Char St Chamond early production

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Philipp Gross
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Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

So, here's my try at a WW1 tank...of course I just had to pick something weird... :roll:

You may be familiar with the St. Chamond tank, that huge lumbering French beast of a WW1 tank with a 75mm gun sticking out at the front. 400 were built in 1916-1918 by the Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homécourt, better known as Saint-Chamond, the city where it was located. For simplicity's sake, their tank was named the same.

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The French had adopted the Schneider CA1 tank in 1915, but Schneider was not interested in allowing a competitor to build their design, so Saint-Chamond came up with their own tank. The result weighted 23 tonnes, had a maximum armour of 13mm and a sophisticated gasoline-electric drive system powering a slightly lenghtened Holt tractor suspension. It was also completely ill-suited for the cratered battlefields of the Great War.

Depending on your definition three to five sub-versions were built, with some differences in armour layout and the type of 75mm gun used. Late in the war they saw some limited success when used in what would later become assault artillery. In a certain way this is the ancestor of the famous Sturmgeschütz.

However, when the overall flaws became apparent, a number of early models were converted to unarmed armoured transports and recovery vehicles, called the Char Caisson. And that's exactly what I'm going to build.

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I'll be using the Hobby Boss kit. Takom also released one, but this one is a fair bit cheaper.

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I also have the late version kit. If time and circumstances permits I might do that one as well...

BUT - It's getting a little late right now so I'll start tomorrow. :oops:

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Philipp Gross
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Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

[insert expletive of choice here]

I came across this very interesting forum thread, where the details of the Saint-Chamond are described in great detail. My French isn't nearly as good as it should be after all those university courses and holidays in Normandy and Bretagne, but thanks to the photos and drawings it's obvious that there's a very small problem at hand...

To make a long story short, there was a point early in production from which on all 1st series tanks were reinforced with 8mm armour plates on the hull sides. The caisson tanks however were older models and had no reinforcements. Of course the kit is based upon the reinforced version. There are a number of differences and my only options would be to do substantial surgery on most of the superstructure or to admit defeat and build a standard gun tank. Hooray. :?

I'll need to think this over. Sorry folks...

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Philipp Gross
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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

I've made up my mind, I'll build this as a standard gun tank. This one is a decal option included with the kit:

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Vincent Power
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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Vincent Power »

I wondered why the Subject title had changed Philipp. Good idea to press on as a standard tank. :)

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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

Hi Vincent,

I'll do the Caisson tank at some later date, when I feel mentally (un)stable enough to sand off all the details on the hull sides and rebuild them with styrene sheet and rivets :oops:

A gun tank named after Rooseveld the elder is a good substitute, right? :lol:

To my surprise I made a fair bit of progress last night, I'll post some photos later today.

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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

Alright, after starting assembly last night I made surprisingly quick progress. This kit is for the most part not very complex....basically it's a very primitive metal box on a horribly complex running gear. Suffice to say, I've postponed the latter until the end.

Here's where we are right now:
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The main gun is mostly complete, but since you can see absolutely nothing after assembly there's no point in adding anything but the essential parts. You can see how the size of the whole piece caused the huge increase in lenght compared to the Schneider tank.
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Lots of detail on the underside that also will be mostly hidden once the horribly complex suspension is fixed in place. Note the wooden support rollers....
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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to....I spent the last three evenings assembling this engineering nightmare:

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The 16 roadwheels were the easiest part. More annoying were the 12 coil springs (of 4 different types) and the 12 individual braces (all different) connecting this thing to the hull.

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Thankfully the overall fit was decent, no errors in the instructions...and still somehow that gap happened.....no worries, mud will solve all my problems :P

Now I only have to get the upper and lower half together without wrecking everything else.

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Vincent Power
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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Vincent Power »

Definitely a complicated bit of construction there. ;) With all those nooks and crannies in the suspension, painting may present some challenges for you Philipp.


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Steve Hutchinson
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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Steve Hutchinson »

Well assembled Philipp

I would be so tempted to have primed everything, but with such small and precise pieces,
even that could have been an issue when fitting them!

Mud to the rescue in a WWI scenario?

Its compulsory, isn't it :lol:

Nice work considering your heatwave ;)

Regards

Steve H
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Philipp Gross
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Re: Char St Chamond early production

Post by Philipp Gross »

Thanks everyone for joining in ;)

As I've said before, mud will solve most problems :lol:

Besides, everything down there was basecoated grey and only the wheels need a bit of steel paint. Thankfully they can be kept rotating with a little care.

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