AS-42 of the 103rd Compagnie Arditi Camionettisti equipped with Breda Model 35 anti-aircraft gun in North Africa, March 1943
AS.42 Cannone da 47/32 M35
AS-42 on the Eastern Front
AS-42 North Africa “Italian – German resistance”
Bah, voi ragazzi e la vostra fantasia, armatura SP completamente armata e HMMWV armati! Perché indietro ai miei tempi …
I have a fascination with wheeled and half-track AFVs as well as SP artillery. The more unusual the vehicle, the more I’m interested. Here’s some basic reading on the AS.42:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPA-Viberti_AS.42
http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/italy/Camioneta_AS-42_Sahariana.php
I’m starting to feel the itch of a hobby I gave up almost 20 years ago. I built models as a kid but gave them up after getting married. I wasn’t that good at it, I didn’t have the time, 2 boys and 5 cats meant something was bound to get broken and I realized I always enjoyed the research more than the actual build.
Over the past couple of months I’ve been watching several different WWII documentary series and a couple of weeks ago one of them showed this oddball Italian tractor/prime mover that looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place. How did I know it was Italian? I didn’t, but the giant wheels had me pretty sure it was. I dug around the interwebs and determined it was a Pavesi P4 100 Mod. 30A:
Pavesi P4 100 Mod. 30A
Pavesi P4 100 Mod. 30A towing 88mm Flak
They even made a later version with pneumatic tires (steel wheels with folding spikes for traction was so 1920s):
Pavesi P4 100 Mod. 30A with pneumatic tires
Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, most of the pics I found were of models and I started feeling that old familiar tug so maybe there will be a model or two show up in the future. Probably some kind of oddball AFV in 1/72….
