The Kit

Tamiya’s French Light Tank R35 is a new tooled kit of the pre-World War II tank. By the 1930s French military planners could no longer ignore the obsolescence of their masterpiece FT17 tank from late WWI, and work started on a genuine successor to fill the void. One of the answers they came up with was the R35 light tank, which utilized rolled steel lower and three-piece cast upper hull designs and was armed with the short barreled 37mm gun. It was crewed by two. When hostilities with Nazi Germany burst into life in May 1940 the R35 was right in the front line. While it showed its armor was reliable, the 37mm gun was inadequate when it came to take out German armor. The Fall of France in June 1940 meant that production of the R35 was curtailed to approximately 1,600 units.

Meng sure does like to pop up now and then with the unique. This model is a case in point – a model of the single prototype flamethrower jeep developed for the British special services unit referred to as “Popski’s Private Army.” Why this particular concept didn’t take off isn’t really too hard to grasp. Imagine running around behind enemy lines in a completely unarmored vehicle with several gallons of extremely volatile fluids under pressure in tanks at your back. A single stray bullet could really ruin the crew’s entire day, I would think. The only effective way to survive a patrol in this contraption would be with the sincere hope that you have the element of surprise. Otherwise . . .

Meng has made a terrific little kit here of this one-off machine. The only non-styrene addition is the flexible tubing meant to attach the flamethrower gun to the fluid tank. Otherwise this is an extremely straight-forward and enjoyable single evening build.

In the Box

Instructions

The instruction booklet was divided into 18 pages of clearly marked parts. The instructions contained 38 separate steps to complete the model. At the end of the instruction booklet there were painting and decal application illustrations.

Sprues

Contained in the box were 19 different model part sprues molded in olive green. Also contained in the kit, 8 rubber tires and a thread type tow cable.

Photo Etch

Two sheets of PE are included with the kit.

Clear Plastic

There were two clear sprues of parts for the kit, they were for light lenses and view ports on the top of the vehicle body.

Decal Sheet

The sheet was sparse with vehicle id numbers and stencils. The vehicle had very few areas for the application of decals. Application of the decals went easily, and the carrier film was not very thick.

This book is volume 5 in a series of books containing pictures of the Sturmgeschutz in action and specifications for assault tank. Book has both English and Hungarian text.

I found the pictures in this book to be fascinating and show many of the variants of this very versatile AFV.

Many of these pictures have never been published before and I have seen a lot and yet I had no recollection of seeing any of these before.

I recommend this book to everyone with an interest in the Stug and a must for modellers.

Thanks go to Casemate Publishing for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Blitzkrieg and Beyond
• Photograph Sources
• Chapter One: Hotchkiss
• Chapter Two: Renault 38/40
• Chapter Three: French Heavies
• Chapter Four: Vickers Mk VI and Matilda
• Chapter Five: Churchill
• Chapter Six: Sherman
• Chapter Seven: Panzer I, II and III
• Chapter Eight: Panzer IV
• Chapter Nine: Panther
• Chapter Ten: Tiger I and II

Other related titles in the Images of War series by Anthon Tucker-Jones

This fine book is yet another in Pen and Sword Military Images of War series of publications. In this book, Mr. Tucker-Jones traces the use and deployment of both Allied and Axis armor through the wrecks left on the battlefields of Europe. The author has previously published over thirty books covering a variety of issues.