Orel B1 Bis tank 1:25

**cjwalas** · #1 03-16-2009, 01:40 PM

Orel's come out with a model of one of my favorite tanks, the French B1 Bis.

The B1 was a heavy post WW1 tank that was both heavily armed and armored, more so than the early panzers it came up against at the start of WWII.

Char B1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a simple kit (for a tank, anyway) and it looks like something I may actually build someday. It's 10 pages of parts on cardstock, 2 pages of formers on thin paper, and 2 pages of diagrams. There are no written instructions in any language that I can see.

The coloring on the kit is basic, which is unfortunate. This kit would benefit tremendously from a weathered paint scheme such as is illustrated on the cover. The printing overall is fine, my copy has a hairline mis-registration of the green on one page.

The tracks are bands , inner and outer, with additional plates, inner and outer, and outer bars.

One could easily add detail to this kit with some simple layering. There is no interior at all. There are some photos of the completed kit on the Orel site (that could use some edge coloring!);
Paper modelling

All in all, I think this is a nice starter tank kit of an interesting prototype. I look forward to trying to put this one together someday!
Chris

**CharlieC** · #2 03-16-2009, 05:27 PM

Nice to see a model of an important vehicle and also a French tank. The Char B1 started a fashion in armoured vehicles to put a heavy gun in the hull with a turret mounted anti-tank weapon. This idea appeared in tanks such as the early Churchill, US M2/M3 tanks, Italian M11/39.

The model looks fairly simple but it looks as if detailing could be added quite easily. It looks from the Orel site images as if the suspension is modelled - is this so?

When do we see the build thread?

Regards,

Charlie

**Stev0** · #3 03-16-2009, 06:06 PM

Wow ... this is gonna be a MASSIVE model at 1:25.

**CharlieC** · #4 03-16-2009, 06:15 PM

Not that big - in 1/25 it comes out as 254mm long x 98mm wide x 111mm high - in American 10" x 4" x 4.5".

Regards,

Charlie

**cjwalas** · #5 03-16-2009, 06:43 PM

Charlie, it looks like the kit may be a smidge longer than 10", but not much. There doesn't appear to be any suspension on the model at all. It's a pretty simple model. I will get to this one, but it won't be any too soon. Too many waiting on the pile ahead of it! (of course, I said that about the BPM PO-2 as well!)
Chris

**jagolden01** · #6 03-17-2009, 04:57 AM

When you do decide to build, please do a thread on it.
I was extremely pleased to see this model pop up.

**moonwoka** · #7 05-25-2009, 06:56 AM

While the suspension is very basic, not very much will be seen because of side skirts (or whatewer they are called). The bright yellow color scheme, however, is suspicious. But the biggest gripe is the turret. The base is too flat and turret itself looks more like a welded one, while in reality it was cast. Other than this it looks like a good, albeit simplified, model.