Hey guys
I'm new to this forum, this is my first post here. I mostly make aircraft kits in 1/48 and I'm a newbie in armor.
Lately I've been reading a lot about Italian WWII armor and decided to make a series of a few tanks..

First in line is this couple of Semoventi. The M40 75/18 by Italeri and M41 by Tamyia. Both kits have flaws so I corrected quite a lot of them but of course not all.

Italeri is nicer IMHO but I replaced the rubber tracks with Tamiya ones, did quite a lot on interior and trimmed the mud guards to make it like M40 - M40's were based on M13/40, M41 is based on M14/41 chassis.
Tamiya has some nicer details but the biggest problems is that the undercarriage and wheels are static. I made those moveable cause I replaced the tracks with Friulmodel ones so it would be silly not to do it. Also I replaced the gun with excellent RB models 75mm L18 barrel.

OK enough talking, here are the pics.













Thanks for watching...

Bloody fantastic works Vasko! Thats cool ya made the tracks and suspension workable.....Very nice, well done!

Thanks Gary. I'm glad you like 'em.

Making the suspension workable is a build in itself. Beautiful work! My only suggestion would be to replace the sandbags. They don't sit right, on the hull. Keep 'em coming.

Thanks for your comment Matt. I agree those OOB sandbags are off...

Hi Vasko,
I am an officer of the Italian Army, by a few days in the reserve, and I'm a commander of tank's units.
Many congratulations for the great job you did. If you want to make it even more realistic and mobile carts of the suspension, in addition to making mobile the supports trolleys attached to the hull, you must replace with small metal pins those of the supports that bears all pairs of the bearing rollers.
I made this on the models of my tanks and I assure you it is not very difficult. In this manner, you will have the total mobility of the running train with a great realism.
It would also need to replace the rear track idler, which is was made wrong as Italeri that Tamija but to do this need to do it in metal, as it's necessary to resist a large stress due to the tension and weight of the tracks.
Even this I have done, but I've already built and mounted my pieces, so it is very difficult for me to see them clearly to you.
I hope however to have been of help to you.
Bravo!!!
Best wishes - Gianfranco

NICE build! Looks quite interesting and the paint job is a pleasing and authentic-looking scheme. The Tamiya kit of this vehicle - the first release thereof, way back ca 1970 - was my first ever 1/35 armor build, followed by its tank brother (also Tamiya kit)! I still have the tank, but the semo vanished into some move or something way back Nice to see this rather old subject bouncing around in new builds! Your iteration of these old ladies looks superb in most respects!

The tracks are much better when done in links - any links, metal or resin or even styrene (if there are any) - than the kit rubberbands (ugh ). You added a lot by adding those Fruilies!

A couple of things: Yeah, as noted by others, the kit sandbags are, well, "off"! Actually, they look almost like over-full grain sacks! Maybe what a bag of popcorn would look like! IF you replace them with almost anything looking more like a heavy, saggy, form-fitting bag of sand, it would make a LOT of difference to your otherwise nice presentation!

This being the "constructive feedback forum": The BIGGEST "gaff" (and I'll not mince words, here) I see here is on those suspension unit (bogies?) springs... They are, alas, highly visible on this vehicle and in your build - and you left the very visible (and admittedly hard to remove, but...) mold-seams on those spring-leaves. Almost nothing in an armor build leaves it looking more like a "model" than these seams. (BTY, yes, it IS hard to really get those cleaned up, and much more so when on the build... seam / mold lines are the bane of plastic modelling, IMHO! But they are kind of OK when on the rubber ires, as we've learned that the real tires of many vehicles actually did have seams around them. BUT NEVER flat rolled-steel spring leaves!). You may be able to hide this by applying some mud and dirt build-up on the top surfaces of those springs?

That little detail aside, I think your semo is super-cool and makes me once again think about getting one and seeing what it is like as a build project!

Thank You! for sharing this!

Bob

Hi Vasko and Bob,
if you want to increase the realism of the bogies of your models of Italian Tanks of WWII, you can also use the bogies in resin produced by the italian Brach Model. They are excellent (I own took a cue from these to modify my bogies).
Here's the link to the product page:
http://www.brachmodel.it/cataloghi.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=garden_flypage.tpl&product_id=55&category_id=1
In addition, this is one of the M13/40 made by a member of our association, published in the Gallery of our site.
http://www.masterminiatures.it/gal/m13-40.php
Cheers - Gianfranco

Salute! Excellent work! I want to try your modification.

fantastic builds! great job!

Welcome to the forum!

Nice introduction. Yes, Italian armor and aircraft have a specific appeal. Long time I planned to build a Semovente or Autoblinda, but I never got thru. I still have the hope.
Beautiful builds! Congratulations!

Cheers!
Gabriel