Carro Armato M11/39 Medium Tank - Adam Cretier

About twenty-five years ago I made one of these as a conversion on the Italeri M13/40, but the differing widths of the two tanks means that this does not result in an accurate model. So this time, I built the whole structure from scratch, mainly in 1mm (.040") plastic card. I used modified Italeri parts for the suspension, with Modelkasten tracks and drive sprockets. The M11/39’s idler wheel is completely different from the one on the M13/40, so this was scratchbuilt as well. The conical rivets were made using a punch and die set for the hexagonal base, with plastic rod sanded to a shallow point, sliced off and glued to the base. I couldn’t find a barrel for the Vickers-Terni 37mm gun so I scratchbuilt that from aluminium tube and epoxy putty. The model depicts a tank from the 332nd Independent Medium Tank Company, which supported the Invasion of British Somaliland during August 1940.