Sunday, January 8, 2017

'Armour' from AdamC: Schneider CA1

To my pleasure a box of miniatures I had ordered in November of 2015 finally showed up in my local gaming store. Its Was Brett's Brawlers the AEF box set from Battlefront for Flames of War great war. One of the goodies in side was a Schneider CA 1 that seemed a perfect entry for this bonus round.


 As tank designs go this one is about as primitive as they come and has some serious flaws.  The protruding "nose" is one of them.  It was intended to help it clear a path through barbed wire but had a tendency to to get it suck in trenches, shell holes and similar obstacles.  This one you can see has had a close call and some sticky western front mud is stuck to its nose.

 I also applied a good layer of home made mud (glue, brown paint and basing grit) to the treads, I tried to strike a balance between making it muddy and letting the pain job show.

 You may have been wondering where is the gun?  Here it is a very small one on the right front corner of the vehicle. Yes its very small, even by the standards of the day the short barreled 75mm gun was considered very light for an armoured vehicle.

Taken form Wikipedia 
You can see the gun in the foreground next to the vehicle it was mounted on.  Its small, probably good for taking out gun pits and small bunkers but might even struggle against of other primitive armoured fighting vehicles of the day



A top down view to show the camouflage patter, these colors seem almost too bright on the museum example above.  Mine also seemed very bright until I hit them with a fairly heavy coat of wash.  I like the over all effect I am inclined to be skeptical about its effectiveness as camouflage but similar pasterns were used into the Second World War so some one professional thought it worked. 


In addition to the small cannon the tank had two side mounted MG guns, I can't help feeling some one should have thought to put one in the front as well but... I guess they figured any one it was coming straight at would turn tail and run (a wildly optimistic assessment in my opinion). This was a fun little project to start off my foray into the Great War. While researching this project I discovered that one of these venerable beasts is still in "action" almost 100 years after its construction, how cool is that?

The Schneider CA, at the Musée des Blindés in Saumur, is also the world's oldest tank in full running condition

38 comments:

  1. Great job on a really crappy tank

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks and yeah it might well win a contest for crapiest tank.

      Delete
  2. Nicely painted and great mud effects!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks I am rather pleased with the mud effect

      Delete
  3. That is pretty darn cool. Well done Adam - I love the history behind the vehicle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great job on the tank, definitely has a Western Front feel with mud you've added!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad that the mud is appreciated, thank you

      Delete
  5. I love those WW1 French tanks. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice work on that "tank". Enjoyed the history lesson as well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks I am always gratified to hear people like the background I put in with my projects

      Delete
  7. You got the look of the beast

    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  8. The camo scheme on this beast really worked out well!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice work Adam and it does look like it would push it's way through mosts things.

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you and I suspect your right at least until the motor gave out.

      Delete
  10. Those WW1 tanks always look like such bonkers contraptions - well done on this one Adam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its try but to be fair developing new technology in the middle of the biggest war in Human history (to that point) can't have been easy.

      Delete
  11. These win the ugly and ungainly contest! Great job on the camo Adam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its true if this were the Ugly Armour bonus round I would be a front runner :)

      Delete
  12. Unusual and interesting entry, well done. Great to see WW1 AFVs getting some love in this Bonus Round.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael. I think we covered the three major players actually, there was one offering each of British, French and German AFVs.

      Delete
  13. Super work on one of the workhorses of the Artillerie Speciale!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wonderful tank, Adam!
    The camouflage pattern is dated and flawed, but still one of my favorites.
    Very effective weathering too. I'm really impressed one is still working!

    ReplyDelete