I have been heavily engaged hobby-wise since December at building out both 8th Army and Panzer Army Africa tank forces. This blog post describes my last few tanks (well, for now) for What a Tanker© in WWII North Africa. As I plan on running this scenario at HAVOC in April, my goal was to create a diverse-enough tank list so that the players could have a very fun game that also would reflect the wide diversity of tanks and tank destroyers used by both sides from 1940-1943. I analyzed my respective armies’ 15mm/1:100 scale tank rosters, and concluded a couple things. First, my Italians lacked some rivet-laden death traps, also known as Fiat Ansaldo M11/39’s. Second, my British could use another M3 Grant and an M4 Sherman to deal with the German’s Tiger I. Upon further research, I learned that the Australians captured several of the M11/39’s – so that inspired me to build one for the 8th Army as well. Therefore, I built 3 M11/39’s, one Grant, and one Sherman.
This overall North Africa project has been documented in this blog in five previous posts, (which you can read about here, here, here, here, and here) and I plan on a summary post as well in the near future. There I will detail more about the game scenario and how I run it. These 5 tanks brings me to a total of 46 tanks since December for this scenario.
M11/39’s
The M11/39 designation meant that it was an 11-ton tank, built in 1939. 100 were built by Fiat. It had a 37 mm hull-mounted gun and a turret with double 8 mm machine guns. It did not do well in combat, due to its inferior design, especially the turret having no anti-tank capability. For What a Tanker© games, this means that the tank’s turret is meaningless – it is like having a tank destroyer without the benefits of a tank destroyer.
I decided to try a different source for the tank models, and found that I could get three from Old Glory for $25, which seemed reasonable. I also bought a few other vehicles for other scenarios. I was surprised to see that they were completely made of metal – even with a lead warning on the package! As a metal aficionado, I was pleased.
I did have however a concern with the quality of the castings. They all had significantly problematic mold lines on the machine gun turret, and the details on the hull were much less clear than Battlefront models. Still, the price reflected that, so it was up to me to make it work. Which I did.
Two of these would be for the Italians, and one would be an Australian-captured M11/39 tank. While technically not a squad, they certainly could have started out that way in the Italian Army! For that reason – and because my good friend Azazel runs a fun painting challenge each month (and is an Aussie) – these three will constitute a submission from me for March’s “Squad March” painting challenge.
For priming, I went with a brush, as these seemed to be very smooth castings. I worried that it would be difficult to get the paint to “bite”. They also were hollow at the bottom, so I needed to devise a way to mount them for painting. I ended up using a small square dowel and poster tack on small plates.
I did not take as many pictures during the process as I wanted to get these done for a game this weekend, but unfortunately some snow took care of that, and they will get a chance next weekend. I list all the paints I used at the end of the blog for those interested.
Then I used washes, pigments, decals, and other paints to finish them all up. There will be an eye-candy section following the sections on the tanks.
I read that the Aussies used these until they ran out of diesel (their tanks had gasoline engines so diesel was rare). Then they blew them up. I believe that there are no surviving examples of the M11/39 in the world.
M3 Grant
I already had one M3 Grant painted, but with the Germans having a Panzer IVF2 and a Tiger I in the DAK inventory, I wanted to augment the 8th Army’s later war desert forces with another Grant and a Sherman.
M4 Sherman
The major difference in painting here from the M3 Grant was the camouflage pattern I used.
Please let me know any feedback in the comments section, I do appreciate your thoughts. Now it’s time for…
Eye Candy
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS AND FLOCKING USED ON THE M11/39’s:
- Vallejo “Flow Improver”
- Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
- Vallejo “Surface Primer – Black”
- Vallejo “Dark Sand”
- Battlefront “Dry Dust”
- Battlefront “Army Green”
- Vallejo Game Air “Black”
- Battlefront “Monty Shade” (shade)
- Army Painter Quickshade “Soft Tone” (wash)
- Army Painter Quickshade “Strong Tone” (wash) – on Australian version only
- Battlefront “Dark Gunmetal”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Rust Wash” (wash)
- Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner”
- Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Light Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Natural Umber” (pigment)
- Gorilla Glue
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
- Microscale Micro-Set
- Microscale Micro-Sol
- Microscale Satin
- Microscale Liquid Decal Film
- Appropriate decals from Battlefront
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish”
- Aleene’s poster tack
- Sponges
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS AND FLOCKING USED ON THE M3 GRANT AND M4 SHERMAN:
- Vallejo “Flow Improver”
- Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
- Vallejo “Surface Primer – Black”
- Vallejo “Dark Sand”
- Battlefront “Chocolate Brown” (M3 Grant only)
- Battlefront “Tommy Green (M4 Sherman only)
- Vallejo Game Air “Black”
- Battlefront “Monty Shade” (shade)
- Army Painter Quickshade “Light Tone” (wash)
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Rust Wash” (wash)
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Dark Rust Wash” (wash)
- Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner”
- Battlefront “Dry Dust”
- Battlefront “Dark Gunmetal”
- Secret Weapons Washes “Armor Wash” (M4 Sherman only)
- Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
- Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Light Sienna” (pigment)
- Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
- Gorilla Glue
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
- Microscale Micro-Set
- Microscale Micro-Sol
- Microscale Liquid Decal Film
- Microscale Satin
- 1/8″ rare earth neodymium magnets
- Appropriate decals from Battlefront
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish”
- Aleene’s poster tack
- Sponges
Thanks for looking and for sharing your feedback!
ON MY RESEARCH MATERIALS
As for research materials, I used the same ones as I cited in previous posts plus Google searches and Battlefront’s website. Here the books are in case you are interested – you can find them on Amazon and I highly recommend them all:
- Jean Restayn:WWII Tank Encyclopaedia, 1939-45
- Smithsonian/DK: Tank: The Definitive Visual History of Armored Vehicles
- Michael Green:Axis Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the Second World War (Images of War)
- Robert Jackson:Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles Visual Encyclopedia
I would again easily recommend all of these books as really good resources for gamers and modelers. Thanks for looking and for sharing your feedback in the comments section.
Now I might go back to retro sci-fi for a bit! Still have many more tanks to do, but those will be for other scenarios.
Do you have a favorite tank of the ones here? Why? Let me know!
Mark A. Morin 
Looking good mate. I am still undecided where to base my games for WAT. I have printed some MkIII’s a couple of 38T’s a MKIV a panther and a tiger 1
Oh and a Stuart too 👍… Stuart is feeling a little outnumbered so I had better print him some friends 😁
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Can’t have enough tanks, especially when you find them on sale! It depends on what you want to do – with later war stuff you really need something that will play balance. Hopefully I can finish my blogging (I am soooo far behind having just started a new job). Thanks for looking!
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I was inspired by your desertyness, I printed the Panther because I like them. Probably going down the DAK route.
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There’s so many cool obscure tanks to play there! Hope to see stuff from you soon.
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Great job mate I just love these I have not heard of them before ,and It is sad that none in existence now so you are doing a great job showing us something rare .
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Thanks Pat. I found the story of the M11/39’s interesting. It’s not too surprising that none of the 100 survived – the Italians moved on to produce better tanks on the same chassis like the M13/40’s and M14/41’s, etc. All M11/39’s were lost in combat, though I wonder if some hulks are not out in the desert somewhere even now.
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The clear fave for me is the M11. Didn’t know anything about them before now. I love that blew them up haha but it’s a shame there aren’t any left. Nice work all round. Due to my German Ork project I’ve been watching some docos on the campaign in Tunisia during WWII. The M3’s didn’t fair to well so it seemed.
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Thanks IRO! Well arrival of the M3 on the desert battlefield marked the first time that the Brits had a tank that was decent against the majority of German Panzer III’s and IV’s on the battlefield. Previous tanks were too slow (Valentines and Matilda II’s), poorly armored (several cruisers), lacking HE to deal with infantry or anti tank guns (especially 88’s), range-limited (Stuart’s), etc. Yes, the M4 Sherman was much better for sure, and the Grant was no match for newer German armor after 1943 ( though it did well in the Pacific mainly with the Commonwealth forces). Glad you like the M11, I love the Roos!
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The Roos make it
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I’m with IRO – the roos on the side are bonza!
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Thanks Dave – and yet another new word for me – bonza! Love it!
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Cannot say I’m surprised at how good these are are Mark. If I have a difficulty with it at all it’s trying to say something different from simply repeating myself! The tanks look great up against the various images and you’ve nailed the detail, spot on. I think the only change I would make is you need a Kelly, Big Joe and above all an Oddball for the Sherman for no other reason than you should! 😉
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I appreciate that as your modeling is so damn good, so coming from you that’s high praise Dave. Of course, painting 15mm scale soldiers is quite different than 25/28mm in terms of details! The older Battlefront models have crews, but they are relatively poorly detailed and I left those out. The newer ones are a bit better with their resin crews. In any case, this is a Brit like you – so who would be the British equivalent of Kelly’s Heroes?!
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Now that is a good question. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a direct equivalent, I’ll have to check out the actors of the day, you can be sure they would have got the parts had a Limey version ever been made.
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I’d go with Monty Python dudes
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Awesome tankage as always mate, but I’m also endlessly impressed with the quality of research you put in to this project… superb!
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Thanks Alex, I’m glad you enjoyed them, and the history. I’m much better at that than understanding the arcane worlds of GW! Though I do like looking at the figures! Take care
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Great attention to detail, Mark, both in the research and the finished product. I liked the M4 Sherman – it looks like it has just come off a desert battlefield!
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Cheers – that’s what I was hoping for! Appreciate the feedback!
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Great post again Mark. The depth of research and consistency of the project is a pleasure to follow.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks much Pete!
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Been away for work and just got back tonight to read your post, so really enjoyed it! I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist doing an Aussie M11/39. I like all of your tanks featured here, and it was difficult to pick
a favourite, but I think it’s the the Grant! Well done on getting those M11/39 turrets cleaned up – I absolutely hate those mis-cast lines round some parts and I usually have to try Milliput and/or a Dremel to remedy it. The problem’s worse when there are rivets present since they nearly always get removed in the cleaning up process! So well done with this lot!
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Thanks John, you know me – I like the obscure. Glad you like the Grant – I like that camouflage scheme better than the one I did previously, and it will stand out better on the table. That M11/39 turret was so tiny I’m not sure I could have used my Dremel without destroying it. Filing was slow but in conjunction with a sprue cutter I got it down. Going to do a scenario wrap up at some point, but now I have 46 for the North Africa scenario, and 104 for all of them. BTW, in October I had zero! I know you’re a tank guy too. I might be switching off to some sci-fi stuff and terrain for the rest of the month before HAVOC.
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You’ve done well with the tanks! I can remember you saying you had over a hundred to do and it doesn’t seem too long ago!
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Finding that 50% off sale certainly got me going. I have a France 1940 scenario with the French and Germans, a North Africa scenario, a 1941 Eastern Front scenario, and am collecting enough vehicles for a Nomonham/Battles of Khalkhin Gol scenario with the Japanese and Soviets in Mongolia in 1939. Still long term I will have the traditional post-D-Day US/UK/Germany Western Front 1944-1945 stuff – but that’s common enough. I’d rather continue with the obscure!
(and I know you get that!)
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I’ve had tanks sitting around for ever waiting for me to do Nomonhan! For the Russians I’ve got T-26s, BT-5s and BA-6 armoured cars, plus an SU-5 self-propelled gun, all primed but none finished. Japanese tanks are now done after I got my Type 89s painted early last year. So I’ll look forward to seeing your tanks!
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Absolutely top notch stuff mark as always!! great idea with the putty masking, super idea! They all came out wonderfully.
Also a bit late but those flaming smoke/destroyed markers you showed last post are brilliant, one of the best things I seen this year!!!
Cheers Roger.
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Thanks man, though it’s poster tack, which comes off easy, I think putty would not? Glad you liked them. The blasts are nice visually, and easy to make.
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Another fantastically epic post, Mark. Apologies for getting to it so late, but as you would have seen, I’ve barely been concerned about blogging lately. As for my favourites, obviously I’m biased..
Oh, and you’ll probably be a little tickled to know that to this day, the ‘roos survive on the turrets to this day.. (if you didn’t already know it, that is!)
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Thanks and glad to have you Aussies represented in my 8th Army group. I know you’ve had a lot of family challenges lately so please, no apologies. I am glad I got the 3 M11/39’s done for the March challenge, as HAVOC prep has basically taken a lot of time this month. Did not know the Roos were still a turret feature still! (And that is great to hear). Hope your family and especially your Dad are doing well.
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No worries Mark, and thanks for the kind words yet again. 🙂
I’ve started assembling the post now, so in another month or so I should have it completed! 😉
As for the roo-turrets, I don’t know for sure that they’re on all tanks and armoured vehicles, but they’re certainly not uncommon at all.
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/78a2e312fb18f86ff818e465c5194d36
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Nice Roo M-1! And the best things take time, hell, I missed April Armored but made Mechanismo May!
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