During my last roadtrip, I picked up a couple of old packs of Battlefront L3-33 Tankettes to fill out my Italian forces. I had originally bought a few packs back in the day to field with my early war Hungarians (a force that I still have not worked on!). When I worked on my Italian army last year, I thought it would be good to add these to that army to play 1940 fights. I then saw that I did not have too many and knew I needed more. Luckily, I found them while on the road.
The time finally came and I decided it was time to get them put together. The pack comes with five models and give you the option to build them with the normal twin MGs, 20mm Solothurn, Brixia or flamethrower variant. Unlike most older Battlefront kits, these are actually completely metal (no resin). This has advantages and disadvantages. It does mean that you could buy models from other companies and not have any different in weight. This is probably the choice now, as these BF models are no longer sold. I assume they will bring them back whenever BF redoes early WWII for Flames of War.
I unpacked all the models from their blisters and started the flash removal phase of the work. This was not too bad for the larger pieces, but a bit of a pain for the smaller weapons, but I got it done. I then blued everything together with super glue. I decided to do one unit of flame tanks and three units of mixed tanks including one with a 20mm and another with the Brixia. I figured the Brixia would make it easy to identify the platoon leaders.
Next came painting. Since they were intended for early war in Europe, I decided to go with the green option. So, I sprayed these German Field Grey to start. I then hit the models with a green armor wash from Vallejo to bring out the grey breed effect. Next I painted the mufflers red brown, then the tracks grey and the weapons black. To give more depth, I then hit the models with a black GW wash. I then dry brushed the green areas with Vallejo field grey and then the entire model with tan.
I decided to not apply the unit decals on the tankettes. I see that not having these was not uncommon. This would allow me to use them in other armies in a pinch, so clean it is! With that, some dull coat and I have some light armor for my growing Italian army.
- Manteuffel