Schneider CA1

This is my other French heavy tank, to go with the St Chamond, and historically pre-dated it. Affordable 20mm kits of this are also in extremely short supply (or they were when I looked, perhaps Lancer do a resin one of these now too?). In the end I found a template for one on a card modelling site. I'd never built a card model before, although I have done plenty of scratch building in plasticard, and I've made buildings and other structures out of card.

The finished article, unfortunately despite filling in with paint the scores in the card are very obvious. The rail arrangement at the front echoes the rear rail of the FT-17 and meant this tank was less prone to getting completely stuck than the St Chamond, but it still had poor trench crossing ability.

There are a lot of complex shapes, which is partly why it was so hard to build. The short 75mm gun is a piece of sprue, but the Hotchkiss MGs are card.

The Renault style rear trails very obvious here. Unditching beams mounted on the sides.

I can't say I would be willing to repeat the experience, it took me over a week to cut out all the  bits and assemble them into something passable, and given the time invested I'd have been better off shelling out 40 quid for one of the metal and etched brass models. It doesn't look too bad though, and is certainly very light to carry!