Autoblindata AB.41 ItalianArmored Car

Manufacturer:ExtraTECH (Kit #7207)

Although Iown many of ExtraTECH's kits, this was actually the first one Ibuilt. I am extremely impressed by this kit, as it builds into anoutstanding replica of this unusual vehicle. ExtraTECH should becommended for providing us with these vehicles which willprobably never be released in plastic.

The kit is resin (10 parts) and photoetched (25 parts). The hull, turret, guns, and wheels are in resin, and the fenders, tow hooks, license plates, and other small parts are brass. According to the dimensions in Czolgi Wloskie 1939-45 , this kit is as close to 1/72nd as is humanly possible. The level of detail is outstanding, and once again, it looks a little flat right out of the box because of the light-colored resin, but paint and highlighting bring out the detail admirably. My only thought for improvement is that photos of this vehicle show that the many rivets on the turret and hull were very large, and could have been made more pronounced on the kit.

Constructionwas extremely simple. There was a large block of resin on thebottom of the turret to be cut off, but the other pour blockswere very simple to remove. The pour block for the hull attachedto the rear face, and there was no detail on that surface, so theengine screen was provided as an etched piece to be attached tothe resin. The only difficulty I had with the kit was bending thefenders into a smooth curve. No matter how hard you try, it isdifficult to keep the brass from creasing. I found the easiestway to do this was to wrap the pieces slowly around a cylindricalobject of the appropriate diameter (I used the neck of a winebottle).

The axeand shovels are included as brass parts, which makes the handlesvery two-dimensional, so I cut off the handles, and attachedstyrene rod to the shovel blades (after bending them to shape)and the axe head. The results are much more realistic. I thenused the very fine etched shovel handles, which had clipsattached to them, as brackets on the front fenders for stowageracks, as seen in photos of this vehicle. I replaced the etchedsteps beneath the side doors with brass rod bent to shape. I alsoadded some stowage onto the left front fender. The antenna mounton the left side of the hull is provided in brass, but it shouldlook like a tube projecting out from the hull from an angle, so Icut a small piece of styrene rod at an angle, hollowed out theend, and attached it to the base plate from the etched piece.

Markingsare included for four vehicles, one Italian, two German and onecaptured by the Polish in North Africa. Since this was my firstItalian vehicle, I decided to go with the home team, and used theItalian markings. I painted the kit in a desert tan color, andweathered it extensively with chalks of various colors andmetalizer. The decals are very thin and well printed, but thelicense plate decals were larger than the etched holders, so thedecals wrapped over the edges some. The yellow and white colorsof the unit markings are not very distinct, but that may be afactor of scale effect.