechoslovakia, and it needed relatively light tanks to cope with the Czech designs. The Swedish Landsverk tests in Hungary showed a need to redesign some of the internal fittings within the turret and add enhanced shock absorption. The turret was to be originally fitted with a 25 mm Bofors but the project had to be dropped when faced with pre-production and supply problems. So the well-proven 36M type 20mm infantry gun was chosen instead. It was made more compact and was already in large supplies. The turret electric rotary engine had shown that it had to always be switched on, as it was found to have a tendency to switch itself off. Considerable attention was paid to speed, but also agility, as the final goal was to perform a complete turn of 360 degrees in around a 8m radius. This was achieved by a fitting a revised five-speed gearbox and advanced steering. Each cranked axle control arm consisted of a double road wheels connected to a common hub. The first and fourth swing arm was fitted with spring shock absorbers. The chain tensioner for the return roller springs pulled the tracks up and they each had a separate cranked swing arm. During the early phase of World War two the tanks were used in Yugoslavia and later during the early phase of the summer campaign against the Soviet Union, the Toldi showed it had excellent qualities. When faced with the Russian T-26 and BA-10 vehicles it could just about cope, but when the later T34 and KV-1 tanks appeared the 20mm gun was shown to be completely ineffectual against their armour. From 1942 onwards, despite the arrival of the Toldi II, the Hungarian infantry had to continue fighting a growing number of these Soviet tanks with the same increasingly ineffective anti-tank weapon, which led to proposals or a redesign of the tanks. The Toldi II had its frontal armour increased to 30mm but was nearly identical in many aspects to the Toldi I, even so, 110 were manufactured. Later on, the Toldi IIa was introduced, mounting a 37M 40mm (licensed Bofors), L/25 anti-tank gun, whose longer calibre offered increased accuracy and muzzle velocity, which considerably enhanced their antitank capabilities. The tanks were further modernized in 1942, but the expected full upgrade never came about and instead consisted of replacing the 37M by the 42M main gun. From the beginning of 1942 up until April 1943, 80 Toldi II were upgraded as Toldi IIa. The next upgrade was taken to produce the next generation Toldi III, with thicker armour (40mm glacis and mantle) and the introduction of spaced armour. However, due to the deteriorating industrial conditions (and allied bombings), production came to a standstill and only 12 of the new 43M were delivered. The Model The kit comes in a sturdy top opening box with a depiction of two Toldi IIIs charging into battle. Inside there are 5 sprues and 2 separate hull pieces in a sandy coloured styrene and eleven sprues of brown styrene. There is also a small etched brass sheet and a small decal sheet. All the parts are well moulded with no signs of flash, but there are a number of moulding pips. Detail appears pretty good and they match well with photographs of the surviving example at Kubinka. Dry fitting of the two hull parts produced a very positive click and showed little in the way of gaps that would need to be filled. The instructions are nice and clear and pretty precise with parts placement. Construction begins with the two sprocket and rear idler wheels, each made up of inner and outer rims. With the sprockets having an extra space on the outer face fitted. The lower hull is then fitted out with the lower front glacis plate and the mountings for the road wheel torsion bars, bump stops and the return roller axles. The torsion bars, three piece return rollers, and the sprocket wheel axle plates are then fitted, followed by the sprocket, idler and road wheels. At this point the most taxing part of the build is building up the individual links to make up tracks, although the instructions do have a very clear diagram to guide the modeller. Patience is the name of the game here to get the tracks looking natural given the fact that there are 125 links per side. They also look very fragile and are held onto the sprue at three points, so great care will be needed to remove them. The two exhaust silencers and their pipe work are then fitted to the rear bulkhead, which is then attached to the rear of the lower hull. Meanwhile, on the upper hull the three intake parts are fitted to the inside of the hull, followed by the side fenders and their PE support brackets, six per side. On each of the rear fenders a storage box assembly is attached whilst at the front the drivers hatch is fitted. Several hand holds, a hand rail, headlight guards and rear engine vents are fitted into place. The upper hull is then attached to the lower hull. The turret is made up of upper and lower halves which, when glued together are fitted with the trunnion mount and mantle. The commanders cupola is fitted with several vision blocks before being fitted with the hatch cover and the assembly attached to the top of the turret. Around the sides there are three vision block hatches which need to be fitted and on top there is an aerial base. The single piece main gun has been slide moulded giving a good representation of the muzzle opening and not a seam in sight. The co-axial machine gun is also fitted at this point. Finally a turret vent, a four lifting hooks, one on each corner and a pair of PE mantle lifting eyes are fitted. The turret can then be fitted to the hull, completing the build. Decals The small decal sheet provides identification markings and national markings for just one vehicle, which unfortunately doesn’t have any information on which unit operated the vehicle. The decals are well printed and have minimal carrier film and are of good density. Fortunately the areas the decals are positioned are fairly flat so they should settle down well. Conclusion This is another super little kit of a little known tank which looks like it will be a fairly fun build, perhaps with the exception the small individual track links, which may add some consternation. Otherwise I think that with the three colour paint scheme it will be a striking looking model in the display cabinet. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of