Char D1 - a photo on Flickriver

Char D1

            Here is my most recent vehicle: the char D1.

This tank was made to replace the renault Ft within the french army in the late twenties. It was faster, more armored, armed with a 47mm canon and was operated by a 3 men crew: a driver, a commander/gunner and a radioman. In fact it was the first french tank to receive a radio, but instead of a regular radio it was using morse code since the french high command believed that it would have been impossible to hear a voice in the radio in the middle of a battle. But in 1934 it was decided to change their role from "infantry support" to "battle tank". In fact they were supposed to be replaced quickly within that role considering the quick evolutions in tank development at the time, they were replaced in 1937 by the char D2 and B1 tanks. The ones that have been produced were sent in Africa to invade lybia in case of an italian attack.
But in june 1940 they were moved in France to help the main army maintaining the Weygand line. They arrived to late after the collapse of the defense line but were involved in figtings near Souain. A lot of D1 were lost but they managed to stop 3 panzer divisions enough time to avoid french infantry units being encircled. After the battle of France the remaining tanks were sent again in Africa as part of Vichy France. But it was not over for them, during operation torch they were mobilised to fight aginst american tanks and after France colonies officially joined the allies they were sent to fight italians in Lybia like they should have done at the beginning.

It's a long but quiet interesting story of outdated tanks making their way through the whole war ^^.

My model is based on a D1 used in France withthe typical early 30's camoflage. It has a tricolor antenna used by some commanding tanks. The shapes were quiest difficult to get (especially for the turret) but I think that it turned out pretty well. I really love that the tracks are not covered which is typical for early tank designs. I applied some decals and that's how it looks now. I made some efforts to have it scaled a bit down compared to some of my other models in order for it to be perfectly minifig scale.

That's pretty much it, I'm personnaly proud of this model even if it looks strange because to be honest the real tank is also weird. I hope yoou'll like it !

Taken on: January 6, 2020

Tags:

Lego

france

WW2

char

tank

1940 « less

Sets appears in: • Char D1

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Camera: HUAWEI VNS-L31, f/2.0, 1/100 sec, 3.8mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	HUAWEI VNS-L31
Aperture:	f/2.0
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	3.8mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	Daylight
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	VNS-L31C33B370
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