Trying modelism again

A small story about modelism and French WW2 tank. It is as much a story as a simple trace of the process of producing the model presented in this article.

Return to my roots

I think my appeal for modelism — simply put, painting minis — is one of the many things I inherited from my father.

As far as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by these recreations of war or everyday life scenes. I started gluing and “paiting” some WW2 planes before I was ten. These were not what I would call successes, but it was a blast simply to try. It was also way too fragile for a child liking to break things apart.

Soon enough, and with some friends, I discovered the dark and heavy world of Warhammer 40000… I spent years going through cycles of frenetically assembling and painting only to stop and going at it again later. Each time I improved a bit on my “technique” without attaining an excellent level. That said, I'm quite satisfied with the result of my latest try.

To this day, I'm stuck with a big box of painted and unpainted minis from Games Workshop. I'm also stuck with this urge to paint something from time to time.

Yeah, I could simply pick some of these and paint them but this Sci-Fi world is not appealing to me anymore as it used to be. I'm more into the historical side of things now.

Finding an excuse to buy a new model

With Christmas approaching, gifts were bought and packed. Among them, I thought it would be cool if I bought a tank model for my father.

Coming back home I was wondering if it was in fact a good idea… I may be more patient than my dad when it comes to these practices.

I then decided that I would graciously assemble and paint the tank and offer it as is. Yeah, yeah, I know, very generous and not a gift to myself at all!

About the model

I settled on a French Somua S35 tank at 1/35 scale produced by Tamiya. This should provide a lot of details and have an acceptable size : not to small, not to big.

For the historical bits, the Somua S35 was a medium tank produced by France between 1936 and 1940. It was an excellent tank providing speed, maneuverability, protection!

The hull was made of cast steel which enhanced durability and prevented bolts and rivets to fly everywhere inside on heavy impact. This phenomenon observed on other tanks of this era could make huge damages to the crew.

One of its main weaknesses, other than the quantity produced that wouldn't meet the army's need at the time, was that it was a one-person turret. This meant that the commander had to handle commanding, loading, and firing at the same time. Demographics can partly explain this design choice as France was less populated than Germany at the time: fewer people to man those tanks.

Some pictures of the build process

It begins with the bottom part of the tank.

Once the main part assembled, it's time to add the tracks.

These sets of tracks are each composed of 102 chain links. That's a lot of microscopic parts to assemble…

The hull is done.

Tools are adding a nice level of details.

Some other details are added.

The turret is now assembled.

The tank commander is ready to hop in the turret.

This tank needs some optics!

Tank is fully assembled!

Paiting time!

Tamiya provides a really nice painting guide in the box. I choose to reproduce the camo of the Somua S35 No. 20 of the 4th Reg. de Cuirassiers.

Impossible to paint correctly without a light subcoating.

After two successive coats, my paint is finally covering enough.

Decals

I must say I was apprehending this step a lot as I remembered childhood “traumas” when my decals were almost systematically torn while trying to apply them. I don't know if decals improved with time or if I simply am more precise and focused now.

I'm pretty okay with this!

Final result

In order to age the appearance of this tank and make it look less pristine, I used a contrast paint on its entirerity.

That's all! It is certainly not a piece of art, but I hope my father will like it as is.