Italeri, an Italian manufacturer of scale models of airplanes, military vehicles, helicopters, ships, trucks, and cars helped Wargaming to modify their existing models into four unique World of Tanks vehicles and one fan favorite level from the game.
Wargaming’s Content team at the Parisian office defined which vehicles fitted Italeri’s product range and that were most popular amongst the people who love the game. This meant they chose four tanks: The German Tiger 1 and Ferdinand and the US M4 Sherman and M24 Chaffee, fully realizing the tanks in all their scaled-down glory for fans and model enthusiasts alike to construct.
For the diorama model, the level Himmelssdorf was chosen thanks to its rich scenery and popularity with players. Italeri translated some iconic features from the World of Tanks level to a real (plastic) representation with ruined buildings, scattered rubble and even street signs.
So while Wargaming let Italeri work out the fiddly bits of producing the tanks and level, we set to working on making other aspects so they had that traditional Wargaming touch. This saw many different departments work together, from marketing, business development, military specialists, and art.
It was our military specialist’s job to create an original booklet that accompanied each model kit—all designed from scratch. This meant that the text you see from historical introductions, detailed tank information and weak spots were tailored specifically for Italeri so we could help give everything an original voice.
It was then up to the Art Department to create all the visual assets, from the cool tanks that are on the cover of the box to the artwork you see in the booklet, in which people could learn about Wargaming, the tank’s history, and even get their hands on some exclusive bonus codes just for Italeri. We had Marketing on hand to help spread the word about Wargaming and its collaboration with Italeri, and they even helped design the box art, too. From descriptions of the Tiger, M4 Sherman, Ferdinand and Chaffe right down to the smallest details, we made sure you had an authentic experience—which is what Wargaming’s all about.
And once we had everything in place, it was time for Wargaming to unveil their new lines, and what better place than at gamescom! At the event in 2014, we debuted one of our tanks during Wargaming’s streaming event, showing off our and Italeri’s work to thousands of fans, as well as a really cool stop-motion video showing how people can bring their tanks to life.
Not stopping there, we also wanted to reward our players in our winter Creative Contest, where players were tasked with creating a fictitious tech tree. Along with a Ferdinand tank and model Himmelssdorf up for grabs, fans could also win a whole load of other great gifts.
But Wargaming’s jump into the model world has showed no signs of stopping, and we reached out to our fans on the World of Tanks website, allowing them to choose a range of new tanks that would then be introduced in 2015.
And Wargaming’s not done yet; you can look forward to seeing even more announcements coming in the new year about Wargaming and Italeri, so remember to stay tuned!
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