Reviresco:s 1/72 Lancia 1Z 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 1Z 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 ground clearance of the Lancia armoured car was particularly good for a car of the period.

A feature also used in other Italian armoured cars was the rails, incorporating wire cutters at the tip of the rails, to enable the vehicle to pass through wire obstacles stretched across roads. 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.

The car weighed about 3950 kg. loaded including 25.000 rounds of ammunition. The engine of about 60 b.h.p. (35 h.p. nominal) gave a maxi­mum speed of 70 km/h and the car had a circuit of action of about 500 kms. It had a crew of 6 men. The length was 5.240m, the width 1.9m, the height 2.89m, and the wheel base 3.570m.

The 1Zm model of the Lancia 1Z armoured car was almost identical in appearance to the first type except that the small turret was eliminated and the third machine-gun was mounted instead in the back of the hull, facing rearwards. Lancia 1Z & 1Zm 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.

For more info on the Lancia 1Zm, click here!

Contents of the kit:

Click on the pictures for an enlarged version! 

The kit comes packed in a plastic bag, with a cardboard header typical of Reviresco. The kit itself contains some 17 parts , all in white metal. The moulding is acceptable: it is not of course as smooth as you expect on a resin or plastic kit, and some of the parts, for example the big turret, will require a bit of work to get acceptably smooth. It is a typical Reviresco type Armoured Car, i.e. the sides of the vehicle are separate, as is the roof, bonnet etc. There is of course a back side to this: there is always the risk of gaps etc, but my experience is that fit is actually pretty good. It comes with some info on the actual vehicle, but no real plans per se, although this shouldn't be to difficult to cope with.

As far as I can see the kit is accurate. You would probably want to replace the wire-cutter rails, and add footsteps beneath the doors. Otherwise it is actually pretty complete. Click here for another side-view.

You can get this kit directly from Revirescos own site!  

This is a fairly basic kit, and the general finish is rough. And I do believe that this is an item really at the wargaming market, so it is not too subtle. But it is the only Lancia IZ to be had in this scale - or, do I believe, any scale - and with a bit of work it can be done into a nice little model.