Somua S.35

Manufacturer: Heller (#80197)

By Augusto Versiani .

The Somua S35 was probablythe best French tank of the period and I was well happy of beingable to get a kit in injected plastic of this attractive model.The Heller kit that I used in this assembly is an old kit, butcomparing it with a recently reissued copy of the model, Iverified that no difference beyond the color of the plasticexists. Thus the mold is showing signs of its age: lack ofdetails, the details which are present have low definition,tracks made of soft plastic, etc. But it still is an interestingkit.

The fit of the parts wasfair; I only had some problems with the assembly of bottom plateand in the joint between the upper and the lower part of thehull. The tracks also offered some difficulties; they are stiffand thick, and it was necessary to cut the upper part of thereturn rollers so the track can fit between the rollers and thefender.

The biggest work was tocreate the details which are lacking. I made the followingupgrades:

• The mouth of the cannon was made with a section of hypodermic needle.
• New doors in the tower cupola with styrene pieces.
• The braces that support the lateral bins that were molded onto the kit part, had been sanded off and substituted for masking tape straps.
• The back hook was substituted by another hand made.
• Small pieces of styrene had been glued to the traction wheels to simulate teeth, but I think that this detail could be made better.
• I added the rolled canvas in the back and the knotting braces had been made with masking tape. The fasteners are tips of seat belts from airplane photoetched set.

But the part that reallyamuses in this kit is the painting. A huge variety of colors andcombinations are possible, and it was difficult to decide whichone to use. The kit decals present little alternative. Thisproblem was cured with the use of Aleran decals which present agood variety of insignias, allowing a great range of options forthe final painting.

The decals have gooddefinition and solidity of colors. They react well to Microsol.The only problem is that they are printed in a continuous film,so you must cut one by one.

The choice of the colorsfollowed a proper interpretation of the tones and I used acrylicpaints. To make the lines of splitting between the colors I useda soft tip 0,1mm pen.

Conclusion:

Although showing the ageof the mold it is an interesting kit and that when used with theAleran decals, offers a good variety of options. Still, itdemands a little bit of work to add the details, they are notdifficult to execute and the final result is a nice model.

Recommended for those whoseek a simple kit to assemble and with a unique and interestingpainting.