Tamiya L6/40 Italian Light Tank 1:35

Reference number: 89783 
Review by: Bill Curtis (May 2011)

Initial Assessment

What you get: A card box with lid containing six sprues from the Italeri moulds, plus a new one from Tamiya to make the two figures to accompany the tank. Also two sets of decals, an etch fret, instructions and a photographic reference manual.

Click on Image to Enlarge/go back.

 

Accuracy                                        

I have no plans of this tank, but from photographs this looks like it should build into a really nice model of the real thing. The colour schemes are varied from plain-sand to tri-colour sand, green and red brown. The life colour set for Italian armour would work well with this kit. 

Quality                                          

The quality of this kit is very nice, with crisp detail. Clean-up is minimal, which includes some small knock out marks.

You have to build the lower hull from flat sections, so care will be needed to ensure this is square. The barrel comes in two halves and care will need to be exercised with the joint clean up.

The interior has some detail and with careful painting and weathering it should stand up if the hatches are opened. None of the hatches have internal detail; as no engine is fitted some form of blanking is needed under the engine grill as they are see-through.

The suspension units are missing their casting numbers and the cast surface that is visible in photographs, but a stipple of either liquid glue or Mr Surfacer. The tracks are of the link and length type with some nice detail. The exterior of the kit has some nice rivet detail.

Instructions

The instruction sheet comes as a 10-page folded sheet which is in the standard Tamiya layout, with a history, build sequence and colour guide. This is all printed in clear crisp lettering with exploded line drawings for the assembly which looks to be easy to follow and in logical steps. For the painting, all colours are given in Tamiya ref numbers.

The reference booklet is a very good idea and has a great deal of valuable information between its covers. This is broken down into chapters as follows:

• Brief History
• Technical details
• Walkaround
• Colour profiles.

Decals                                             

There are two decal sheets, one from the Italeri heritage and the other an addition by Tamiya. Both look to be well printed and in-register.

Conclusions                                   

This is one of those kits that falls into the ‘something different’ category. The kit has very good detail, both internal and external, but it can be improved even more with the addition of some after market parts, or better still some home made ones.

The inclusion of the photographic reference book is a real winner, especially if you want to super detail and other companies could do with including one of these in their future kits.

Highly recommended.

Bill C.