British Char B1 bis

1
May 17, 2025
The current contents of the box of the Tamiya B1 bis I built almost twenty years ago, when it was new.
2
May 17, 2025
I built the model with the details of tank No. 251, named “Fantasque”, but never did finish painting it because of the intricacy of its camouflage pattern (see chars-francais.net/i..ntasque&catid=22). It will need some changes to become a late-production tank instead, which is where the parts still in the box come in.
3
May 18, 2025
I removed the remains of the antenna and then reinstated the seam between the plates and the rivets that had been removed/obliterated.
4
May 17, 2025
Pulled the bits off the tank that need to go. Well, the turret, its hatch and cupola will stay, but they were loose anyway 🙂 The antenna was very tricky to take off because it was glued over a large area, so I had to saw through most of it until I couldn’t go further with the saw because it would have gone into other bits that I want to keep.
5
May 18, 2025
And then I could put the other set of mudguards on.
6
May 22, 2025
I sawed off the gun barrel, drilled it out and put an Aber 2-pounder gun in its place.
7
May 31, 2025
I figure that by 1941, the B1 might have been welded instead of riveted, so I’ve chiseled, cut and scraped away most of the rivets. The ones I left on are those that I think were actually bolts on the real tank: on the roof, around the 75 mm gun and a few other places. I also replaced the driver’s hatch’s hatch by a plate with two British periscopes (from a Churchill kit).
8
June 12, 2025
The welds on the tank are now done. They’re deliberately a bit coarse, to reflect wartime production.
9
June 12, 2025
On the back, I added more tools from AFV Club Churchills, though the pickaxe head is from some other source as I couldn’t find a Churchill one in my spares boxes.
10
June 12, 2025
This one is now done, too.
11
June 12, 2025
I added the tow cables and an antenna base, plus a few more details, and I think it’s ready for painting (once the glue dries).
12
June 15, 2025
After spraying most of the tank in Khaki Green No. 3 by AK 3rd Gen, I brush-painted the horizontal surfaces with Games Workshop Charadon Granite (from a pretty old bottle).
13
June 28, 2025
Sickness, difficulty finding the right colours, an airbrush that didn’t want to cooperate … everything together this is once more taking longer than I would like. But by now I didn’t just finish the camouflage on the B1 but also added shadows and highlights.
14
July 30, 2025
Markings added from my decals spares box and a Peddinghaus set for the BEF.
15
July 30, 2025
16
August 27, 2025
Rain “effect” added by painting the upper surfaces in gloss varnish and then streaking that down the sides of the tank. This isn’t that visible in these photos, but close-ups later will show it better 🙂
17
August 3, 2025
I added rain streaks to the sides etc. by brushing thinned-down raw umber oil paint down them, aiming to leave irregular lines, and also added mud from Tamiya Flat Earth paint, again brushed to make it look like rain caused it to run down the tank. The tracks are Flat Earth with a wash to shade them, then Humbrol Polished Steel drybrushed over them.
18
August 27, 2025
The commander’s figure is an upper body from Gecko with legs from a figure from the Tamiya M25 Dragon Wagon.
19
August 27, 2025
20
August 27, 2025
21
August 27, 2025
22
August 27, 2025
Close-up of the rain effect on the side of the tank. I first painted gloss varnish down ward with a wide, flat brush, but very sparingly, to create thin streaks. The bigger streaks were then added with a fine brush.
23
August 27, 2025

Comments

28 17 May 2025, 14:52

gorby
Shame you never completed the Fantasque camouflage because no doubt it really would have looked fantastic.

1 17 May 2025, 15:33

Jakko ‌ Author
Other people have done it quite well since then, though. Probably a lot better than I would have done it back then, and likely also than I would now 🙂

1 17 May 2025, 17:21

Sergio Ordonez
Jakko: never heard about Char B in the British Army, so I Will resesrch and follow your assembly with Big expectation.
Thanks so much!

18 May 2025, 18:35

Jakko ‌ Author
That's because they never had any — but in 1940 there were sort-of serious talks about British steel works casting armour sections for B1 bis and/or H39 tanks (mostly about the latter), in return for which they would get completed tanks equal to half the number of sets of armour they made, and also some ideas for producing French tanks in the UK. Nothing came of any of this, of course. But these are what-if models based on the premise that the early part of the war happened in the way the French and British had envisioned, rather than the way the Germans did. In that case there would be a front line in northern France in 1941, and so the British might have had a need for tanks like these — or at least, might have been supplied with them so they put them to use.

2 18 May 2025, 20:19

Sergio Ordonez
Thank you so much, mate. A what-if build is alesys interesting. If British Army one, much more interesting for me.
Thanks, mate!

1 18 May 2025, 20:40