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This is my A10 Mk 1A. Model - Bronco A10 with Aber metal 2pdr and machine gun barrels. The jack on the rear fender is borrowed from another kit, the wooden jack blocks, leather baggage straps below the turret, and handles on the turret spotlight are scratch built. I’ve added a few bolt heads as well. Vehicle - I've done this one as T5959 which was photographed on 5th October 1940 being unloaded at Port Said, Egypt. It still wore a European camouflage scheme of Khaki Green G3 and a disruptive pattern of Dark Green G4. The vehicles being delivered then were mostly free from most dust and mud (I assume they were hosed down before loading) but show signs of oil stains etc, so I've reflected that on my model. Paints - Base colours are all acrylics. The khaki green is a 50:50 mix of AV air and Hataka khaki greens which closely matches the sample in 'Real Colours of WWII'. The dark green disruptive pattern is Hataka. Various acrylics and varnishes for details, enamel washes, then lightly weathered using oils over the top for ingrained dirt, fuel spills, and a thin layer of dust. Overall an enjoyable build of a little-known British early war tank. In June 1940 the type name was changed to Cruiser Mk II so it is often called by that name, or both. Gecko make three different A10 kits which have interiors and slightly more detail, but for me this one is the better balance of complexity v. modelling time available, and it also includes options for a Mk 1, Mk1A and Mk 1A CS in the same kit. T5959 still had the white rhino of the 1st armoured division on its front fender. These were hardened rubber and often wore heavily. '0046' was a mobilisation code, these were applied to all vehicles being shipped overseas. Photos of T5959 show little wear but others delivered at the time are quite grimy. I assume they were hosed down before loading so oil and grease stains remained but mud and dust would have been cleaned off. I've added a thin layer of dust over the top to represent a day in Egypt. The Hataka dark green dried slightly glossy in places, so I added more dust on the horizontal surfaces than I would have liked to to tone it down. The bolts on the back of the engine air vent are ones I added. This kit doesn’t come with them but Bronco added them to their later ‘Balkans Campaign’ A10 kit. The stalk just behind the bow MG is for the driver's mirror. This was rarely mounted though the stalk was left in place. Just in front of it you can see a line of five vertical bolts. The kit comes with four, I re-arranged them and added the missing bolt – easy enough to do with a sharp knife and using bolts from spare parts in the kit itself. Unusually for a British vehicle the driver was on the left hand side. The red '5' markings are borrowed from another kit. Looking at the almost identical running suspension on running Valentines the central rod within the spring is polished smooth, so I've shown this on mine. I added the leather baggage straps below the turret. Note how the serial number is pained in different places on each side, depending on where there was space to put it. Early war British headlights often had black sugar paper behind the glass lens with a small cut-out in the centre to give a narrow beam. The PE shield for the muffler was a pain on this one, my fault for not taking enough care with it. Photographs from the Imperial War Museum collection which show T5959. On three of these the censor has tried to obscure the ‘5’ tactical marking but you can still make it out. As these pictures were all taken on the same day I’m pretty sure they all show T5959 even when the serial number cannot be seen.

Here is my IBG Models 1:72 scale A10 Cruiser Tank Mk 1A completed to represent “Cool”, the tank of Lt (at the time) Robert Crisp of 3RTR in Greece in 1941. Belatedly I have discovered that the camouflage (colours and pattern) is probably spurious - see the build thread here for some interesting commentary from Mike Starmer: Brush painted in a combination of Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics. A good fun build. Thanks for looking. As it happens I was in Fremantle this morning having a coffee with my daughter and happened across this in a second hand bookshop in which Robert Crisp describes his experiences as a tank troop commander during Crusader in the Westin Desert in late 1941.

It’s a balmy 42 degrees Celsius today in Perth, WA. Far too hot to work on my Saladin, so I thought I would take a look at a new purchase. It’s the IBG Models 1:72 kit of A10 Mk 1A Cruiser tank. Strictly it’s a little magazine with a “free kit”. The magazine is a brief overview of the history and operational use of the tank, by Peter Brown. A review can be found here: http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/small/ibgw013reviewpb_1.html It looked like a fine prospect for a simple build, so when I found it online at a Melbourne hobby shop, I had to have it. So what’s in the box? It has the desert modifications as well as a plain vanilla tank. A few close ups of the sprues to show the level of detail, which is rather nice. Includes a hollow end to the main armament. The one piece tracks are a rather simplified, but I suspect a better modeller than I could do something with them. I’ll just go for a straightforward build though. Three sets of markings are provided for tanks in Greece. I’m going to go with this one: It doesn’t give any unit details, so I will need to do a bit of research. It also doesn’t give an overhead view, which is a bit awkward. update: ok, looks like that set of markings is fictional. Instead I will do this one: The colours given are base colour of Portland Stone with the dark pattern in Light Purple Brown, which I imagine is going to look quite striking. I picked up some Vallejo Model Air Portland Stone (it says it can be brushed - so this is a bit of an experiment). For the Light Purple Brown I will use the Mike Starmer Tamiya recipe from the MAFVA website.

Hello All, Well I've just got back from a trip and I remembered that this finishes today and I bought a Milicast A10 to build here... Customer service is great - I got a hand written note with my order. The moulding is AMAZING. Short run but the detail, sharpness and level of integration is terrific - I certainly won't be gluing any link and length tracks together: The shackles have broken off in transit but they are relatively easy to repair. The front ones go under the turret so had to be shortened later: Bit of reconstruction required on the tracks and sprocket wheel: Didn't take long to assemble: Underccoated with Hu32 then painted in Hu86: It looked a bit dark and green for an early war tank. The Airfix 1/32 17 Pounder instructions call out Hu 253 for the green colour, so I tried that. I think I'm happy with the colour now: I still need to add the dark green splotches, paint the tyres, tracks and details, and weather it. When I started this morning I genuinely thought I might get it all done today - I'm sorry to not finish the build in what was a very interesting GB theme. I will post how I get on in the Armour section here. Thanks for looking, Adrian