Adie Roberts takes a look at the Panhard 178 AMD-35 World War 2 French Armoured Vehicle from ICM in 1/35th scale.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hi,
I've just finished this fancy car, and it is really a very good modell-kit! The fit is with 98% of the parts excellent, only some little places need a bit putty.
The instruction is fine but misses the exhaust comletely:
Don't worry, the parts are in the box and it is obvious what they are for.

So I recommend this kit!!
Cheers,
Steffen ( with a very rosty english )

Hello, guys.

I have built a couple of kits from ICM. The level of detail is amazing and the fit is very good. Sometimes difficult to read instructions. Because of thir kits design, one have to plan well ahead and to dry fit frequently. Otherwise, they are superb kits OOB.

This looks to be a very fine model. It also contains all the parts needed to make a later Panhard 178 (Mushroom vent commanders hatch, extended exhaust silencer and Gundlach periscopes). For some of the earlier Panhard 178s which this one represents the hooks on the wheels need to be removed. The only area that could be improved are the paint schemes. The red background on the 6th Cuirassiers card emblems is questionable and the colour scheme on the first example was a two tone green affair with black lining. Good sources for information are Pascal Danjou's works, Stephan Bonnards 'Premier DLM au Combat' (watch the profiles though - the emblems are correct but colours aren't) and Chars Francais website.

Never can have enough French kits, thank you ICM

Sign me up! I am a fan of 1940 French AFVs. The Panhard was perhaps the best on the field at the time.

Now that I just completed the Azimut resin AML 90 in 1/35 (no paint yet), watch ICM come out with one...lol. Happens every time!

I humbly wish to pick a few nits with this kit. While it does have some things going for it, including some interior, good detail in places, and fundamentally good fit, I had a few issues.

Oops, wrong button. Issues; 1) low parts count, if that matters, 2) no clear parts so hatch and port detail reflects this, 3) no PE, and last and hardest to understand, 4) the axles did not connect to the center of the wheels (is this even possible?). So while I enjoyed the build, I don't plan on any more ICM kits, especially with what else is available.

The axels on the Panhard is offcenter by design, not sure why but that is how the real vehicle was built.

If you take a pair of wheels with an off center axle and roll them, the height of the axle will change. Therefore, if the axle is fixed, the amount of the wheel below the axle should change when rolled. How is this possible, especially given the other attached part of the suspension?

Looking at a couple of pictures I could quickly find, the driving shaft enters the back of the hub below center and there is additional suspension mounting above center. By description alone it sounds like ICM's kit is correct.

This would work (. . . supposition . . .) if the hub contained the final drive gearing. The inner face of the hub is fixed while the part the wheel and tire are attached to rotates.

KL

Google portal axles. Many vehicles, like Unimog and Volvo C303,
use them.

HTH
Heinrich

I remember that the old Alby kit of the Panhard had this aswell.

Well, I looked up portal axles which involve reduction gear boxes, which I suspected. The first VW buses used them as well.