Italian Workhorse

Historical Background

In December 1937, the Regio Esercito issued a requirement for a new tank to replace the L3 tankette and the M 11/39 medium tank. To save on development time, the tank was to be based on the M 11/39 but with a redesigned upper hull supporting a turret mounted with a Breda modello 35 47mm gun and a co-axial Breda 8mm machine gun while a twin Breda 8-mm was to be mounted in the hull; in other words, the new tank reverses the armament placement of the M 11/39. The development of the tank, designated Carro Armato Medio M 13/40 (13 from the weight in tons and 40 from the year of production, 1940) was placed under the supervision of the Inspectorate of Technical Services. The first prototype was made ready by Fiat-Ansaldo in October 1939 but the Army only accepted it for production in March 1940, following changes and set-up of the production lines.

The M 13/40 was constructed of riveted steel armour plates with thickness of 30mm (front), 42mm turret face, 25mm sides, 6mm bottom and 15mm on top. The fighting compartment was placed in a forward position with the driver and the radio operator/machine gunner in the hull and the gunner and the commander/loader in the turret. The entire lower hull was basically unchanged from the M 11/39. The running gear was made of two bogies per side, each with eight pairs of small road wheels, using leaf-spring suspension. The M13/40 was powered by a Fiat SPA 8 TM V-8 diesel engine, while contemporary designs were still using petrol engines. While sturdy, its power output was only 125 hp and can only drive the M 13/40 at 32 km/h in the best conditions. Being a diesel engine however, it gave the tank a good range while reducing the risk of fire. The M 13/40 was armed with the tank version of the Cannone da 47/32 M35 anti-tank gun. The gun had a performance similar to the Soviet 45mm gun arming the T-26 and BT tanks and can pierce 45mm of armour at 500 meters. This was sufficient against the British light and cruiser tanks, although still ineffective against the heavily armoured infantry tanks. 104 rounds were provided for the main armament, with 3,200 for the three (sometimes four, when the AA MG is placed on the roof) machine guns.

The M 13/40 saw action during the Italian invasion of Greece in 1940 and in North Africa, where many M 13/40s fought until the end in May 1943. While able to hold their own against the early Allied tanks, they became less effective when confronted with later tanks. Despite their relative firepower advantage over the British tanks, the units equipped with the tank were newly formed and thus lacked cohesion, this was worsened by the fact that the tanks were not fitted with radios and the crews lacked training. The M 13/40 first saw action during Operation Compass between 9 December 1940 to 9 February 1941, where they suffered large losses. Many were captured intact and were used by the Australian 2/6th Cavalry Regiment and 6th Royal Tank Regiment. The tanks were painted with large kangaroos on the turret sides to avoid friendly fire. The tanks were discarded when the 8th Army received better tanks. With the introduction of the QF 6 pounder AT gun, 75-mm armed Lee/Grant and 6-pounder armed Crusader III, the M 13/40's weakness were further unravelled. The thin armour can be easily pierced by the more powerful projectiles while the rivets used in the construction can become lethal projectiles inside the tank when hit.  

The M 13/40 spawned other variants. Chief among these were the M 14/41 medium tank, with a more powerful engine and better air filters (especially for service in the North African theatre); M 15/42 medium tank with petrol engine and longer 47 mm L/40 gun; Semovente Comando M40 turretless command tank and the Semovente 75/18 self-propelled gun, modeled after the German Sturmgeschutz assault guns.

The Kit

This is the original release of Tamiya's M 13/40, which first hit the stores when I was two (specifically 1974). Upon opening the box, you will find....a different tank. While the box top says that it contains parts to build an M 13/40, the parts inside the box are actually for the upgraded version of the M 13/40, that is the M 14/41. This is mainly because of the full-length fenders and lateral rather than longitudinal slats on the radiator grilles. There are also some details missing, or wrong, such as the exhaust mufflers, no inspection holes in the front upper fenders, missing bolt details and no lightening holes in the wheels. The level of moulding however is generally very good (for a 1970s kit that is). Decals provide markings for basically three vehicles : an M 13/40 (M 14/41?) from the Ariete Division, another one from the Littorio Division and a captured example used by the Australians, with large drawings of kangaroos on the turret sides. Extra company markings were provided for the Italian options. Despite the release of the newer (and actually being an M 13/40) kit, I stick to this one as it has been in my stash for years.

Construction

As usual construction started with the lower hull. Despite the instructions having you assemble the suspension and wheels, I started by adding the front and rear hull plates first and was followed by the idler wheel mounts. Afterwards, as per my usual style, the lower hull, suspension and wheels were painted with the latter two items while still on the sprue. I however used the newer kit's mix for the basic desert brown colour rather than the vague (which I assume to be XF-59 Desert Brown) one in the original kit. The paint was retouched afterwards and the suspension and wheels assembled. The M 13/40 family, like the Panzer IV, has 16 road wheels on each side, which makes for quite tedious painting and assembly. The one-piece engine deck, track and engine covers was then cemented to the hull. The tracks were left off until later as they are of the flexible vinyl type and can be added after painting. talking about the tracks, it was of the typical old style Tamiya ones with no details whatsoever on the inside face of the links.

The upper hull is a multi-piece affair consisting of the roof, side plates, access door, hull  machine guns (just the external parts only), periscope and the headlights. Make sure the assembly aligns correctly else you might have an offset upper hull. I did that by temporarily placing it on the lower hull to check the alignment. Although fairly aligned with the hull, there are a few gaps which had to be dealt with, especially on the joint between the roof and the sides. The upper hull assembly was then cemented onto the lower hull. Again there are gaps between the superstructure and the lower which needed puttying. The turret is also a simple affair, consisting of the shell, bottom, face, simplified trunnion, main gun barrel, hatch doors and an AA MG. The parts were cemented together with just a bit of filling needed on the roof. The muzzle is solid so I decided to drill them out. Unfortunately due to my crap drilling skills, the hole was off-centre! Oh well, better that than the solid muzzle. The exhausts and the boarding step were left off as I intended to add the tracks after painting has been done.

Painting and Decalling

As mentioned before, the kit's instructions stated that the base colour is 'sand brown' which I originally assumed to be Tamiya's XF-59 Desert Yellow. However, the instructions in the newer, re-tooled M 13/40 kit shows it to be 2 parts XF-60 Dark Yellow and 1 part XF-59 Desert Yellow and this was the mixture I used for this model (and on my model of the AB 41 armoured car). And, in of those moments, I realised that I have run out of XF-58 Olive Green, so no camouflage for this model. As for markings, I decided to do the less-known Littorio Division. There weren't any distinction between their markings and Ariete's - just the numerical designation. As for individual tank markings, I picked tactical symbols that identified the model as the 3rd vehicle in the 3rd platoon of the 1st company. Paint chippings was then simulated using XF-1 Flat Black and XF-64 Red Brown. The aerial recognition marking, a white circle, on the roof was not painted.

Finishing

OK, this is an out of the usual sequence affair. I decided to add piles of sandbags, acting as additional armour, to my model after basic painting had been done, Using the two-part epoxy putty technique previously used on my M5 Stuart, the sandbags were sculpted and placed onto the glacis plate. Somewhat absent-mindedly, I forgot to refer to many photographs available on the subject. There is quite a leeway here as the crews piled the sandbags on their vehicles as they see fit. The supplied jerricans, although of the Italian pattern, was crude. I replaced them with German jerricans from an AFV Club set (well, they were allies right?) The sandbags were painted XF-57 Buff and washed with brown. The same brown wash then was applied on the model although the leaf springs were washed with a black solution. As the model intended to represent a North Africa-based vehicle, an overall layer of dust was needed and I used MiG Productions Iraqi Dust (must get other shades of dust for variations). 

Conclusion

While fairly nice back in the 1970s, the first version of Tamiya's M 13/40 was crude by current standards especially the rubber band tracks and the solid gun muzzle (and not to mention being the wrong tank). Straight OOB, based on my readings, this particular Tamiya kit represents an early M 14/41 (more or less) and that particular error (or maybe not, depending on your point of view) has been rectified by Tamiya in 2008. The newer (and correct) M 13/40 not only have that tank's features but also some improvements such as better-detailed Italian jerricans, link-and length (and detailed!) track links and one-piece aluminium barrels. The original kit, while having good details, did not have a good fit especially between the fighting compartment and the hull. While cheap (and maybe even cheaper with the release of the newer version), it was something that only nostalgics or those not having access to the newer version or those trying to improve their modelling skills may try to build.