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Autoblinda AB 40 Ferroviaria
1:35 Italeri Models ITA-6456
The AB 40 armoured car was devised for the Italian Royal Army in the late 1930s, to replace the old Lancia models. The vehicle was innovative at the time, being a four-wheel drive with separate suspensions and two driving positions. The armoured car was fitted with two 8mm machine guns in the turret and another in the rear of the hull, but was only built in small numbers for evaluation purposes, as development of the more sophisticated AB 41 was already underway. A few of the models were turned into tracked patrol vehicles as the wheels could be replaced with rail wheels and relative braking systems. A few of these vehicles were used in Yugoslavia by the Italian forces and, later, by the Germans.
I thought that I'd share with you this model that I've just built as it is on a railway theme. I bought it thinking that perhaps I could add a motor to it, but it is quite a delicate model with plenty of detailed parts. The chassis, that you can hardly see here is very detailed and takes about a day to build. If you had to add metal wheels and axles than you would probably want to scrap most of the detail of the suspension and wheel linkages. There is quite a bit of space inside the car and you would fit a motor there. I'm happy with it and it was great fun to build. I painted it pristine then set about adding some rust, grime and dirt. Here are some more photos:
The box and plastic parts:
