Italian Anti-Tankers

As well as my glorious Western Desert Force (Toy) I also am building up a mighty Italian army. The Italian plan is to advance boldly into Egypt and clear the British out of the way and seal up the eastern Med and win the war. Great plan, we'll see what happens.

In the meantime toy building continues. In response to the Matilda II, which is immune to nearly all Italian heavy ordnance, the boffins at Cotgravelli di Campo Freddo di Sutton have come up with, a whole two years ahead of schedule, this wonder weapon: a 47mm anti-tank gun mounted in an ABM42 car:

Here we can see the car in action with an Airfix crew. I've since found out about the Waterloo set of tanky crew toys.I'll have to get me some of those! I found the build a little tricky. For example the side panels could have their jerry can racks and stowage bins glued on first to make two large kit bits rather than six fiddly bits. The gun and its mounting was a nightmare: solved by pinning top and bottom and a generous ration of glue. The bonnet/hood took some time to position correctly; in fact I'm not sure it's on square now. I put this kind of mis-alignment down to fair wear and tear in desert conditions.

Tomorrow is this blog's first anniversary so I'll be doing a post full of meaningless stats and pointless drivel. Bet you can't wait!

UATH!