French AMX-13/90

This month I have my French AMX-13/90. The French designated the vehicle as the Char 13t-90 models 52. The vehicle was designed in 1946 to meet requirements for an air-portable vehicle to support paratroopers. The AMX-13 is named for its initial weight of 13 tons. Over 100 variants were built from 1952 - 1987. The total number of vehicles built was 4300 for the French Army and 3400 vehicles exported to 26 other nations.

The vehicle supported a 3 man crew and had a max speed of 37 mph. Its range was about 250 miles. Its main armament was either a 75 mm, 90mm or a 105 mm gun and it’s secondary armament consisted of one 7.5 mm coaxial gun, one ,7.62 mm machine gun and 3 smoke grenades. The 90 mm gun replaced the 75 mm  in 1966 and then in the 1970’s it was again replaced with the 105 mm gun.

As far as the kit is concerned, I built the  90 mm version which came about during the cold war, so the French never use this vehicle in any major battles as far as I know . The kit is by Takom and, as all my armor, 1/35 scale. It is a great kit with good detail and relatively good fit. I thought I would have trouble with the individual track’s links, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I did have some trouble with some of the photo etch because it was so small, so I wasn’t too shy to ask for help with that.

The vehicle was painted and weathered in my usual fashion. Not much more than rust on the muffler and tracks and then the dirt and mud. Considering this vehicle never saw any major conflicts, I kept the weathering to a minimum.

This was my first Takom build and overall, I was very pleased with the results. The only real issue, if you never built a Takom kit, is the way the parts are molded to the trees which lead to a lot more care when cleaning the parts.


Chuck Colucci
​The long barrel of the main armament could be one explanation for moving the turret so far rearward.
​With a top speed of 37 mph the AMX-13 was quite the hot rod and looks it with these racy lines.
The right side showing suspension and rear detail. It is believed the large light on the rear of the turret only appeared on the 90mm version.