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Cruiser tank A10 Mk.1A *finished*


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Lot's of progress... little to show. It is just a lot of little parts to make slightly bigger little parts.

The top of the hull and the lower hull and the sub assemblies are mostly finished.

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The exhaust is not my best work. The kit does not include plastic support parts for the exhaust so it has to be fully assembled using PE. 

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It proved really difficult to line everything up so this exhaust is somewhat battered. 

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The hatches for the driver and the machinegunner are left open so the interior will show.

I also finished the fighting compartement. Took me about 2 hours to carefully assemble every little piece but i'm fairly happy with the result so far.

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I had to replace a plastic handlebar with copper wire. The plastic is so thin and soft that it snaps when you look at it the wrong way.

 

So far i like the level of detail in this kit. But i'm struggeling with the somewhat wonky engeneering of the parts. 

It shurely is a challenge to build. 

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Last update for today. I finished the rack and the watercans. 

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Also the assembly of the right fender is complete.

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Now i'm completely cross eyed and my brain hurts.

Time for beer 🍻

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2 hours ago, Maddoxx77 said:

 

Now i'm completely cross eyed and my brain hurts.

Time for beer 🍻

Slainte!  Looking good.  The exhaust is finicky, but doable in the end. On their A9 kits, the mounting points are all microscopic photoetched parts, which helped stall my two tandem builds a few years back.  Ugh!

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Nice progress so far and the slightly battered exhaust guard adds to the realism.

Very much looking forward to seeing it in paint now

 

      Stay safe            Roger 

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Looks to be a very fiddly kit. Lots of patience required on this one.

 

Everything looking good though Maddoxx and I'm enjoying your WIP immensely. Good luck from Scotland with the rest of the build. 

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I like the look of the exhaust shroud. I can imagine the squaddie stepping on it and saying "Oh shhhhhhhugar!" or something similar, and wondering what the RSM is going to say. Great progress Maddoxx.

 

John.

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2 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Nice progress so far and the slightly battered exhaust guard adds to the realism.

Very much looking forward to seeing it in paint now

 

      Stay safe            Roger 

There is stil a lot of building to do. The whole turret needs to be assembled as does the left fender so, lots of fun ahead 😉

Once all the sub assemblies are done i'll start painting the interior. 

Painting the exterior will be the next challenge. I want to do the caunterscheme so tight and neat lines are required.

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Got a bit more done.

The extra fuel drum on the front fender was a challenge.

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But in the end i got it all together and i'm happy with the look.

It is starting to look like a tank. 

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Appart from the fenders and the roadweel sections everything is dryfitted in place. The overall fit is good, there are no gaps.

Next tasks: the turret and the tracks. 

I want to get all the sub assemblies done before i start painting parts.

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Always puzzles me how features like this could be accepted but the designers and procurement departments did not have to drive it into action against a hostile enemy.

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Probably just as well, as designers are much rarer than people willing to go into battle.  Funny isn't it how it is always the designers and procurement agencies (for which read politicians and bureaucrats, despite the military involvement in the latter at least) that get the blame for everything, whereas the requesting and acceptance agencies avoid it all?   This fuel tank has all the air of either a local bodge which never went near any agency, or the kind of helpful instruction that comes after the design has been frozen for production.  "Oh, I say, we now believe we need twice the range.  Sort it out, there's a good lad."

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1 hour ago, Graham Boak said:

Sort it out, there's a good lad.

Scary to think that anyone could imagine that adding a fuel tank to the front of a tank next to the driver, who is already facing shed-loads of unpleasantness, might be anything like sorting something out.

Maybe it's a nice big water tank with a tap inside for the crew?

Edited by echen
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37 minutes ago, echen said:

Maybe it's a nice big water tank with a tap inside for the crew?

And full of tea, with a heating element running through it to keep it hot!

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OK, where are you going to put it?  Not at the back, being near the exhaust or blocking the inlet.  All a bit warm...  Not at the sides, where it would stick out outside the limiting width.  No room inside.  You can't stop and start again with a bigger tank because that would take a couple of years.  By which time something else would have changed.

 

One basic rule of engineering: nobody ever did something silly, or seen as silly, without having a good reason why.  (Not necessarily sufficiently good.)  An order from above counts as a good reason.

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These tanks proved to be not very effective once they had to face the Germans and Italians in Africa. The gun was too small, the armour too thin and overall the design lacked battlefield effectiveness. However, because it was light, it proved to be good at scouting/patroling missions. 

And yes, as a former tankgunner i would get quite nervous knowing that a giant fuel tank would sit right outside next to my driver 🤣

 

I made a little progress. A bit of a change of plans and pace. I decided to prime some of the subassemblies. 

I then went on and gave the interior a coat of creme white. I know that the real tanks were steelcolor on the inside and that later, when they used white paint, the crews would scrape it off due to the paint burning quite easily.

I chose to do white mainly because i think it gives a bit more contrast and makes for a better view inside when fully assembled. 

Maybe i'll chipp the inside with dark steel to simulate paint scraped off. 

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Regardless of whether the positioning of the fuel tank was good, bad or indifferent, on the model (and after all, that's what it's all about), it looks good Maddoxx, as does all the work so far.

 

John.

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34 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

it looks good Maddoxx, as does all the work so far

I'll second that!

 

1 hour ago, Maddoxx77 said:

And yes, as a former tankgunner i would get quite nervous knowing that a giant fuel tank would sit right outside next to my driver

How about if it was behind the rear deck like a T-90?

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1 hour ago, Maddoxx77 said:

Nope..... just nope!

Yours is placed just right on an excellent build and as they were - but they could have been placed differently?

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1 hour ago, echen said:

Yours is placed just right on an excellent build and as they were - but they could have been placed differently?

I think not but i'm not an engeneer 😉

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