M11/39 Troop

Here's a troop of what was probably one of the worst tanks to see service in the Western Desert, and considering the competition that's quite an achievement.

The Italian Fiat M11/39 had a main armament of an obsolete 37mm gun mounted in the hull, which meant that not only could it not operate effectively hull-down, it also had a very limited traverse, so to engage targets to its flanks the whole tank had to be rotated. It did have a rotating turret, but that just mounted a pair of rifle-calibre machine-guns. To add to its shortcomings, it was slow and somewhat unreliable, and its armour was proof against small arms only. Even the Vickers Lights were more than a match for it, being much faster and more maneuverable, and the .50 Vickers and the 15mm BESA could both readily penetrate its armour.

These 1:100 scale (15mm) models were 3d printed on my Ender 3 FDM printer. Overall they're OK models, but the 37mm is way out of scale so that it would print reliably — one of these days I might lop them off and replace them with barrels turned down from brazing rod.

The model is available for download on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3385848