Monday 30 April 2018

Renault UE finished

Finished whoopy.

First a bit of background:
1932 France, the cavalry wanted a small scouting tank, Renault offered the UE armed with a single MG. Because of its slow speed and lack of a turret the cavalry did not like it and got the AMC-33 instead.
The early French version lacked the bulge on the right side and used a different  MG mount with 7,5mm Châtellerault M1931. I presume the 3 pictures below are the early cavalry prototype build in 1932.




In 1936 pretty much the same version was offered to China, which ordered 10, main difference was a bulge on the right side and 1936 MAC 7.7 mm was used as its armament.
My guess is that the bulge was used for extra ammo, its just the right size for a couple of racks.


These 6 grainy pictures come from Chinese news clips






 These 2 pictures are of the Chinese version but I think the pictures where taken before shipping, no prove just the background looks more European then Asian to me, it could also be 1 of the 100 ordered by the France at the start of WW2 but because of that the camo is the same as the 10 sent to China I presume its 1 build for them.


Still surviving UE of what I think is from France but it does have the bulge, because of that I think that all later models had this bulge. The MG is missing but looks like it had hinges next to the opening which both the China model and cavalry prototype lacks, so likely 1 of the 100 ordered at the start of WW2.


Start of my model, base kit is the S-Model Renault UE with a simple box scratched from sheet styrene with rivets from Archers decals, gun is also scratch.

 Tried out many things on this tiny model, oil weathering and color glazing worked pretty well, but the wash turned it a bit to dirty, tried to tone it done a bit and that only worked partly, next I gave the running gear a light dusting with pigment.
Added a couple of ammo boxes, a crate and to give it more filler a cover made of putty.










Armed UE where a popular conversion, the Germans made a lot of different versions, the 1 below is close to my version but there are some difference, I dont know if this a captured France version or that the Germans made it of standard captured UE's.
Thailand also used a couple but does differ a lot from the above version.
couple of  sources forgot to save a few
http://ost-front.ru/2013/12/17/renault_ue_indochine/
http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/thread/1143496793
https://www.39-45.org/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=44161
http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/thread/1143496793
feel free to comment
Greetings Mondria

No comments:

Post a Comment