Review II: QRF Renault D2

So let’s see how this one turns out:

Four pieces: hull, turret and two identical track/suspension pieces.

 

The hull is a hollowcast piece with a very thick nose area, a subdivided hollowed middle chamber and a solid rear end that isn’t as deep as the nose. The turret is a solid one piece casting (like the original really) with a 2mm peg as the mounting point. The track/suspension units are reversible single piece mouldings.

 

All in all a pretty tidy model, much better than the FCM 2C. I still have some issues however: notably in the area of the trackwork and finish of the hull.

At each front end of the lower hull superstructure (where one attaches the suspension units) QRF have a large flat plate that continues down from the mudgaurds. This is about .5mm higher than the rest of the corrsponding attachment area and thus the track sponsons are not going to sit flush longitudinally. This would be a minor point, albeit annoying, and fixable with a simple shim of plasticard (something I have no qualms about doing normally anyway to get a flush seat on any model) if it wasn’t for the issue of these reversible track units. Nice idea in terms of mould efficiency but an absolute bear to keep everything square on the model if the contact surface is not flush. And given the various nooks and crannies of the suspension sponsons, that’s not going to happen. It’s exacerbated in this case by the fact that the trackwork itself is wider than the sponsons and suspension so again one has the problem of a non-trued mounting in one aspect. Combine that with the frontal plate issue and you’ve got issues of load bearing on the glue . Fixable properly by using Milliput as a gap filler to obtain the 90 degree true aspect but a bit more work than I’d want if I inteneded to field an entire company of this model.

 

The hull itself is pretty good although the angles of the stowage bins at the front end of the tank are blurry in definition and incorrect in aspect angle. A minor nitpick, solved with some judicious use of a file and a decent blade. Details generally are okay although somehat perfunctory and not as crisp compared to those attainable by resin models in general – but that’s always been an advantage of resin in any scale. My hull casting has a 1-1.5mm diameter sinkhole and a secon smaller one but both obvious and deep to the naked eye behind the left hand stowage bin. Again fixable but annoying. Looking at the hull directly from above, it’s slightly out of true at the upper glacis area and where the sloping engine plate meets the turret deck, but nowhere near as objectionable as the FCM2C was. This is something you’d have to be looking for to notice and shouldn’t show up from the usual oblique vantage point.

 

There’s some sinkage on the rear engine plate which mars the fairly basic grill detail but if at this stage you’re worried about that you’re probably thinking about redoing the engine grills anyway so you’d fix that at the same time with some milliput. The rear plate of the hull isn’t too bad with basic detail.

 

 

The Turret

 

Generally okay. Horizontal mould line around the turret is a personal annoyance. The real issue here is the fact that the armoured shroud for the coax interferes with the driver’s periscope badly. The turret is unable to be placed properly fore and aft as the shroud rests on the periscope and raises the turret slightly. This also means that it catches when turning the turret. Not a problem if you glue down your turrets but I don’t as I need to show turret traverse/armament orientation in my games. Fixable with a circular shim of plasticard easily enough. Details are somewhat crude at times and the casting is pretty rough in finish but a good primer and smart paintwork will smooth that out nicely.

 

The suspension units are not too bad apart from the issue of attachment mentioned above. The finish is a bit rough with some pitting and sinkage but nothing too drastic. Be prepared to remove some of the flash around the front drive whee but be careful of the rear idler, as the casting shape of it means it can look like flash. I did note that the rear idler on my model has signs of shrinkage in the metal which shows itself as a gap between the misshapen rim and track. Also the track at the rear is almost pointed rather than conforming to the expected curve. Rudimentary tracklink detail on upper surfaces and visble front/rear asp[ects but I hate painting tracklinks anyway so this works okay for me. There’s an obvious join/gap in the track midway along the bottom run.

 

Summary:

 

Average to poor quality in terms of casting crispness and shape, basic details are there, some aspects could be improved. I’m not sure I’d want to buy a whole company of them given the price per model, but it is effectively the only available model of the D2 that I know and it is after all a French tank which means you get to paint something that looks like it was designed by Dali with a colour scheme from Picasso. An improvement from the FCM 2C and very usable. Just be prepared to do some work and don’t rush the painting and preparation. A good paintjob will work wonders on this model and disguise most of the faults. Finally it’s not as cliched as fielding Somuas or Char Bs so you get style points.