HäT's FT-17 Canone (Girod turret)

If it were the French who made the worst tanks of the war, it should also be noted that they also made the very best one, the Renault FT-17, a quite revolutionary vehicle which set the shape and pattern for tanks of the future, even up til today. It came out of a desire to give the standard tanks like the CA 1 a light partner, designed to be more more fitting than the heavies for the exploitation of breakthroughs. It was a joint semi-private project between the maverick father of the french tank weapon, Estienne, and the french firm of Renault. After much bureaucratic delays the first prototypes were tested in early 1917, and proved to be an immediate success. It included a number of very innovative features, including an easily turned turret - moved manually.

The turret came in two basic types: either a cast, so called Girod turret, or a riveted, so called Omnibus turret.

The turret made the employment of it's armament much more flexible and effective, and the whole vehicle was considerably more agile and easy to drive than it's heavier partners, yet better protected. Although the short length of the vehicle - rectified somewhat with the addition of the special tail - often made trench-crossing difficult, the track assembly with it's large front wheel gave the tank good ability to climb high obstacles. It also proved easily adapted to form numerous variations (besides the basic variants, equipped with either one MG or one 37mm cannon), including a Signals and Command tank, a 75mm gun tank and a Fascine Carrier.

This tank was produced long after the war, and was exported to more than ten countries, including Japan, Poland, Canada, Spain and Brazil, clones or copies were made in Italy, USA and the Soviet Union, and it was used in practically all the armed conflicts of the Twenties and Thirties, and it soldiered in WW2, were it was used by the French, the Finns, the Yugoslavs and others. Even the Germans themselves used captured FT-17:s, in security roles.

For much more info on and photos of on the FT-17, click here!
 

Contents of the kit:
click to enlarge!

The American firm of HäT, which are the world leaders when it comes to soft plastic small figures - their range is HUGE, and expanding all the time, not least into the field of WW1 - a couple of years ago moved into the AFV kit area, with their so called Armourfast range. The idea was to offer cheap, simple AFV kits in hard plastic, aimed primarily at the Wargaming market. They have made quite an impact: they are dirt cheap (you get two tanks per box) and accurate in outline and shape, thus lending themselves easily to super detailing. Now they have issued their first WW1 AFV: the FT-17.

The kit itself consists of only seven parts: two tracks, the two-parts hull, turret, cupola and gun.It is (of course) easy to assemble. The material is dark-green hard plastic. There is practically no flash. The contents are identical to the other FT-17 kit released by HäT, save - of course - for it comes with a cast, cannon-equipped turret.

The fit is good, and requires only a minimum of filler. The only problem at this stage is the roof of the turret, which is a bit sunken in, but that is also easy to fix with filler.

The shape of the kit is accurate, the only real complaint is that the big forward idler is placed just a little bit low, say 1.5mm. It is almost impossible to correct, as the whole track assembly is moulded in one integral part, so you will either have to replace the whole assembly all together, or simply live with it. The detailing is dictated by the nature of the kit: it IS simplified, there is no doubt of that. For instance, the exhaust is half-round, and integrated into the hull, and the detailing on the top of the engine deck are more like stylized representations of the real thing.

I did build it on one evening, and the next evening painted and weathered it! Quite a relief to do such a fast build! See to the left for pics of the finished model!

But in my view, this is a fine base for further detailing work. Click here, if you want to know how to do this in six easy steps! It will also be a fine base for conversion work. I will, for example, use it to make a number of FT-17 variants, like the Soviet KS-1, which can be done without the monumental effort connected to the fabulously detailed but atrociously engineered RPM kit.

I find the Armourfast concept appealing, and if I had to choose between the RPM offering and HäT's, I would opt for HäT's, because this once you can actually build without being driven to drink...

I have seen this kit in an early release form, but when it is finally released, it can of course be had from all major suppliers, like Hannants, Jadar or Tracks & Troops!

The judgment of this kit is ultimately dependant on your own attitude to the hobby as such. If you want to have 100% accurate replica more or less from the box, this offering from HäT will perhaps put you off. But if you are prepared to do a lot of extra detailing work, this can be made into quite a nice model, I'm sure.

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