Bronco Models 1/35 CV3/35 Tankette Series II (Late Production)
By Roy A. Schlicht
History
The Italian Carro Veloce (fast tank) 3 Tankette (CV3) was developed from the British Vickers Carden Lloyd Mk VI which Italy had purchased in 1929. Being accepted in 1933 the CV3 series was to become Italy’s most widely produced armored vehicle with over 2000 being built, many being exported to several countries including Hungary and China. The CV3/35 was a further development of the preceding CV3/33. It consisted of a simplified superstructure and hull that was bolted together instead of riveted as well as new “roller type” vision ports. Other than that they were nearly identical. The CV3/35 was armed with twin 8mm Breda MGs in a single mount on the left side of the front plate. Besides the basic MG armed tankette, a bridgelayer and recovery vehicle were also built.
The Kit
Bronco has been around for a few years now and have a knack for releasing subjects yet to be done in plastic. This kit is no exception, being the first and only CV tankette in plastic to date. Bronco’s kit of the CV3/35 comes packaged in a 9.5” x 15” box adorned with artwork portraying a Chinese marked CV3/35. Inside the box is a very nice instruction booklet with full color painting and decal guide, 5 sprues with tan colored pieces, 1 sprue with clear parts and a small baggie with the decals and P.E. fret inside. The sprues are broken down in the following fashion:
1. Ax2; Suspension and some interior parts
2. B; Lower hull and some interior parts
3. C; clear head lights
4. D; interior parts
5. F; Upper hull parts
6. P; P.E. fret
7. Decal sheet with marking for 4 vehicles: 1 Chinese, 1 Hungarian, 1 German and 1 Italian
Based on the instruction sheet there are only 2 parts that are not used in this kit.
The Parts
The parts are sharply molded and appear flash free (except for the sprockets which have some very easy to remove flash on the inside of the mounting hole). I see some area that will require a little clean up of mold seams but these appear to be far and in between. Knock out marks are mostly confined to non visual areas and those that are in areas that can be seen should be easy to clean up with a couple swipes of a sanding stick. Bronco provided both Fiat 8mm Model 14/35 and Breda 8mm Model 38 MGs with slide molded MG barrels so no drilling is required.
Accuracy
This is where the kit falls a bit short. The upper hull captures the bolted manufacturing quite well but not being a rivet counter I cannot tell you if they are all there or not. The hatches are wrong for a “late Production” CV3/35 in that they have the earlier round vision access hatch seen on CV3/33 and first batch CV3/35s vice the rectangular access hatch seen on late production 35s.
Another short coming is the barrel length of the Breda 8mm Model 38 MG. They look way to short but the longer barreled Fiat 8mm model 14/35 MG barrels look fine although for a CV3/35 these should not be used. Moving on to the lower hull, the round bowl shaped access hatch on the rear lower hull plate looks to shallow and to sharply defined. It may be accurate but just doesn’t look right.
The last thing of note are the Pioneer tools. The CV3/35 had some of the pioneer tools (shovel and track bar) relocated from there former positions on the lower superstructure sides right above the tracks to the upper rear superstructure. These tools are missing from the kit altogether.
Conclusion
For those who like to build Italian armor like me, we’ve been a long time waiting for this kit to come out in plastic. This kit looks very good with the short comings all appearing to be easily fixed with some minor surgery and parts scrounging except the rear hull plate which, as I mentioned, may not be wrong at all. A full build review will follow shortly as well as my recommendation.
Thanks to Stevens International for the review kit.