Cruiser A9 extended range tanks

[Stephen Hawkins]

Did this early cruiser use them? In the desert?

 

I am talking about the large barrel shaped tanks, as seen on many other tanks in the desert.

 

I have a set of 3 1/72 kits from Plastic Soldier.  2 fuel tanks are supplied, per kit, but no indication on where they go, or if both are used.  I suspect they might go on the rear quarter, one either side, longitudinally......Picture would be nice.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by Stephen Hawkins
Auto correct being an bottom.

[JackG]

Checked through the latest publication of the A9 & A10 by Peter Brown, and no photos show the extra tank on an A9.  Even with the A10, there are only three photo examples.  In the text, the provision to carry extra fuel  was incorporated into the design of the A10, and this was located on the left side front fender.  A similar location on the A9 might not have been feasible as the auxiliary machine gun turrets were in the way?   Not sure if it could be carried on the rear, otherwise the A10 would  of gone that route, as the hulls are essentially the same between the two.

 

regards,

Jack

[Stephen Hawkins]

Yes, the interference with the front machine gun turrets, would be an issue if mounted like that of the A10, which is why I assumed they might be mounted on the rear.  I have seen pictures of the A10 with a single tank mounted on the front.

 

Like yourself, I have not seen an A9  with any sort of extra tankage.

 

They are moulded on the same sprue as some of the other major items on the kit, so it is not as if there were for another similar cruiser tank, i.e. a future kit.

 

With 3 of the same tank in the set, I was looking to differentiate each one in some way or another.  All desert.  I suppose I will just do two types of the caunter schemes, with a bit of invest (Did they ever got to Sudan?), and a basic mid stone/ dark yellow version.

 

Regards

 

Steve

Edited November 1, 2017 by Stephen Hawkins

[Mike Starmer]

First off the A9 was not equipped with brackets to carry an auxiliary fuel tank.  The fact that fuel tanks are supplied simply means that the manufacturer hasn't done the homework or guessed that all tanks had them.   You can have three schemes for an A9.  The BEF version was finished in Khaki Green No.3 with disruptive stripes in Dark Green No.4.   1st RTR used these in Egypt in June 1940 with the a basic colour of Mid Stone BS.381 No.62  and 'dark sand' according to the G.O.  Dark sand is very close the RAF Dark Earth according to my information.  There is a pattern for this too, never published as far as I know, but based on the design used on 6 RTR Vickers Mediums in 1938.  I worked that out from photographs.  Then you have the late 1940-41 Caunter patterning with Light Stone No.61 or Portland Stone No.64 as basic colour with Slate No.34 and Silver Grey No.28 as the disruptive bands over that.  There was a specific pattern for the these tanks, not a random 'do it anyhow' job since the painting was done at base workshops by tradesmen.  I have film of it being done.  Blue is NOT used at all, ignore museum exhibit Matildas.   Except the 1st RTR The desert tank had a deep 3/4 length dustguard along the rear of the left side and a shallow full length one on the right side.  If you want more details mail me at  mikestarmer18 at gmail dot com 

[Kingsman]

Shifting this debate to include 1/35, has anyone seen either the Bronco or Gecko A9s yet?  I haven't, despite rotating adverts for months for the Gecko products on Armorama and elsewhere.  I have seen posts on other forums suggesting that the Gecko A9 kit is - or will be - better than the Bronco one, but I don't know the basis for that opinion.

 

There was a post on the Military Modelling forum site showing CAD of supplementary parts for the Bronco A10 kit to represent a desert version: tank, skirts, etc.  But it wasn't clear if this will be a new version of the kit or a supplementary set.  Despite the markings provided, that kit can only be built OOB as a BEF or UK version.  I believe the ones sent to Greece had the desert mods too.

 

And will someone please do a metal CS Howitzer barrel.......  There will shortly be 7 kits it would be appropriate for.

 

Mike - have you drawn up diagrams for the Mid Stone / Dark Sand scheme for the A9 (and Medium, perchance?)?  They're not in your pamphlets.  I quite fancy that for an A9, or even an asbestos-clad Medium.  I presume it wasn't simply a colour substitution for the Green/Green scheme?

[JackG]

I don't have any of the named kits in my hands, but reviews of Bronco's A10 have a few downfalls, the least of which is it does not include the required sand shields (as Mike has described above) for the desert version.  Four of the seven decal options are for the desert and one for Greece.  Bronco has released another A10 with the required sand shields, but all three decal options are for Greece.

 

 

Gecko has yet to hit the shelves, in fact I've not even come across any pre-order options from some of the more popular web stores located in Asia.

 

regards,

Jack

 

 

[Mike Starmer]

Hello Das  Mike - have you drawn up diagrams for the Mid Stone / Dark Sand scheme for the A9 (and Medium, perchance?)?  They're not in your pamphlets.  I quite fancy that for an A9, or even an asbestos-clad Medium.  I presume it wasn't simply a colour substitution for the Green/Green scheme?

 

The Mid Stone/dark sand scheme was a 1938 MEGO which replaced an earlier vague light sand/dark sand instruction.    The Vickers Medium tanks were of 6 RTC in Egypt and in 1937 adopted a simple cream and red pattern which was consistent on all the tanks.   I worked out the design from numerous photographs and have a drawing.  There are few pictures of 1 RTR in Egypt before the Caunter scheme was adopted.  But from those pictures it is fairly obvious that the 6 RTC pattern was copied onto the A9 tanks.  In this case it is a rather more straight edged design but nevertheless the same.  I don't have that pattern drawn yet, another project perhaps, but I have a model that demonstrates how the scheme probably  looked.  The best picture is on p.10 of 'Desert Rats at War; North Africa' by George Forty, Pub. Ian Allan 1975 ISBN0-7110-0661-X.  It is quite common so pops up in several other desert war books too.     If you mail me, I can attach the Vickers drawing and pictures of the model to you.  The UK based Khaki Green/ Dark Green patterning style was unique to UK and BEF.  You must remember that communications were not as they are now.  M.E. command was as good as on the moon as far was Whitehall were concerned, so Cairo almost had total autonomy regarding training, and paint schemes etc.  so only troops sent from UK would have any knowledge of UK schemes, nothing official.   Interchange of information  was only of the more important matters like local unrest and political affairs and equipment requirements etc.