Here are shots of a Semovente L6 I am guilding for the desert group build and a Universal carrier I have been converting to a captured one that was upgunned. Both are in progress and 1/35 scale.
Semovente
The Beute Carrier, modified in North Africa with a Hotchkiss 25mm ATG mounted in the bow. This is based upon a single photo I have.
Mike T.
Awesome looking builds Mike are these scratch build convertions or is there a kit? i like them both especially the universal carrier [tup]
I like them, very quirky. It looks as though you’re doing a ton of scratching. Keep us posted.
Biffa and Tigerman thanks for your comments. The Semovente is from Criel Models and is a resin kit. I was lucky and won it on eBay at half its listed price ($60). Its an easy build straight OOB but there isn’t much reference material on it. I did add some instrument dial decals to the panel. One experiment on it is the use of the Sophisticated Finishes two part Rust Antiquing Set. It gives an uneven color of the rust which looks better. I found it at Michael’s, but I saw a reference to it earlier in another thread.
The Universal Carrier is the old Tamiya kit with the Heller 25mm Hotchkiss ATG. The Eduard Universal Carrier PE set was used for what I needed. Some scratch building was employed for the sand shields (plastic card) and a couple items were constructed from PE from strips. Most of the forward pulpit had the plates re-arranged. Using dryfitting, I found a pattern that resembled what they accomplished. I’ll try to post the study picture. At work I can’t get into Photobucket, firewall. Its odd that the Tamiya kit doesn’t come with the headlights I see so often in pictures of these vehicles. I tookn a headlamp from the scrap box and applied it. The ModelKasten individual link track add to the details but were hard to work with. I couldn’t keep them glued! They kept on falling apart.
Again thanks for the comments.
Mike T.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the stranger vehicles…it doesn’t surprise me that the Germans would cobble together a Universal Carrier and a French light ATG…they were masters at scrounging captured gear. Love it!
The Sophisticated Finishes product was recently Reviewed on Armorama, interesting to see the effects you’ve produced here with it. [tup]
Thank you wbill for the comments. I wouldn’t be surprised that Major Becker had a hand with the work on that Carrier. Yes, he was in North Africa with the 21st PD at that time. It just harkens to his ingenuity.
The Semovente L6/47 was an attempt by the Italians to make their 47mm ATG mobile. It was supposed to replace the towed versions as Italian units became more mechanized. This vehicle actually came after the more common Semovente based upon the M13/40 series of tanks. The 47mm ATG was obsolete by this time and was definelty a bit of too little too late.
If you look at pictures from North Africa you will see the Hotchkiss 25mm being used on other vehicles as well. Many times it is misidentified as a Breda 20mm AA gun. I saw a picture of one added to a British armoured car by the Germans as well.
Mike T.