French 'Kiss

Historical Background

In 1926 the French Army decided to provide armoured support to regular infantry divisions by creating autonomous tank battalions equipped with light and cheap infantry tanks. For this role, the Char D1 was developed but it was neither light nor cheap. In 1933, Hotchkiss et Cie presented a proposal for a lighter, and theoretically cheaper design, using new innovations such as entirely cast steel hull sections. On 30 June 1933, the proposal was accepted by the Counseil Consultatif de l'Armement and on 2 August 1933, a specification was issued for a six-ton tank with 30mm armour protection all-around. Prototypes were ordered from Hotchkiss but the specification was issued to the entire armaments industry to provide alternative proposals. As a result, Renault was the first company to submit a proposal for the nouveau char leger, eventually becoming the R35. In January 1935, the Hotchkiss prototype, a turretless, machinegun-armed tankette was presented to the Commission d'Experience du Materiel Automobile at Vincennes with the second prototype being presented in May. Both were rejected because of a new specification that increased the armour thickness to 40mm. On 19 August 1935, Hotchkiss delivered the last prototype with a redesigned cast hull and a APX-R turret armed with a short 37mm gun. This was accepted in November 1935 as the H35 and an order for 200 (later 400) vehicles was made with the first production vehicle was delivered on 12 September 1936.

The first series of vehicles was tested until early December 1936. The H35 was shown to have a poor cross-country handling making it impossible to steer (and fire its armament) safely over bumpy terrain, posing danger to any nearby friendly infantry. As a result the infantry arm rejected the tank, with just two battalions equipped with 100 of the type: the 13ᵉ and 38ᵉ Bataillon de Chars de Combat (BCC). The remaining 300 were turned over to the Cavalry, which were late in receiving the Somua S35 tank. The cavalry however wanted a faster tank and a new prototype was made in 1937 with a Hotchkiss 6-cylinder, 5.97-liter engine rated at 120hp instead of the 78hp engine in the H35. The larger engine caused the hull to be enlarged with the hood now almost horizontal. The new version was presented to the Commission d'Experimentations de l'Infantrie on 31 January 1939 and was accepted as the Char leger modele 1935 H modifie 1939. It was decided that the H39 would replace the original H35 on the production line from the 401st vehicle onwards.

The Hotchkiss H35/39 is a small vehicle, weighing 9.6 tons (12.1 tons for H39). The hull consisted of six cast armour sections bolted together. Although the armour thickness was just 34mm instead of the specified 40mm, it was still one of the thickest for 1930s light tank design. The crew consisted of two persons: the driver and the commander, who also took the job of loading, aiming and firing the gun. The suspension consists of three bogies per side, with each bogie carrying two rubber-rimmed wheels. The H35 was powered by a Hotchkiss 6-cylinder, 3.4-liter air-cooled petrol engine. The designed road speed was 28km/h; however the type rarely reached this number because of difficulties in engaging the highest (fifth) gear. The H39, with its better power-to-weight ratio can reach 36.5km/h on road. Both H35 and H39 were equipped with an APX-R cast turret, with a thickness of 40mm and armed with a low-velocity, short-barreled SA 18 37mm gun and a co-axial 7.5mm Reibel M31 machinegun. A total of 102 rounds was carried for the main gun with another 2,400 rounds for the machinegun. The SA 18 had weak anti-tank capability so from January 1940, the longer-barreled SA 38 37mm gun was fitted to the tanks of platoon, company and battalion leaders and it was intended to refit all Hotchkisses with the longer gun by the end of 1940. The turret had a rotating cupola with a PPL RX 180 P visor but there was no hatch in the cupola. Access into the turret was through a hatch in the back of the turret. The commander can sit on the opened hatch door for better observation but left him vulnerable to enemy fire.

In the Cavalry, the Hotchkiss replaced the earlier AMR 33 and AMR 35 light tanks. The H35 equipped the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Division Légère Mécaniques (DLM), the 18th Regiment de Dragons Portes and the 4th Cuirassiers. And because of the slow deliveries of the R35, the H35 was also used to equip the 22nd, 24th and 33rd BCC as well as the 342nd and 351st Compagnie Autonome de Chars. The H39 was delivered to the 3rd Division Légère Motorisée, 4th and 5th Division Légere Cavalerie, 25th and 26th DCC and the 2nd and the 3rd Divisions Cuirassées de Reserve. Another unit, the 342e CACC, equipped with SA 38-armed H39s was sent to Norway, arriving at Narvik on 7 May 1940. The 12 survivors were withdrawn in June and disembarked in the UK. The 342ᵉ CACC later formed the nucleus of the FFL's armoured force, the 1ere Compagnie de Chars de Combat de la France Libre. In operational formation however, the Hotchkiss were mismatched: the fast H39 operated with the slow Char B1 while the slow H35s were paired with the fast Somua S35. The Hotchkiss's 37 mm gun was superior to the 20 mm gun arming Panzer IIs and were only matched by Pzkpfw 35(t) and 38(t) with similar guns, while their thick armour was quite impervious against German 37mm guns. However, the spread-out formation, lack of radio as well as overburdened tank commanders led to disastrous results. Lack of fuel sometimes caused entire formations to be captured intact. After the fall of France, the Vichy government was allowed to retain some of its tanks in North Africa (with the 1ere Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique) and Syria.

Around 550 Hotchkiss were captured by the Germans and distributed to independent panzer companies as Panzerkampfwagen 35H 734(f) and Panzerkampfwagen 38H 735(f). Many have the original cupolas replaced with a two-piece hatch and used for police and occupation duty in France. Others serve in Russia during Operation Barbarossa (with 211th Panzerabteilung) and anti-partisan duties in Yugoslavia, such as with the 7.SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division 'Prinz Eugen'. Several were sent to Axis partners Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Those in France later fought against Allied armour in 1944. The Hotchkiss was also used as a chassis for a number of conversions such as ammunition carrier, self-propelled gun and tank destroyers. The Hotchkiss fought their last war in 1948 when 10 H39s were used in the Israeli War of Independence.

The Kit

In 2006, Bronco announced their entry into the scale modelling world by introducing the Hotchkiss H39 as their very first kit. Despite its size, the kit consists of 483 plastic parts (although 264 are the separate-link tracks), a turned aluminium barrel, a short length of chain, six metal springs (five in my box) plus the usual decal and instruction sheets. The kit have detailed interior (for injection moulded plastic), including the engine and the driver's compartment and the transmission/final drive. As Bronco later released the SPG/tank destroyer versions (with open fighting compartment) of the Hotchkiss, this was probably the reason why they were included in this first release. The separate-link tracks were, upon first sight, quite tiny although they do have good detail. Overall it was better than the Trumpeter kit released two years before Bronco's where I had the opportunity to compare them at the now-defunct Miniature Hobbies in KL (and chose this kit over Trumpeter's when recommended by the owner). Decals provide markings for five tanks:

- 25e BCC, 1ere DCR, France 1940

- 211 Panzerabteilung, Finland 1941

- 7.SS-Freiwiligen Division 'Prinz Eugen', Norway 1943 (unlikely, as the 7th SS division fought in the Balkans) or Norwegian Tank Battalion, Norway 1942

- Russian Company, 82nd Armoured Battalion, Israeli Army, 1948

- 7e Cuir, France 1940

Construction

As stated above, for its size, the Bronco H39 sure packed a lot of parts and many of them are for the interior. However, as with the Hobby Boss Renault R35 kit, I did not add the interior parts, save for the bulkhead (Parts C6 and A19), to add a bit of strength to the hull. The transmission cover was then cemented to the hull followed by the detail parts on the rear hull panel and the transmission cover. Next were the suspension. One thing I can say about them is that the front and rear halves of the bogies are moulded as one piece, eliminating the wobbly assembly experienced during the building of my R35.  However my kit missed one of the stainless steel spring. I didn't even attempt to contact Bronco about this matter...instead I tried my own solution. Unfortunately, the best option, using the spring from a pen did not present itself as none were available. I ended up using stretched sprue, wound around a cylinder (pencil) and then gluing the coiled sprue onto the relevant. It look horrible! The suspension units were then cemented to the hull, together with the rest of the wheels. The lower hull was then painted

While waiting for the paint to dry, I painted the track links, cut them off the sprue, cleaned them and placed them inside a container. I then assembled them, 10 at a time using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. The links are fairly tiny resulting in some dodgy moments during assembly. The real problem was that the links have a less than good fit, especially when I tried to to wrap them around the sprocket and idler wheels. Another problem was the sprocket teeth - there were too many of them than they actually were. So I have to do an emergency surgery, as fast and as clean as possible, in removing the extra teeth, as the cement is fast drying (the operation on the other sprocket teeth was done at a more leisurely pace as the problem has been identified). Only after the tracks have been assembled can work on the upper hull be resumed. I started by putting the track guards in place and adding hatches to the sides of the upper hull. While the instructions have you add the upper hull to the lower half first before adding the details, I diverged a bit by assembling some parts, such as the driver's and the engine hatches first. Only then did I cement the upper hull to the lower hull. Some smaller parts were added but I left the exhaust and the tools at this time.

Finally, the turret. The gun was assembled first and here Bronco provided nicely detailed parts although that's about it regarding the turret's interior. It was then set aside and I assembled the turret proper. There isn't much to assemble, just the turret shell, the bottom, vision slits and the hatch. The latter was cemented in the closed position. The gun assembly was slotted into place, followed by the turret bottom. And the model was off to the paint shed....

Painting and Decaling

Having rejected the German and Israeli options, I was left with just the two French Army options. The 25e BCC option is more interesting as it had that playing card symbol on the turret, in this case, a red heart. The instructions called for this option to be painted in olive drab. I'm not sure about that and end up painting the model in Olive Green, using Tamiya XF-58. As for the decals, while the instructions were clear on the placement of the turret markings, it was less so for the hull ones. For the left-hand side view, the heart symbol was shown to be on the rear of the right-side hull, a very unlikely place for markings. Yet for the rear view, it was shown to be on the rear hull panel. Using common sense (rather than any documented evidence), I placed the symbol on the right side of the rear hull panel with the registration number on the opposite side. There were no decals for the registration number for the front plate however. I should have cut the decal and reposition it on the front plate, making up for the lack of markings on the front

Finishing

There isn't much to do at this stage, I just add the last bits such as the tools. The exhaust was painted Burnt Iron, then dappled with XF-64 Red Brown and was followed by an application of Tamiya Weathering Master Rust. The chain was left unpainted, although I still apply Tamiya's Weathering Master Rust on it. At this moment however I decided to add the trench skid. Yes, it was a pretty dubious decisison as the model has already been painted. Anyway it was assembled, painted and stuck to the rear of the tank.  Good thing I did that before starting the weathering process. The usual pin wash was done using the black-brown mix. The lower half of the model was then liberally coated with Mig Productions European Dust pigments. I do not have any accessories to be placed on the model except for a figure from Miniart's French Tank Crew set. He was painted the same way as the figure in my R35 build.

Conclusion

Bronco took a brave first step (and never look back) into the scale modelling world by having a tank not kitted by everyone else (except Heller and Trumpeter) as their first kit. It is very fine and fairly complicated for such a small kit. Terry Ashley pointed out the shortcomings of this kit, mainly concerning the with the running gear (the issue was rectified in Bronco's subsequent H38/39 release). While I'm not overly concerned with the number of bolts on the idler or of the shape of the heat shield, the mould slip on the wheels and also the wrong number of sprocket teeth were indeed a cause for concern. However, in general, the build process went together well although I must say that that the track assembly process was tedious, especially because of its size and the fit problem. Recommended to all (if you have issues with the problems mentioned, just grab the H38/39 release, it also allows you to build the SA 18-armed H38).