H35 light tank, late version

Eighty-fifth issue of the “September 1939” series brings us a miniature of the French Hotchkiss H35 tank, this time in the “late” flavour (“early” was in the 80th). 1:72 scale, of course. Let's have a look.

Old & new

The aforementioned sets from First to Fight didn't fill any thematic void in the “Braille scale” armour. Over a decade ago, Polish RPM released a range of Hotchkiss H35 kits. Later, simplified miniatures from the Chinese company S-Model, designed with a similar to FtF principle, also appeared on the market. Now we still have a choice between a "normal", but older model, or a newer – wargaming dedicated one.

Prelude

Set marked PL1939-085 comes in a side-opening box, featuring the characteristic graphic style of the series. The depiction of a French vehicle on the boxart (quite nice by the way) is somewhat peculiar, but given that vehicles of this type didn’t take part in the September fights, this is somewhat justified.

Inside you will find a bunch of plastic sprues of various sizes and a small sheet of decals.

The whole thing comes with the usual A4-sized brochure (Polish text only), but as always, this is the less interesting part of the package. Let’s get down to the business.

Sprues

Let's start with the hull, the upper parts of which were prepared as one piece. Almost.

The engine section is of course missing, to be found on another sprue along with the exhaust system.

Lower piece was prepared with slide moulds.

As a result, details can be also found on the vertical surfaces. One side looks pretty nice.

Other – a bit less so.

The worst by far are of course track and wheels, which has traditionally suffered from the biggest wargaming simplifications.

Each module only needs to be supplemented with the correct tension wheel centre (two of the three versions shown will remain unused).

Some of the equipment carried on the outside of the vehicle was cast directly onto the mudguards, while other – attached to the sides of the hull – was supplied separately.

Just like the junk for the back of the tank.

The turret is supplied in a severely perforated state.

If one wants to leave the rear hatch open and, for example, shove a crew member in there – that's perfectly fine.

The sprue with suitable viewfinders is apparently the only change between this edition and the “early” model.

Lastly, the highlight of this issue – frame “J”, which features the main armament of the tank.

Fantastic, isn’t it?

Decals

A small decal sheet with markings for three different vehicles is also provided. There might not be a lot of it, but what is there looks pretty good.

More observant readers may have noticed that the decals don't really fit the series theme, similar to the boxart mentioned earlier.

Manual

As usual, there is no typical assembly manual in the box. In fact, there is none whatsoever. Instead a substitute for one can be found on the back of the box.

The same informations are also included in the accompanying brochure. Both drawings explaining what goes where.

As well as a painting and markings scheme for one French tank (with suggested Vallejo and Hataka paint numbers).

But only one. Want to make a model using other included markings? Sort it out yourself.

End

Small Hotchkiss H35 from FtF is exactly what the “September 1939” series has already got us accustomed to. A mixture of quite decent details and far less attractive simplifications. Plus a nod to “Braille scale” Francophiles.

Parts breakdown suggests the possibility of an even later version (H39) being released (which better fits the theme of the series). We shall wait and see.

MMXXI