Bullbasket

As has been said, there are many free hosting sites. If you were to Google "Free photo hosting sites", you'll find several. Flickr is just one. I use Imgur which is practically idiot proof (must be if I use it). Avoid Village Photos though. It's not secure. John.

Welcome aboard Equinox. John.

Turret. This is basically an assembly job, just leaving out some of the Tamiya parts like the 95mm howitzer and substituting it with the Accurate Armour item. The brass box piece around the loaders hatch has another piece of brass inside it. This represents the part that was used to keep the hatch doors open. This was done so that air could be sucked into the tank as the side intakes for the engine were blanked off as part of the waterproofing. I've also added some small detail parts from the Eduard sheet around the commanders hatch, and I cut the breech off of the main gun and glued it in place because with the hatches open, it would be obvious if it wasn't there. Nearly there. Thanks for looking. John.

Thanks a lot Nenad. Yes, an old kit, but still fairly accurate. I've got another in the stash and if I can find out if these colours, are correct this is the scheme that I'd like to do. John.

Thanks a lot AJ. Much appreciated. John. Thanks Stef. I remember reading some years ago that there was some kind of light colour used as a primer, hence the cream colour around some of the chips. John.

Many thanks Cesar. I always appreciate your comments. John.

That's the ticket Ivan! You get more of a sense of achievement, and it's looking like it will turn out better as well. John.

Nice work on that patchy cam job. It's looking well used. Great work. John.

I sincerely hope so MD. Many thanks. John. Thanks a lot Ed. Yes, it's a great material. Very versatile. John.

Excellent build, and the painting is first class. And I echo Stef's comments about the stowage and concrete add on. Poodles privates. John.

Warning; Photo heavy (21). A Brief Intro. Operation Battleaxe was the first time that Crusaders were used in any significant numbers, and they didn't exactly cover themselves in glory. Thin armour, an ineffective main gun which couldn't fire HE and reliability problems were three of it's drawbacks. On the plus side, it was fast. This build was completed approximately fifteen years ago using the Italeri kit as a basis. Although the kit is for a Mk.l/ll, it didn't cover the version used in Battleaxe. There were some alterations needed, but nothing too drastic. First job was to add the prominent rivets along the sides of the lower hull. This early kit from Italeri omitted them, but the AA version included them. In all, there were approximately 300 rivets, but a day and a half saw the job done, and my sanity intact. The intention was to finish this tank in the markings of 6 RTR, but their vehicles had different air filters to those supplied in the kit. They are a simple box shape and I made them from different thickness’s of card. The pipework leading from the filters to the engine deck was altered by removing the 90 degree bend and making new pipe from tubing. The track guards were also of a different configuration, so I cut away the kit part where it bends downwards, and made new track guards and glued them into place along with the new air boxes. The kit's right front track guard has a box shape on it which is for the spare tracks, but again, not applicable for this version, so it was removed with a chisel blade. A length of track was glued to the left track guard and a 10thou strip of card was added as a retaining bar. Along the back of these Crusaders was a rack for 2 gallon POW cans. The rack was made from 10thou strip and filled with cans from Accurate Armour. Turret. To my eye, the mantlet protrudes too far forward, so I sawed it in half, thinned it by about 4mm, and then reattached it and blended it in with Mr Surfacer. The main gun barrel was replaced with an aluminium one from Jordi Rubio. The searchlight was detailed with a bulb and lens and some etched bass from Eduard. On the other side there is a pot shaped item (radio pot?) which I made from a piece of dowel, fixed it to a square of card and glued in place on the side of the turret. There was no blanket box fitted to the rear of the turret, so a number of rivets had to be added along with a pistol port, new hatch bump stops and some detail to the aerial mount. Painting and weathering. I painted the tank in the Caunter scheme of Portland or Light Stone, Silver Grey and Light Grey. I mixed my colours from Tamiya paints using Mike Starmers' mixes. Markings were minimal, being just the census numbers on the turret and rear hull. Weathering consisted mainly of chipping along exposed edges and dust courtesy of Mig's Beach Sand and Light Dust. The next photo was taken at a different time to all of the others, and gives a better indication of how the colours look on the model. The rest give a more greyish,washed out appearance. Possibly different lighting used each time. Sandshields. I should replace these as they haven't fared as well as I hoped. I cut them from thin card and scored the back so that they could be bent to shape. I glued thin rod into the groove to try and get it to keep the correct shape, but over the years, they have flattened out, hence the need for replacement with etched brass items. This is one time when etched brass wins over plasticard. An old kit + some scratchbuilding +some determination = a thoroughly enjoyable build. Still got another one in the stash. Hope you like it and thanks for any comments. John.

To someone like me who knows nothing about WW2 German cammo schemes, both your first and second attempt look very good. Tell me, what is LT? John.

Thanks Andrew. Yes, I prefer to use card rather than etch when I can. John.

Shaping up really well Cesar. Nice work. John.

And now all you have to do is paint it!! It's all looking very good Andrew. Nice work. John.

I used the string that comes with the kit to make the tow ropes as they are easily positioned, and as they have to be fed into the brackets on the side of the two right hand stowage bins, I thought that using the string meant less chance of the brackets getting broken off. They don't look bad once they're painted up. They were usually carried in pairs, so two sets were made up and I attached the front ends to the right hand towing shackle with a loop that I made from 15 amp fuse wire. The rear ends were just glued to the engine deck. I made the rear sloping portions of the track guards from thin card. These differ from the kit supplied parts in that they don't have the step effect. I'm assuming that these were a field replacement. In the Accurate Armour set for the Centaur, they include on the etched brass sheet, the wading trunk. It's fine, but my soldering skills leave much to be desired, so after I made a pigs breakfast of it, I resorted to the good old standby, plastic card. I used the one in the AA set for the dimensions, cut out the parts and then assembled it. I'm reasonably happy with the end result, although it does bow inwards slightly, but I can live with that. It's just sitting in place here as I don't want to fix it in place yet as I'm bound to knock it off before finishing the build. Thanks for looking. John.

I thought that the first photo was of the real thing. Very impressive build and finish there Jeroen. Great work. John.

A husband and wife have four boys, but the odd thing is that the older three have red hair, light skin, and are tall, while the youngest son has black hair, dark eyes, and is short. The father eventually takes ill and is lying on his deathbed when he turns to his wife and says, "Honey, before I die, be completely honest with me. Is our youngest son my child?" The wife replies, "I swear on everything that's holy that he is your son." With that, the husband passes away. The wife then mutters, "Thank God he didn't ask about the other three."

It looks as though there has been a lot of time and effort put into this, and it shows. Excellent work. John.

Great dio Pete. Very atmospheric. John.

In another thread on a similar type of vehicle, someone else was going to do a painted disc cammo, and the way that they were going to approach it was to cut the point off of a cocktail stick and dip that in the paint. Might be worth considering. John.

Join the club. There are a helluva lot of members. I like the way that it's going so far. Nice work. John.

Next job was to join the upper and lower hulls together. One problem that I encountered there was that the vertical parts of the etched brass track guards fouled the lower hull. Using my Minicraft drill with a grinding bit in the chuck, I ground away the excess brass until I was left with a snug fit. I left off some detail such as the small running lights and cables, because I intended to cover the front with camnets and tow cables. Although I'd fitted parts to the turret which showed it waterproofed, I left off these items from the lower hull, my idea being that the tank is in the process of being waterproofed. Therefore the normal parts which are in the kit, driver's visor, periscopes, hatches etc., were glued in place. I did some work on the three stowage bins. I removed the lids from each one and made new ones. The lid for the single one on the LHS I made from thin card and scored the indentations into it with an old ball point pen and then glued it in place in the open position as I intended to fill it with stores. For the other two on the RHS, I made new lids from pewter foil in the same way, but glued them in place, closed, but with the front corners bent upwards a little. The securing latches are from the Eduard set. John.

Thanks for letting us know Dan. Very sorry to hear this. I'm not sure if I met him up at Telford a few yeas ago, when I met you. My condolences to his family. John.

Aye up Steve. You've done a really good paint job there. He looks just like my old science master, and with a similar sort of temper too by the looks of it. Hope the sickness isn't anything too serious. John.