Schneider CA - WWI tank - HobbyBoss - Dinosaur With a Twist - 1/35

[DocRob]

I´m in a midsummer modelling funk right now, I opened many boxes, but got no motivation to build the kits. My latest projects had been demanding long term builds and I felt bored by the idea of simply snipping plastic from a sprue. 
The Schneider CA was sleeping in my stash since some years and now I pulled it out, as a simple in between travel, swimming, surfing, biking, barbecuing and whatever else comes to mind build.

The Schneider CA was the first operational French tank, first used in 1916. The off road capabilities were limited and it had another serious design flaw. The petrol tanks were positioned on the roof and could be hit easily, which gave the tank the nickname "Rolling Crematory".
400 of these were built and 6 were sold to Spain, where they were used in Maroc in 1922 and lastly by Spanish Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, which lead to my title, because by then, it was an obsolete design.



The kit is from Hobby Boss and represents the up armored late model, needed for the FC Model Tips conversion. The kit is of relatively high quality, but some parts could be more refined. Sprue attachment points seem to be placed at random and some parts have prominent parting lines. There are also some errors in the manual and some placements are only shown vaguely. In all, it´s an easy build with a fiddly three piece per link track, which I will substitute with a set of Friul white metal tracks.

The FC Model Tips conversion set contains some resin parts, which address the changes made from the late model, mainly the new rear tanks, a gunport in the front hull section, a manhole cover as extra armor and a few bits and pieces. A decal sheet for all the Spanish tanks is supplied, be it the 1922 Maroc version or the later 1936 Madrid version.
The resin is of relatively bad quality, with imperfections and bubbles and huge cast blocks, but nothing, that couldn´t be overcome.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

I have the feeling, this will be a short build log, I´m not used to put something together in only a few hours. I started with the under carriage, which consists on maybe half the parts count. It´s a bit fragile during construction, but in the end, it´s robust enough. Some parts like the coil springs look a bit toyish, but there will be dust and mud, so I didn´t bother. Fit was good, engineering was - hmmh - hobbybossish.



Next was the boxy body, which luckily is build up from a one piece tub. I needed to make some surgery, to add the front gun port, which only had some of the Spanish vehicles. Here the position is shown, clearly measured in the manual.



I added the gun port in front and the huge external tanks at the back. The cabin built up straight forward without issues. In contrast to the early version of the tank, this one was up-armored with additional steel plates, riveted on top of the body.





Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

Nice to see this kit being built. I have one in my stash and was intrigued by the Spanish modification. I see that FC model trend made or still

makes a conversion set and Star decals makes a set for this tank. I was afraid to try this. I have a 1/16 Hobby Boss panzer 38 (t) that I'm getting

supplies and After Market to build soon . So far, Nice Work! I'm going to be following this build. . 

Thanks;

Paul

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks like a fun build.  I saw someone else refer to these kinds of builds after a long build as a "palette cleanser" - maybe that will get your mojo back up and running.

[belugawhaleman]

9 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looks like a fun build.  I saw someone else refer to these kinds of builds after a long build as a "palette cleanser" - maybe that will get your mojo back up and running.

I did something similar, after building many 1/35 tank models, I decided to try building one of those Hasegawa "Egg Girl" things......I ended up

building four of them! I have been building.. But I thought twice about posting these things....they are, despite being a bit silly, fun to build.

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Definitely a different looking tank Rob. 

Nice to see it's going together easily. 

[DocRob]

10 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Nice to see this kit being built. I have one in my stash and was intrigued by the Spanish modification. I see that FC model trend made or still

makes a conversion set and Star decals makes a set for this tank. I was afraid to try this. I have a 1/16 Hobby Boss panzer 38 (t) that I'm getting

supplies and After Market to build soon . So far, Nice Work! I'm going to be following this build

It seems, FC Model Tips was an earlier incarnation of FC Model Trend. The modification is quite simple, cutting away a trapezoid in the front for the gunport and sawing away the huge cast blocks of the fuel tanks. There is a corrected version of the front grill present as well, but it was not looking good and I opted for the kit supplied PE.
The Spanish Republican version was an easy choice, as it looks cool and I´m living in Spain.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

8 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looks like a fun build.  I saw someone else refer to these kinds of builds after a long build as a "palette cleanser" - maybe that will get your mojo back up and running.

Let´s see Mike, in fact, there are no upfront challenges or new techniques to explore with this build, which kind of bores me. I never actually liked gluing plastic together, it´s the part of a project, which turns me off, mostly. I hope painting and weathering will be more interesting, but I like these very early quirky tank designs.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Definitely a different looking tank Rob. 

Nice to see it's going together easily. 

You got it wrong Carl, the others are different, as it was one of the first . The build is definitely easy done. Let´s see, how the Friuls will go together.

Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

6 hours ago, DocRob said:

It seems, FC Model Tips was an earlier incarnation of FC Model Trend. The modification is quite simple, cutting away a trapezoid in the front for the gunport and sawing away the huge cast blocks of the fuel tanks. There is a corrected version of the front grill present as well, but it was not looking good and I opted for the kit supplied PE.
The Spanish Republican version was an easy choice, as it looks cool and I´m living in Spain.

Cheers Rob

Was a template of some kind provided in the FC kit to locate the gun port?   I would like to try this as my Grandfather was from Spain

and doing a Spanish project Interests me. I have a 1/16 scale FT 17 and I have a set of 1/16 decals decals from FC that includes Spanish 

markings ...It's a cool option.. BTW I love gluing plastic together, Tamiya Extra thin, is in my blood.....Well, not really...😀

Are the Friul tracks FT 17 tracks? If so I'm curious about the fit.

Thanks;

Paul

 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Was a template of some kind provided in the FC kit to locate the gun port?

No template Paul, but exact measurements. I transferred some points onto the kit and connected them with a pencil, a sharp blade did the rest.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I finished building the Schneider minus the tracks. Almost everything worked like a breeze and the fit of the body parts was very good. The manual suggests to add the side MG´s with their gun carriage glued to the base of the tub and then add the sidewalls with the fitting hole on. That was somehow impossible to achieve and I suggest to cut away the lower part of the gun carriage and glue the ball mount direct to the side wall hole.

[PanzerWomble]

Bit of inspo for you Rob  - pics I took at Saumur in 2019 

 

 

 

Not much inside . 

 

 

 

[DocRob]

While preparing the track construction, I realized, I needed to add the running gear to the hull, to be able to determine the length of the tracks. I would have liked to add them after painting, but that wouldn´t be a big problem. 
The spoked rear wheel is still movable and not glued in place, because with it´s eccentric arm, it can be used to tighten the track.

  

Then I started with the tracks. Every link consist from two parts, which need to be drilled out with a 0,5 mm bit and then glued together with CA. It proved to be very difficult and time consuming to put the links together and then connect them with the next link, that´s why I leaned back and thought about another way, to simplify the construction. 
I found it much easier to connect the inner link parts with wire and secure them with CA and then finally add the running pads, which fell in place and were glued with CA.
The HobbyBoss manual suggests 32 links per side, but I will need 34, possibly 33, but that might be millimeter too short.





Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

12 minutes ago, PanzerWomble said:

Bit of inspo for you Rob  - pics I took at Saumur in 2019 

Interesting pictures, thanks for that PW. The one on your pictures seems to have additional tanks beside the back doors, which normally weren´t there with the French Schneiders of WWI. Mine has even larger tanks, that were added later in Spain, I guess as a substitute for the dangerous overhead tanks of the original construction.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Cool little project.  Ugly looking thing, but in an interesting way with some cool details.  Nice job!

[DocRob]

29 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Cool little project.  Ugly looking thing, but in an interesting way with some cool details.  Nice job!

The Schneider won´t win any beauty contests, Mike, but I have a weakness for quirky designs. The Spanish Republican livery will not add beauty wise.

Cheers Rob

[PanzerWomble]

[HubertB]

When I was a kid, in the mid 60s, long before the Museum was created, I have fond memories of crawling under the tanks in front of the instruction building in Saumur, with my buddy, who was the son of the commanding general of the Saumur School of Cavalry. We then climbed into the tanks via the manholes in the tanks’ bottom. Was it fun to « drive » a Sherman or T-34 !

Hubert

[PanzerWomble]

On 9/1/2025 at 7:23 PM, DocRob said:

The Schneider won´t win any beauty contests, Mike, but I have a weakness for quirky designs. The Spanish Republican livery will not add beauty wise.

Cheers Rob

Very steampunk , bit like the St Charmond . Terrible off road performance by all acounts. They made a bunch of replicas on BMP chassis for the 2019 remake of All Quiet on the Western Front ....slow but scary 

 

[DocRob]

22 hours ago, PanzerWomble said:

Very steampunk , bit like the St Charmond

Yeah, the St. Chamond, I guess, it was more about psychological effect than truly effective.

[DocRob]

I got the tracks done, thanks to my established second effort, it went rather quick. It is much faster to build a chain of the inner track links and then the track pads drop in place with a bit of CA. Building up every track link from two parts and then connect them would have extremely more time consuming.
I needed 34 links per side, which results in a loose fit, but there are no half links . The manual suggests 32 per side, but the plastic ones may be different.
I will blacken the tracks later with a burnishing fluid. Unfortunately my black CA glue dried up, which will lead to non blackened areas, where there are CA residues. 

One pad fell off and is reglued now. The closing link remains without pad until I finally mount them. 





Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

Tracks look great and seem to fit well and are a great addition .Nice work Rob😀 Were they meant for the Ft 17?

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Tracks look great and seem to fit well and are a great addition .Nice work Rob😀 Were they meant for the Ft 17?

Thank you Paul, the tracks are indeed made for the FT 17. I have a Meng FT 17 kit in my stash and have to check the tracks of this one, Maybe  I will order another set..

Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

4 hours ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Paul, the tracks are indeed made for the FT 17. I have a Meng FT 17 kit in my stash and have to check the tracks of this one, Maybe  I will order another set..

Cheers Rob

I've got the Meng ft 17 as well but I'll use their tracks,. But for my Schneider , I'll go for the Friuls, they look great. The one thing about Hobby Boss, they

do pick interesting subjects. I have a Vickers tank by them, that I'm certain that the Friul tracks for the Matilda II (flat type) will fit. Anyway thanks

for the idea.