John Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Having enjoyed building the Rubicon CMP truck I decided to try one of their armour kits and settled on the Crusader, which has long been one of my favourite tanks. You get a load of options in this kit, late MkI, MkII, MkIII, MkI/II close support or MkII/III anti-aircraft so there's a lot of parts in the box: Lovely well produced instruction leaflet: Finally there's a generic British armour decal sheet: What to build? Decisions, decisions... I might do some minor conversion work and try to build a first batch MkI with the open mantlet and Caunter camouflage. John 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Looking forward to this one 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 16, 2018 Author Share Posted July 16, 2018 Having spent a happy hour or so browsing the IWM website I think I'll go for 44615, seen here having a radiator change in January 1943: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205204069 John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 The kit goes together nicely, with a few additions. I've plated the underside of the hull toolboxes with plastic card and added a piece of Contrail tube to the rear vent that will be trimmed down to represent the exhaust pipe. The bottom of the hull was painted brown when I was thinking about building it as a SCC2 finished MkIII : There's no interior and no commander figure so the turret is finished closed up: The outer wheels and tracks are moulded as one piece. The inner wheels are also one piece with alignment tabs between the wheels to maintain the spacing. After gluing the inner wheels to the tracks and inner wheels, I trimmed off the alignment tabs. I used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement for the CMP but I used something with a bit more bite for the Crusader's larger parts: John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Good start, looks a nicely moulded kit so far 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 An overall base coat of Light Stone, mixed to match the chip in Mike Starmer's "Alamein and Beyond" booklet: I've added the exhaust to the rear of the tank: John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 Countershading applied to the hull and the undercut sections of the turret, also a begining made on the disruptive camouflage: John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 Sub-assemblies brought together. Green disruptior next step. John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Neat! Looking very good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 Basic green disruptive pattern applied with Humbrol 158: Needs a bit of tidying up. John 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted August 4, 2018 Author Share Posted August 4, 2018 The green dried a bit glossier than I expected so the model has had a couple of shots of aerosol matt varnish: The census number is cobbled together from the kit and CMP decal sheets. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted August 14, 2018 Author Share Posted August 14, 2018 Calling this one done: The kit is pretty much out of the box, the only additions are metal brush guards, radio aerial and some stowage. The colours are all Humbrol enamels. The main camouflage colours are Light Stone BS381c/61 mixed 50/50 74 Linen and 237 Desert Tan and Dark Olive Green PFI, which is 158 Interior Green. Countershading is 34 Matt White and tyres are 79 Matt Blue Grey. Weathering is Enamel Wash Dust AV0208 thinned a bit with white spirit, followed by a well thinned coat Enamel Wash Sand AV0207. The area around the filler on the rear fuel tank is treated with Enamel Wash Oil Stain AV0209. The exhaust and the bottom of the fuel tank is shaded with ground graphite dust. Tracks are 173 Matt Track Colour, washed with 186 Brown. When dry the tracks were polished with graphite dust using a cotton bud. Stowage consists of 2 tarps made from screen wipes, PVA glue and acrylic paint and a couple of jerry cans on the rear plate. One can is painted in SCC2 and the other is in Eau-de-Nil. The gun muzzle is drilled out and a touch of 33 Matt Black is added. The aerial is 56 Aluminium. Markings are restricted to the census number, cut-and-pasted from the kit sheet and the CMP sheet, and the air identification roundel which is from the kit sheet but applied to a tarp. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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