Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $59.99 When I first heard that Tamiya was releasing a kit of the French Char B1 bis I was pleasantly surprised and eagerly looked forward to getting my hands one. When I did, it became apparent to me it was about all one could hope for in a model kit. The kit comes on five tan sprues (one duplicated) a separate upper hull along with a bag of individual snap-together track links, a pair of metal tow chains and a very nice decal sheet with four schemes. The sprues are as follow:  A: Running gear, idlers, drive wheels, armament, jacks and exhausts. (x 2)  B: Fenders, antenna, hatches and hull details.  C: Turret and turret details, tank commander figure (chef de char).  D: Lower hull, lower sponson covers, hull plates and details.

Upper Hull:  Beautifully shot in multi-part slide molds with lots of rivets and details molded in place. There is also a full color two-page fold out that illustrates five view drawings of each of four unique camouflage and marking schemes. The reverse side of the five views has an account of a highly effective action fought by Char B1's of the third armored division at Stonne. Curiously though, none of the schemes reflect 3emeDB vehicles (Troisieme Division Blindee). Markings options are:  "Bourrasque" 16th Tank BN, 2nd Armored Division May 1940, in two-tone dark green and tan camouflage.  "Vercingetorix" 46th Tank BN, 2nd Armored Division, 1940 sporting a lovely three color scheme of tan, dark green and dark brown with black lines separating each color.  "Nivernais II" 37th Tank BN 1st Armored Division. 1940 painted in a two-tone scheme of dark green and dark brown.  "Indochine" 15th Tank BN, 2nd Armored Division 1940. Similar three-tone camouflage to that of Vercingetorix above, with white edged fenders for a sporty look.

Each vehicle has unique tactical markings, making for colorful models when done. Options:  There are two fender options and two exhaust pipe/muffler configurations. It is recommended that the builder carefully study the directions to make sure the correct configuration is assembled to match the vehicle chosen in the markings section. Tracks:  Individual click-together track links are provided and they are very nice. They are well detailed, needing only a tiny nub removed from their top side and then you just slot them together to form the track run. Observations Test fitting shows that Tamiya engineering is still superb, with thoughtful parts break down and sub-assembly design that produces an excellent replica with little effort and relatively few parts The only negative observation at this time is that parts D5 and D6, the left and right rear sponson walls, are each festooned with seven ejector pin marks on the outside face. Even though most of the surface will be obscured by the drive sprockets, some or all will remain visible after assembly unless they are eliminated first. Some small details that appear on the cover box art are not present in the kit but can easily be added with minimal effort by modelers of even modest skill. A short but not exhaustive list of the missing details include the "pig tail" lift hook above the hull 75mm gun, the six bolts on the mantlet that were used to attach the travel lock for the 75mm gun and the adjustment handle for the headlight. Overall c'est magnifique! I look forward to the build and will report same to you. Thanks to Larry Chen at Tamiya (www.tamiya.com) for the review kit.

Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®.