Heer46 Carro Armato P43 Bis

Following the Krupp-Steyr Waffenträger from Tuesday, today we unpack and build the Armato P43 Bis by Heer46.

This is another tank from the resin series produced in cooperation with Rubicon Models. The Armato P43 was an Italian heavy tank that was developed by FIAT and Ansaldo, but never left the draft stage. The sources why the development stopped are not clear, some say the design was dropped in favour of the lighter P26/40 tank, but it is likely that the resources were just not available after the armistice of Italy with the Allies in 1943 and the Axis had other things valued higher than Italian tank development. Only two mock ups were build, but as mentioned before not further progressed. The tank was intended to weigh around 30 tons and have a 420-430 hp diesel V12 engine. The name Carro Armato P43 stands for armoured vehicle, P for pesante - Italian for heavy - and the number '43 most likely standing for the development year.

There were several guns planned for this pattern, like the 75/34mm cannon that was later used on the P26/40. In this kit the AA cannone 90/53 is included, as well as its derivation the smaller 90/42. There are no official rules for this tank in Warlord Games Bolt Action, but you could use the WWPD Vehicle Design kit.

The Carro Armato P43 is set at the same price as the Krupp-Steyr Waffenträger, at 25,50 EUR. This is a 9 piece kit, entirely made from resin, no metal parts. Very high quality cast, without any impurities or air bubbles within the resin. As this is a resin kit make sure to properly wash the parts before assembly. Resin kits may have leftovers of the detergent on their surface and that will interfere with the appliance of paint.

The assembly of a nine piece kit is rather easy, as you can see. First step is to close the hull with the floor plate. The tracks were slightly warped, but I fixed that after putting them in hot water for a couple of seconds. I only put them on the sides, without glue, so I can take those parts of during painting.

The turret is straight forward as well. Lower plate with the mount is added to the upper part of the turret. You have the two different guns in here, depending on if you want to use the 90/43 or 90/52. The hatch can be either closed or open.

The finished tank and as you can see, you could add a tank commander if you want to.

Yes, the Carro Armato P43 was meant to be a heavy tank, but the scale comparison with the Krupp Steyr Waffenträger in the first picture and a Panzer IV and Sherman Easy Eight, shows that it is more in the weight class of the medium battle tanks.

And the assembled Carro Armato P43 with 90/52 cannon.

Conclusion
The production quality is on the same high level as the other kit, we've covered earlier this week. If more resin kits would be this well-fitting and little trouble, it would be an even more popular material for tank kits. The details are well done on this kit and you can take a look into the P26/40 entry on tank encyclopedia for painting references.

What are the possible uses of this tank beside it being a model kit. Game wise it could work for a late war army of either Kingdom of Italy or Nazi Germany. It would be a great addition for Weird War, Dust in 1:56 or Konflikt '47. Daniel bought this kit with the idea of using it with his Konflikt '47 Italians.

It is going to be interesting to see, where this range further expands. Denis of Heer46 mentioned plans to cover the E-series and I'm really looking forward to such ideas. I can imagine a lot of conversion kits using the existing plastic range of Rubicon as a base, for the chassis and such and maybe cover Panzer IV Krupp Prototype, VK3002 or similar models.

This kit was produced by Heer46 in cooperation with Rubicon Models.