The SOMUA S35 was never on my radar as a kit to build. It looks like a house slipper, lacks any serious armament, had limited front line use and the various French camo schemes can look kind of goofy. I wasn’t interested in the tank at all until one day I was browsing through Aberdeen Bookstore and found a copy of the Tankograd Panzerkampfwagen (Somua) 35 S – 739(f) for $5 and couldn’t just leave it there.
After reading thru the book, I found my next project to work on while I avoided painting figures for another model. I picked up the Tamiya kit from a LHS and added the DEF Model S35 BeuetPanzer conversion set. The Tamiya kit was a breeze to assemble. I added a plethora of missing bolts, screws, and rivets plus added the missing driver’s vision slit. I also cleaned up a few parts like the lights and added a few other missing details. I opted to omit things like stowage bins, tow chain, pioneer tools, etc., anything that would slow down my progress after all that time spent on rivets so I didn’t loose my mojo.
The model was painted with Tamiya acrylics. Multiple layers of mottled and HS distressed paint were applied to create some interest to a solid grey loaf of bread. The model was weathered with oils, enamels and pigments.
A few build images:
A few paint images
