Carro Armato Fiat L6/40

First written: March 29th, 2009 | Updated: June 24th, 2010

 

Italeri relaunched the Fiat Ansaldo L6/40 in a limited Edition kit. The most noticeable change is the addition of link and length tracks (something that the M13/40 should have) and the booklet with pictures and history of the tank. An interior is provided and a small etched brass fret complete this very nice kit.

The first inspection of the kit shows a very good surface detail, especially important on a vehicle such as this with rivets everywhere.

The model is small, very small which is good. Not too much space and a fairly easy build.

Description & history

The L6/40 was a conventional light tank design of riveted construction. A one-man turret in the center mounted a single Breda Modello 35 20 mm main gun and a Breda Modello 38 8 mm coaxial machine gun. The driver sat in the front right of the hull. Armor was 6 to 30 mm in thickness. In armor and firepower the L6/40 was the rough equivalent of contemporary light tanks.

Interestingly, the vehicle was designed by Fiat-Ansaldo as an export product, and was only adopted by the Italian Army when military officials learned of the design and expressed interest.

The L6/40 was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32. L6/40s were also used in the North African campaign.

L6/40 light tanks were used by the Italians in the Balkans Campaign, in the war in the Soviet Union, in the latter stages of the North African campaign, and in the defense of Sicily and Italy.

The L6/40 was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front. The L6 fought alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32.

The kit

Let's start by saying that if you expect the precision of a Dragon, AFV Club or Tamiya you are not going to get it.

Upon first inspection the caramel colored sprues have a very nice look. The detail is OK, although a bit softer than other brands, link and length tracks, nicely molded suspension and wheels and a nicely done interior.

A small PE fret includes some parts that will refine the model to a better standard and a set of well printed decals.

However, things are not that nice when you start putting things together. And it was a total surprise for me, knowing how good the Staghound was or the modeling world appraisal for their excellent Autoblinda and Sahariana kits.

The reason might be on the "re issue" of an old kit. Something is still there and it shows. The lack of precision on this model is totally incompatible with what these brands can do today.

Building

I started by the lower chassis assembling the two sides, bottom and rear panel. And this was where it all started. In order to match the sides and bottom I had to sand everywhere. The gap was big and the parts didn't sit flush as they should. Somehow Italeri could not anticipate how thick the bottom panel would be and this has to be corrected by sanding the stops on the panel sides or, as i did, thin the bottom panel enough to sit flush with the side panels. Even doing this some putty needs to be used to close some gaps if you really care about the underside of the model.

Once I did this, the rear panel also needed adjustment. Either that or use some putty to close the gaps. But because this is a riveted vehicle and there are rivets very close to every seam, I went to great lengths to avoid using putty. In a couple of cases I didn't succeed and I had to remove rivets and place them later.

The worst part to fit was the engine cover (until now, and I still have some challenges to face). It just didn't sit correctly (sanding again) and it was narrower than it should. I had to glue a strip of plasticard on the right side to adjust the width.

After all this trouble I found that the stowage boxes disguise this flaw almost completely, but when I decided to do this I just didn't fit them in place just to check.

It's a good practice when dealing with a kit like this. Test fit everything before just to check what needs attention and what doesn't.

The detail that surprised the most was the fit of the fenders. They fit very well to the hull sides but to my amazement, the brackets at the rear that have a part on the fender and another on that back vertical surface showed a huge gap. 

On the days where we can do almost anything in plastic with the advanced molds and CAD tools, making this kind of error is absolutely childish or at least negligent.

The only solution I found was to remove the parts on the fender and make them in plasticard. This is one of those details that could be done easily in PE and could be included on the PE fret that comes with the kit.

The gun was another challenge. It looks kind of OK (I'm still considering finding a metal barrel) but the conical flash suppressor (can we call it like this?) had the hole off center and way to small. Drill in hand and I had to adjust it and make it look like the real thing. However this suppressor is not shown in the versions that we can build OOB but appears on the photo booklet that comes with the kit (and this booklet is a major point in favor).

Suspension

The build is progressing slowly but I did the left side suspension already. Enough to know that the seams on the arm halves need putty and some interesting details are engraved on the arm hubs.

It's a strange kit. On one hand the fit is poor and parts that should fit together can't do it without adjustment. On the other the detail in some of the parts is quite good. Are those better parts the result of retooling of the old kit? Maybe.

I ordered a set of Friul tracks for it because after inspection the link and length tracks detail seem a bit soft.

Turret and Hull

The turret was a riveting affair (literally). Some of the rivets were missing on the front plates and the other rivets were way to small. That's the puzzling aspect of this kit. The hull has excellent detail and correct size rivets, but the turret has some missing and the ones that are there are incorrect in size.

I never suspected that I had to spend a couple of hours gluing dozens of small rivets to a tiny tank turret. All the rivets were replaced or created. What is also apparent on this turret is the bad molds that produced it especially on the rear hatch. Flash and plastic missing on the sides of the opening. It's not by chance that Model Victoria makes a replacement turret for this model.

With the turret complete it's now just a matter of little things before painting. I'll do a coat of primer on the turret right away, just to be sure that all is in order and all the things blend in correctly.

the hull received a coat of Tamiya putty dissolved in acetone in every seam and it looks perfect. This method prevents sanding to a large extent preserving the rivet detail on the hull.

Painting

I used the Lifecolor paints from the Italian set. At first the sand color seemed really light and I was tempted to give it a coat of a darker sand tone. Then I remembered a build on Steel Masters where the sand color was really light and let it stay. The washes and weathering would darken everything so I guess it was a good choice ob base color.

Doing the green color was a real pain. I could see that the camo was a soft edge but not very blurred at all. For replicating that in 1/35 the airbrush has to do an excellent job. And I couldn't find the spot in thinning airflow and finger control to replicate that.

I disassembled the AB and give it a session on the ultrasonic cleaner. Then things improved greatly. I could do very thin lines but at a very low pressure and with the paint almost from the bottle (with minimal thinning). After a couple of hours playing with the AB I considered it done.

Chipping was next although the suspension was still unfinished. I needed to see the final result. Replicating what I did on the suspension is not a problem. There is mo color mix so that chances of getting it wrong are very slim. Additionally the suspension is only sand color and will be dirtier than the rest of the tank. I still can't assemble it because of the tracks that are stiil in transit and will only arrive in a couple of days.

Tracks

The Friul tracks for this vehicle are probably the best I saw from Friul. The links are delicately cast with all the detail we could ask for. Very little flash and I had to open the holes in very few links.

The set included two sprockets and that a really good thing because there would be no way to make the original Italeri sprockets to fit on these tracks. They are designed for this kit and no adaptation is needed.

It took a few hours to assemble the two track runs (82-83 links each) and the final result is the best we can get at this scale. Nothing beats a good set of Friul tracks when it comes to realism.

I painted them with a mix of Vallejo black and Lifecolor dark rust. A liberal amount of pigments was then aplied dry and fixed with Mineral White Spirits. The contact areas were then exposed to bare metal with sand paper and this is one of the effects than can be done very easy with Friul tracks.

For assembling the tracks I've found out that it's a good thing to put the suspension arms after all in is place, even the tlittle return rollers.

Done!!

It's complete. The final details with pigments, oil effects in the front and back and painting the tools are all done and I consider the model complete.

It was a fun build, especially because of my initial dismay. Seeing it progress from a dud to a decent model was the biggest satisfaction I took from this project. What to do next? Who knows. I have to look at my stash and find something that motivates me.

Final Veredict

I have mixed feelings about this kit. The fact that they abandoned the vinyl tracks in favor of plastic L&L tracks and include a small fret of Photo Etched for the price is something that really pleases me.

However, the poor fit of some parts with the added work involved, and the omission of some visible details like rivets on the turret and a soft detail on many parts makes me give it a low rating in accuracy and build.

I could probably go a little lower on Build, because this is surely not a kit to put together just by gluing all parts and giving a lick of paint. If you want a good model in the end, you’ll have to work on it.

Some details are from another era. The fender supports or the braces on the front gearbox prompted me to replace them by simple pieces of plastic.

In this day and age, for a kit that’s supposedly new, this has no excuse. The over simplified interior made me decide not to do it at all. What’s provided is good, but I don’t want to spend more on a interior kit from Victoria Models than I did on the kit.

The instructions are quite good and they are accompanied by a booklet filled with photos and technical drawings. Ironically the booklet was the place where I found the inaccuracies of the kit. The decals are good, with good definition and faultless printing and the color schemes and versions possible are adequate. Knowing that the two other possible options are the Victoria Model resin kit and the Tamiya (it’s the Italery kit rebranded) I would have to say that if you really want to build this tank, then go for it. Is either that or 80-85 Euro spent on the Victoria Models L6. You choose…

Accessories

Maker	Item	PN	Used
Jordi Rubio	Metal Barrel for Breda 20 mm	JDR-TG72	N
Friul	Metal Tracks	ATL-95	Y
Model Victoria	Replacement Turret	4083	N
Model Victoria	Complete interior	4085	N
Model Victoria	Working Resin Tracks	4082	N

I've collected a small list of items that you can get to enhance this model a little more. Of all those accessories I only used the Friul tracks.

As far as I could understand, the Tamiya kit is exactly the same as this one (Tamiya America page). You can expect these minor glitches to be there too.

The other offer is a complete resin kit from Model Victoria and if you start to add the price of the base Italeri/Tamiya kit with a good set of tracks and a turret (can be corrected but it's not everybody's cup of tea to do that kind of work) you soon end up on the resin kit price. Consider it. No doubt that the build will be a better one. And you even get the compete interior and not the one that comes with this kit and is grossly simplified. I chose to leave it out and keep all the hatches closed.

 

Pictures

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