Heller 1/72 Somua French Tank (79875) + + Finished + +

[davecov]

This build will be of the Heller 1/72 Somua French Tank (79875)

 

 

It will be a no-nonsense OOB build with no aftermarket items.

 

That is all for now

 

Dave

[JeroenS]

Nice one Dave, good to see another one of these little tanks appearing in the GB. Good luck with it!

[JOCKNEY]

6 hours ago, davecov said:

It will be a no-nonsense OOB build with no aftermarket items.

Dave

 

Can't remember how many times I've heard that one.....

Good luck Dave

 

Cheers Pat 

[davecov]

We will see, Pat!

 

Before I get down to starting the build, here are some pictures of the box contents first.

 

Parts are moulded in a light sand colour. There was quite a bit of flash on the hull parts but the rest were fine:

 

Decals are crisply printed and in register. Tracks are moulded in a soft black plastic:

 

For such a tiny kit and box, the instruction sheet is enormous. First side shows the construction as a series of exploded diagrams with painting instructions for every part. Paints are also listed on the left side which is useful reminder for us who are prone to senior moments and on the right is a history of the real-life subject:

 

The final stage of construction is on the back along with greyscale painting profiles showing the positioning of decals:

 

The bottom of the box repeats some of the information found on the instruction sheet:

 

All parts were cut from their sprues and cleaned up ready for assembly to start:

 

I used some filler on five parts but to be honest, you can get away without doing the sink holes on the road wheel bogies as they won't be seen. Being a bit OCD, I filled them because I KNOW THEY ARE THERE:

 

Time to get started and assembly was easy and quick:

 

Fitting the hull top was a bit harder to do in one go so I glued the right side first, let that dry and then do the left side (the red line shows the join that still needs glueing):

 

All parts are now ready for painting:

 

That is all for now

 

Dave

[davecov]

A quick report to say that painting has begun.

 

The first coat of H71 Satin Oak was applied but I think it will need at least two more coats:

 

I also painted the parts that needed H30 Dark Green. Coverage of this was much better and daylight will reveal whether a second coat is necessary:

 

I have also given the tracks a coat of black paint as a primer.

 

I wasn't that familiar with the Somua S35 before this build but I like it's quirkiness and would like to build a bigger version one day.

 

That is all for now

 

Dave

[davecov]

More progress this morning.

 

Wheels, return rollers, idlers and (toothless!) sprockets glued to hull, not forgetting to touch up the locating holes for the bogies with H71:

 

Some weathering pastels were applied:

 

Not forgetting the overhang which will be hard to get to later on. The rest of the hull will be weathered after painting is completed:

 

Side panels glued in place and all ready for the painting of the contrasting camouflage:

 

Meanwhile, I have given the tracks a coat of H113 Matt Rust prior to drybrushing Aluminium later on. From my previous experience with painting tracks, I doubt that the H113 will be dry this side of Christmas:

 

That is all for now

 

Dave

[davecov]

More progress to report.

 

I painted the green part of the camouflage using the recommended H30 Dark Green:

 

I then quickly drew around the green with a black pen and a shaky right hand:

 

Using the thinned green paint I lightly brushed over the green camouflage filling in gaps left by my wobbly drawing. It will be left to dry and I will carry on tidying up the black:

 

Although I am approaching the finishing line, I am not too happy with the Oak paintwork. It isn't as bright as the photos in real-life but even so, I am tempted to paint over it. We will see....

 

That is all for now

 

Dave

[davecov]

As I said in my previous post, I wasn't happy with the Oak paintwork. I decided to over-paint it with H94 Brown Yellow.

 

I tried it on the turret first of all to make sure that I would like it:

 

I then painted the rest of the tank:

 

Turret and hull together with a tin of paint alongside showing just how small this tank is:

 

That is all for now.

 

Dave

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Dave

Did you finish this one, it appeared in the pictures from last time you were virtually finished ?

Cheers Pat 

[davecov]

Pat, since taking the photos above, I have finished painting the tracks and given the whole tank a repaint. I still need to re-do the black lines and then I can get down to decalling. However, I have been away from home since before Christmas (apart from one night) and won't return home until the 10th January so I won't be able to make any more progress or give updates until then.

 

Dave

[JOCKNEY]

Thanks Dave

Great to hear from you, and really pleased that your Somua is coming along so well.

That's a long time to be away from home, I'm sure it will be nice to be home and back into a normal routine.

Cheers Pat

[davecov]

Thanks Pat.

 

I should explain that Aileen, my partner of more than seven years and I live in our own houses 60 miles apart! We spend time between each place but I only model when I am in my own home. Each Christmas and New Year is spent at her home, hence why I am away from my modelling bench for so long!

 

Dave

[davecov]

I can finally report more progress.

 

Having repainted the yellow camouflage, I repainted the H30 Dark Green:

 

The tracks were dry-brushed with H56 Aluminium:

 

Exhausts and tracks were fitted. Sadly, the paint on the tracks came off in chunks as I fitted them and I had a bit of work tidying them up. I also applied the decals which were awful. The blue on some of the transfers disintegrated on touching the water:

 

Here you can see where I painted a rough blue spot where the kit decal should have been. The hull has been weathered and given a coat of matt varnish. The turret still needs to be varnished but that will be done once the blue paint is dry:

 

Almost there now but I still need to add an aerial.

 

That is all for now.

 

Dave

[davecov]

Final report now.

 

Although around eighty percent of Somua S35s had no radio during WW2 and despite the fact that the particular machine portrayed in the kit didn't have one either, I decided to knock one up. I punched out some discs of plastic card and these were glued together with small spacers inbetween. I then glued them to a piece of plastic rod:

 

As it turned out, the brass rod was too thick once painted so I replaced it with a thinner piece of rod. Matt varnish was applied where necessary and it is now finished:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave