The Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 medium tank was, together with the M14/41 variant, the most produced and used by Regio Esercito (the italian army) during the Second World War. A total of around 1400 were built, almost equally distributed between M13 and M14. Developed starting in 1938, production began at the end of '39 and was distributed to the armoured units during the autumn of 1940. The first operations that featured the M13 took place in the Libyan theater, where it faced with british light tanks Mark VI and the cruisers A9, A10 and A13, against which he proved to be able to compete, thanks to the poor armor plating of the enemy vehicles. The situation was different when the heavy tank Matilda II entered in the battlefield: its thick armor was too much for the 47/32 anti-tank gun of the M13. Things worsened further during 1942, with the entry into service in the allied ranks of the Grant/Lee and Sherman tanks. Although it had become obsolete, the M13 and its M14 variant continued to equip the Italian armored forces until the end of operations in North Africa in 1943.

The file contains the elements to build two different versions of the M13/40 in scale 1/100 (15 mm): the first series, with long fenders, and the late one, with short fenders. In common the two versions have the turret and the lower part of the hull. With these two versions of the M13/40 you can cover with your diorama or wargames all the war operations of the italian armoured force between december 1940 and summer 1942. As you can see, the project is full of details, but I suggest to not up-scale the model. Soon, I will upload the 1/72 scale of the M13/40 even more detailed.