Wednesday 1 January 2014

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!

8 comments:

  1. Martin
    She is quite the beast! Have you thought about using fine point markers on the score lines? Even black will blend better than the white.
    Fine job on the construction sir.
    Cheers
    PD

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    1. I actually printed it on yellow card in the hope it would blend in. I might try black, but it doesn't look too bad on the table.

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  3. Next to the Schneider even the St.Chamond looks quite professional! I do like your card model though - just keep it out of the rain...

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  4. Very nice bit of building. Early War Miniatures does do one if you ever want a second one.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. Ah, I don't think EWM were around when I was looking for one. One of the reasons I like doing late WW1 in 20mm is that you can get a good look at the goofy vehicles, so perhaps at some point I'll get some more of these.

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