Italy

Lancia IZ Armoured Car

The Lancia was the most important Italian armoured car of the First World War - it was built in some numbers and used against the Austrian and later German forces on the front on the north-east borders of Italy. Some were captured by the Germans and used to equip some armoured car units of their own, and Lancia armoured cars were used to train and equip American troops in Italy. The basis of these cars was the Lancia IZ 25/35-h.p. light truck chassis with pneumatic tyres, dual at the rear. The construction of the armoured cars was undertaken by the Ansaldo engineering firm, of Turin, and the vehicles were, in fact, sometimes known as Ansaldos or Ansaldo Armoured Cars. The layout of the design was fairly conventional, the only really unusual feature being the small turret (with one Saint Etienne water-cooled machine-gun) superimposed on the larger turret equipped with another two Saint Etienne machine-guns of the same type. The Lancia armoured car had a roomy hull (of chrome-nickel steel) and this was needed to accommo­date the large crew consisting of the car commander, driver, three gunners and a mechanic. Lancia IZ armoured cars were long in service and some were still in use by the Italian Army in East Africa in the Second World War. They were also used in the Spanish Civil War. My model is based on the white metal kit by Reviresco, built more or less out of the box, with some additional detailing.   Click on the thumbnails to see more views of this model:

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