History

The SOMUA S35 was a French Cavalry tank of the Second World War. Built from 1936 until 1940 to equip the armored divisions of the Cavalry, it was for its time a relatively agile medium-weight tank, superior in armor and armament to its French and foreign competitors, such as the contemporary versions of the German Panzerkampfwagen III. It was constructed from well-sloped, mainly cast, armor sections, that however made it expensive to produce and time-consuming to maintain.

During the German invasion of May 1940, the SOMUA S35 proved itself to be a tactically effective type, but this was negated by the French command's strategic mistakes in deploying the Cavalry armored divisions. After the defeat of France in June 1940, limiting production to a number of about 440, captured SOMUA S35s were used by the Axis powers, some of them on the Eastern Front*.

Ampersand’s website:

Noted military truck historian David Doyle has created an extensive and vivid portrait of these unique trucks. He begins with a detailed description of the truck platforms and designs, giving the reader a basic primer of the trucks prior to modification. This is followed by a lengthy illustrated description of the many weapons systems used, from small arms to the .50-caliber quad. Coverage of the trucks in action follows and is composed of many never before seen photos, many of which are full page in size and in color.

The first section describes military transport vehicles from the 1/4 ton M151, 2 1/2 ton 6 x 6, the 5 ton 6 x 6, and the M37. Each of the vehicle types is described in two or three pages with overall views and detailed photos of the engines. The photos are ‘proving ground’ type shots and in-action photos.

Short History

The Panzerkampfwagen 35(t), commonly shortened to Panzer 35(t) or abbreviated as Pz.Kpfw. 35(t), was a Czechoslovak-designed light tank used mainly by Nazi Germany during World War II. The letter (t) stood for tschechisch (German: "Czech"). In Czechoslovak service, it had the formal designation Lehký tank vzor 35 (Light Tank Model 35), but was commonly referred to as the LT vz. 35 or LT-35. Four hundred and thirty-four were built; of these, the Germans seized two hundred and forty-four when they occupied Bohemia-Moravia in March 1939 and the Slovaks acquired fifty-two when they declared independence from Czechoslovakia at the same time. Others were exported to Bulgaria and Romania.

This is the British decided that they needed a less expensive tank so the Medium Tank Mk. A Whippet was developed. This had a crew of three and was armed with four Hotchkiss machine guns. It first saw battle in March 1918.

The kit contains

• 7 sprues molded in tan styrene
• 1 Main hull
• 3 Sprues of track parts in Black Styrene
• 2 Stings for tow cables
• 1 decal sheet
• 1 instruction booklet.

Construction

The kit is not too complex and assembles in 16 stages which are not to complex.

This kit is a model of a proposed design by the Krupp AG company. The thought was to upgrade the firepower of the Pz IV with the newly designed Panther turret with its 7.5cm KwK L/70 gun. Nothing came from this proposal and the painting schemes are pure conjecture.

This is a multimedia kit comprised of 477+ styrene parts, DS tracks, 1 photo etched parts fret, and much worse set of instructions. They need to be reviewed very carefully before gluing any parts together.