Renault R35

1/35 scale Tamiya kit #373 + a ton of scratchbuild

Once again, I've started a projet on a subject and a period that I had never dealt with, the France campaign in 1940 with a Renault R35 !

At first, I thought I would assemble it in an afternoon, given the legendary ease of assembly of Tamiya ..
I finally started looking at reference photos and walkarounds, and I realized that some details were poorly reproduced, some could be added ... And it kept me busy for a month!

The vehicle that I have chosen to reproduce is a vehicle of the 1st section, of the 3rd company, of the 4th battleship division of the 2nd BCC, on May 18, 1940 near Sissone in France.
I chose it because of several details like the fascines holders at the front and the trench skid at the back. I extrapolated the additional armor plates at the front, seen on approximately 15% of vehicles (I did not find any information as to the origin, or the factory responsible for such an assembly...)
A lots of thing were used for this build such as different thicknesses of styrene, different profiles, rods and brass tubes ... But the most important thing remains the caliper!

The first task was the up armored plate on the front, I firstly drill and remake all the screw head, who needs to be recessed ...
And then realise I could speed up the process and add some details with some addon armor plate, as seen on some vehicles.
And then, another task was to remake some suspension part. Tamiya chose to make the suspension in 2 parts, but at the end rods have turned into squares ... (I forget to shoot a before/after comparison..)
Some details were added or remade at the back, and the last major improvement was the construction of the trench skid !

The last major task concerns the rear of the tank, where several details were refined or added, I also added the supports for the trench skid, and I also scratchbuild the skid!
To do this, I first modeled in 3D the whole trench skid and its many parts based on a 1940’s technical drawing which included a side and top view, which I scaled down by taking measurements on the model, plus some period photos as well as the instructions from the ETS35 kit.
Then the construction itself with several Evergreen profiles (U shape, angle, strip…) based on the dimensions of my 3D model, and I took my time!
Finally, I refined and drilled the exhaust, which greatly increases the realism of the piece, without the need for any additions!

To conclude, the traditional photo showing the model in sub-assembly, to facilitate the future painting!

My main source of information is this website : www.chars-francais.net

The vehicle that I choose to represent (registration n°50598), plus other with fascines holder :
all images from www.chars-francais.net

And the technical drawing, which has to be fitted to scale.

I used a WWI-WW2 French color set from Ammo to paint this one, black outline was made using a .5mm marker. All marking are made using home made masks, made on a plotter.