Since the weather hasn't been allowing me to paint and continue work on the SiG 33B, decided to keep the drive going and work on Tamiya's Char kit. I'd picked this up from HLJ a couple of months back based on a hot tip from Jim Rae and it's been waiting in the wings since. Decided to combine it with some Lion Marc barrels and Echelon decals but that's as far as I'm going to go with it, even though I know there are other tweaks/inaccuracies that could be dealt with via AM replacements in either resin or PE, because I wouldn't have bought the kit at full MSRP, so it's a "bargain special" of sorts.

The origin.



Beginning with Step 1, the "caterpillar" style of roadwheels is assembled by creating no less than 32 pairs of wheels, 16 to each side, and the cradle they rest on. Fortunately, Tamiya molded these with very small sprue connection points so cleanup was minimal...but it doesn't change the fact that there are indeed 32 of those suckers to deal with...at least they are steel and not rubber rimmed! The wheels are not glued into the cradle, only dry fit, and the instructions explicitly say not to glue them so they remain rotatable.



Step 2 calls for the installation of the wheels and their cradle into the lower hull. Since the wheels aren't glued down, this is a tricky exercise requiring an extra set of hands almost, particluarly since the fit is a tight one. I managed to drop several wheel pairs in the course of doing this, fortunately none went permanently missing. The detail plates for the front and rear are also installed in this step and fit nice and clean.



Step 3 is very simple involving the assembly of the sprocket and idler halves, each of which gets a polycap in the middle. The idlers had a slight seam in the middle that I sanded down out of habit more than anything else as it's highly doubtful it will be seen on the finished vehicle, but better safe than sorry I guess. Don't be tempted to remove the "sink marks" on the iders, they actually belong there and were intentionally molded.



Step 4 deals with the assembly of the 75mm gun and the housing/mount for the right side idler along with the left side idler mount as separate pieces. The Lion Marc set replaces the kit barrel assembly entirely, with a brass piece for the gun mount itself and a turned aluminum barrel complete with rifling. The brass piece identically matches the dimensions of the kit piece and incorporates the polycap onto the elevation arms, a perfect solution given the weight to allow the gun to remain positionable. The socket for the turned aluminum barrel needed a bit of attention with a needle file to get it to fit, but that was minor and little CA gel to secure it was all that was necessary.



Step 5 installes the front idler mounts on both sides into the lower hull plate along with the lower side skirts that cover/protect the roadwheels. The instructions say to paint the lower edges of the skirt in flat brown, I believe because these are actually rubberized canvas (or actually rubber) mud/dust covers, but not 100% sure.



Step 6 installs the inner rubber skirts along with the side access maintenance hatch panels on both sides. What's very ironic to me is that with both skirts installed, the wheels are hidden from view...and are still rotatable but for no real purpose I could see except that they do, in fact, turn.



Step 7 calls for all the holes in the upper hull, molded as a single large piece, to be opened up with a pin vise to allow the skid plates and other details to be installed. Curiously in this step, they do not tell you to open up the two rectangular panes to create the mud chutes, although the areas are clearly molded for removal. I drilled out a series of holes around their perimeter and then cut through with a sharp knife, then sanded the openings with a sanding stick to complete the job.



Step 8 calls for the mud chutes to be installed, be careful with these as they have to go in just right to align properly. They are conveniently labelled L and R to keep track of which side they go on, but you can still turn them around if not careful which side is top/bottom when you install. The rear fenders/mudguards are also installed into the upper hull along with the track skids, the left side radiator housing, the sprocket drive mounts, front lifting hooks, and two of the rear deck access panels among other small details.





Step 9 directs you to remove 6 rivets that are molded on the rear deck, which does require some care given their proximity to other molded on details, but are taken care of with a sharp knife point easily. The sprockets are installed onto their mounts from Step 10 using their polycaps and no glue. The upper and lower hull are then joined together and while the instructions suggest using tape, I found the fit to be snug and only a little bit of finger pressure required to get a good join.



Step 10 constructs the driver's hatch and periscope housing along with the two headlights, one standard, the other auxiliary. Since "Marne" has the auxillary, this required opening up a hole in the front hull plate which is installed in Step 11. No pic taken of this step due to its minor nature.

Step 11 installs the front hull/glacis plate, the driver's hatch, and periscope mount plate to round out the hull armor panels. The fit of the glacis plate wasn't 100% perfect, some liquid glue had to be employed where it joined the lower hull and on the side, but that's all...no putty work will be necessary. I also installed the main blackout headlight with the cover in the closed position, although the option exists to install it open with good detail on the light if you wanted to go that route. The front tow bars and hooks are also installed and fit snugly into their designated places. Last but not least, the 75mm gun mantlet is also installed. Since "Marne" didn't have the pigtail lifting hook, I didn't add that detail but I did drill out the bolt holes top and bottom that would be present for the weather cover for the gun housing with a small drill bit prior to installation. These holes aren't marked or called out for on the kit parts, so I had to check the references carefully. The box art is a close, but not perfect, match of how they should be placed.



To round out the day's activities, Step 12 was completed with the installation of the right side crew hatch, grab handle, and rain/mud shield. The kit parts include a nicely detailed insert for interior detail on this hatch but since no other interior is included in the cavernous space of the hull, I left it on the sprue and just installed the hatch in the closed position.



I have to say that so far this kit has been an absolute joy to build. Total time to get to this point was about 6 hours altogether and there are 9 more steps remaining.

Amazingly speedy build!

Don't forget to clip the solid handles off the two hatches on the engine deck and don't bother replacing them. Adding the small angled channels just in front of the mud chute hole would be nice touch, as would drilling out the small hole in the driver's periscope cover.

David

Bill-- very nice. Keep those pictures and comments coming!
thanks
DJ

You sure a fast worker Bill, havent gotten around to getting one of these yet, have an idea or two in mind for when I do, either gonna go for a German Flammpanzer conversion or attempt the "flocage" camouflage on Fantasque, I shall continue to watch this as with the Sig33B.

DJ, thanks for the comments!

Mark,

I know that there are decals and AM stuff out there to do the beutepanzer conversions, a Flammpanzer Char would be an interesting subject for sure, either that or the converted SPG mounting the 10.5cm LeFH.




David,
Thanks for the tip on the handles, will be sure to deal with them. I've been using the Char Francais site to get more info and as a main reference since I have zero other resources to draw on, I missed the note about the handles. Not sure what you mean though about the small angled channels in front of the mud chute hole? Do you mean topside or on the exit sides? The periscope will be drilled out as well and is on the list of things to do before painting along with correcting the seam on the driver's hood where it meets the glacis at the front and on the left side where it meets the hull and filling in the gap around the gun hood where it meets the bolt plates (thanks to Roy for those tips!).

Thanks for that Bill! Cool model, I hope to build one some day.

Gary

Thanks Gary!

Just a short update today. After getting some helpful advice from David and Roy and checking some reference photos on the Char Francais site about the cast/seams around the driver's hood and 75mm gun mount, I put the putty to work. Also drilled out the opening in the driver's periscope for the peep hole in the armored cover. The putty work is a little tricky due to all the rivet heads but with a little care, the areas were taken care of. Also removed the incorrect solid molded handles on the rear deck access panels and sanded those areas smooth. I found the chute guides that David mentioned in the different photos, now just need to see if I've got some scrap PE that can be fashioned into a passable replication and that detail will also be added.

Hi Bill

Glad to see that you managed to work out what I was blabbering on about with the mud chutes.

Another worthwhile addition is the radio aerial, it took me ages to find a suitablly small piece for the insulator (isolateur on the page of details on chars francais). In the end a resin aerial base from an old Verlinden set fitted the bill. The next challenge was opening up the ends of the channel (goulotte) through which the wire runs to the aerial base to give the correct three-sided box (open at the bottom) appearance.

After that fitting the wire itself was easy

David

Very clear pics and explenation - makes for a good read, keep it up!

James

Another French-language reference site with a lot of photos

B1bis

David

More photos of Saumur's tanks. Ignore the tool stowage, Renault plaque and the tracks stowed on the glacis, they're all German modifications.

Maquette Garden pics

David

Yes indeed, I've seen the Blast Models conversion kit for the Flamm, unfortunately its currently out of stock at my usual source, havent seen any decals tho, would be interested in them for sure. In the Concord book on German units at Arnhem there is some pics and a colour plate of one used around there with some very interesting camouflage.

You can get both of the Echlon decal set from Accurate Armour, this is the one for captured, converted and liberated tanks

Echlon

David

Jamesite, glad you like it so far!




I see what you mean, part B21 is molded as a solid box and needs the bottom surface removed/hollowed out so it's a "frame" cover. I think I can manage that with the Dremel if I'm careful enough...I hope... As for the insulator, I may get creative and try to sculpt something from Apoxysculpt since I don't have anything that looks right in the spares bin. Have to admit I love doing little tweaks like this depending on the build, thanks for pointing that one out. I also need to come up with a way to replicate the vane sight on the 47mm turret, but that is going to be fairly simple enough I think with a base and triangular sheet styrene piece. That and sand down the fender edges when I get to those steps.

Mark,

David's got you covered with the Echelon set. So far as I know, they are the only one's out with a "beutepanzer" set for the Char.

I am planning to build this tank soon. I really would like this one to be be complete replica, as French armor is my personal favorite. Does anybody know if there's resin interior available? Thanks for info.

Junxter,

I haven't heard of an interior being done just yet by any of the AM manufacturers just yet, but i would assume it's only a matter of time given how much of the vehicle can be opened up with the side hatch and turret/driver's areas.

I managed to find a pair of good candidates for the mud chute deflectors on an old Eduard PE fret. They were perfect right down to the curved/angled edge but were too long so had to be trimmed to fit with a pair of side cutters to be flush with the sponson edge. Also sanded down the edge/seam on the left side of the driver's hood as that too should be one piece and not have a join line at least until it meets the glacis plate.



Also did some more putty work on the front hull around the left side tow bracket since that's supposed to be one piece bolted onto the front hull. I wasn't 100% satisfied with the mantlet top hole alignment so I filled in one hole with putty and redrilled it to get it closer (not perfect) to where it needed to be. Also sanded down the missed seam lines on the tow hook swivels and discovered I'd overlooked a rather large sink mark on the underside of the right side tow bar.



I'm going to scrounge around and see if I have a left over x-shaped tightening wheel from either the DML or Tristar Flak 38 kits as the main headlight is supposed to have one of these on the back side of the latch for the blackout light cover.

wbill76,

nice progress, convincing replica. Looking forward to completed work in photo

Keep em coming Bill. This one looks great too. Two questions, how many parts and what are the tracks. Wow thats a lot of little road wheels.

Jim,

Don't know the parts count off the top of my head and am on the road for 2 days, so don't have the instructions in front of me, but the tracks are snap together indy links. I've heard others say it literally only takes 5-10 mins to assemble each track side. They are styrene and molded in a chocolate brown color.

Great work, I can hardly wait to start mine-waiting on barrels and researching the camo pattern. Interesting little things to clean up and such.

Thanks for that David, they also have the MR conversion kit, not to hefty a price either.

About the fun of mounting the cradle carrying the wheels to the hull....

First time I carefully picked the cradle up from underneath with forceps and carefully offered it up to the underside of the hull . Worked but is ridiculously complex.

Last night I realised that propping the cradle up on a strip of 2mm square balsa wood allowed me all the time in the world to drop the lower hull down on it without the danger of spillage. D'oh!

David

LOL!

But isnt the most simple answer the one we think of last? :-) :-) :-)

Inevitably, yes! Because the wheels have to sit in the cradle, just setting the cradle on a normal surface doesn't allow for that, but using a support/prop would do the trick. I actually used the same method David did on his, and the first rack was installed ok, but the second scattered wheels all over the living room...my wife's cat had a ball with that, let me tell you.

Very interesting build, Bill. The tracks do together together easily; I put together sets for both sides in about 20 minuter at meeting of a modelling club where another modeller was moaning about the troubles he was having with the Magic tracks on a Tiger I initial he was building. Every time I got another 5 or 10 links hooked together, I would dangle it where he could see Building this one was a lot of fun, and I got done in 4 hours what I usually futz around doing in a couple of weeks...