Recently I participated in the Mad Mob Miniatures Kickstarter for French or former French vehicles.  This was really a no-brainer for me since I really needed one of the elusive German 7.5cm PAK auf Somua conversions for Too Fat Lardies campaign supplement KAMPFGRUPPE VON LUCK.  I do regularly  run Fall of France games for Chain of Command so some pre-converted  half-tracks would prove useful as well.  (Besides those French half-tracks are just the thing for a desert based Pulp Game!)

I have done business with Mad Bob before, when I bought my German converted Lorraine Schlepper and had been pleased so no risk there.

The Kickstarter levels were arranged by the number of vehicles you wanted to buy with no need for a decision on what those would be until sometime after the conclusion.  The Kickstarter was very successful and many stretch goal vehicles were added.  That was very important to me as one of the vehicles I most wanted was itself a stretch goal.

Furthermore, when the Kickstarter finished, Mad Bob allowed us to add any of the other vehicles to or order at the Kickstarter rate which while I did not, in the end, do so,  I certainly considered it.  I think that was a great offer and pleased that it was available.

So my order did arrive this week.  Three half-tracks.  two were the French models, a standard P19 and a Staff model.  The other was the aforementioned and longed for Somua conversion.  All three models have very little flash and very crisp details (much better than it appears in some of these photos).

The P19 VDP is the basic French troop transport half track.  The model consists of three pieces, the body, the windscreen and the canvas roof.  Mine arrived broken, with the some of the pieces meant to support the roof gone.  In the picture, the remaining ones have been removed by myself.  I will either build it without the roof or scratch build replacements.  Not difficult but a shame that might have been prevented by better packaging.

 The next model is the Staff car version, P19 VLTT. This model consists of four pieces,  the body, roof, windscreen, and a spare tire.

 And lastly, the point of the exercise, the 7.5 cm PAK auf Somua.  This model is very nice.  Mine arrived with the barrel a little bent, but a simple soak in warm water allowed that to be repaired.  This model is composed of six parts, but none of them are very fiddly and it looks like it will all go together well.  It is going to be beautiful when all painted, decaled and weathered.  So now I am off to do that!

If you do early war, or might need some of the odd French conversions, I certainly suggest you take a look at Mad Bob Miniatures.  He does good work and a number of his offerings are unusual and hard to find models.

Cheers,

Ron