Junior's 3x 1/72 PSC Cromwells

[adt70hk]

Apologies for being late into this but kudos for the young one on taking up the hobby with zest.
These little offerings are quite detailed. I have a Tiger compliments from an MD who runs a sub-factory that manufactures some of these kits for war gaming. I don't know how they get so much detail in the one piece track and wheels. I've yet to visit the factory just 10 minutes from where I live.

Cheers,
Richard

Richard

Absolutely no problem at all. I know how hard it is to keep up with everything. I'll make sure Junior sees your comment. As you say, it is amazing how much detail they get into these quick build kits.

Thanks again for stopping by.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

It would help a lot if I could find my copy of that book … A few months ago I re-arranged my library, including building new shelves to help keep things together, and now that book is not where I would expect it to be

Oh, hang on, it was in another section … page 45, it says? Yep, that has the photo you also included in your post above. The caption for it says it’s a Centaur III, but we’ll have to take their word for it, I think, because to the best of my knowledge there is no way you can tell from that whether it’s a Cromwell or a Centaur. If the gun had been cropped from the photo, it could even be a Cavalier and you would never know.

(Like I said, the only conclusive way to tell them apart is to look inside: Centaur had a Liberty engine, Cromwell had a Meteor. Many people will point to the engine deck and say that flat is Centaur, with a raised air intake is Cromwell — but early Cromwells had a flat engine deck too. Or that holes in the tyres is Centaur, no holes is Cromwell — but early Cromwells … etc. Or even that a short, thick, 95 mm gun barrel means it’s a Centaur — which tells you that they really don’t know what they’re talking about Not that I claim to be an expert on these tanks, mind.)


That’s the one that’s also in the book, yes.

Jakko

Thanks for checking so promptly for me and the confirmation. We'll have to put their addition down to artistic licence, and besides Junior likes to see most of the parts used and isn't yet that fussed about historical accuracy.

Thanks again.

Andrew

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Well,I`ve only just stumbled across this Andrew!
What a cracking set of tanks these are,a lovely clean looking build young Andrew junior has made of it too may i add,
I shall certainly be looking out for the next update...... Bring on the paint!!
Andy

 

[adt70hk]

Well,I`ve only just stumbled across this Andrew!
What a cracking set of tanks these are,a lovely clean looking build young Andrew junior has made of it too may i add,
I shall certainly be looking out for the next update...... Bring on the paint!!
Andy

Thanks Andy! I got a thumbs of thanks from Junior when I told him what you'd said.

We'll try not to let you down!

ATB

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

Hi all

So Junior managed to get these finished at Monday night's club meeting - he didn't go to September's meeting as he'd been at Tankfest the day before, hence the delay in getting the build finished.

As you'll see we've added the metal barrels - they look much better and more importantly don't snap like plastic ones!! In hindsight I think we should have drilled the holes a bit deeper as I think they stick out a little bit too far - only a millimetre or so - but at this scale it's noticeable.....but never mind we're not entering them into any competitions!

ACW as usual.

Andrew

 

[Tim Marlow]

Lovely job. They look great, and will look even better with paint.

 

[adt70hk]

Lovely job. They look great, and will look even better with paint.

Thanks Tim. Will let Junior know.

As for paint......No comment.... Other than to say I have the afternoon to myself tomorrow and I've been prepping a number of items for the spray both!!!!

 

[Jim R]

Well done. They do look good.
Jim

 

[scottie3158]

Looking very nice. Bring on the paint.

 

[adt70hk]

Well done. They do look good.
Jim

Looking very nice. Bring on the paint.

Thanks guys! Feedback has been passed onto Junior!

ATB

Andrew

 

[rtfoe]

Even paintless they look good Andrew. Commendable clean build.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[adt70hk]

Even paintless they look good Andrew. Commendable clean build.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks Richard. I'll make sure I let Junior know.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

Hi all

So managed to get some primer on this weekend and having three kits means I can experiment with different bases for painting.

I normally go with straight grey, so did one that way to act as a baseline. I want to refine my pre-shading technique not having done much, so did that on the second one - hull pre-shading is a bit darker in real life and the turret didn't work out as I would have liked - still got to work out the best balance of paint consistency and air pressure. And I don't think I've done one with black primer since getting an AB, so third one got that treatment.

Next up is some some SCC 15!!

ATB

Andrew

 

[Mini Me]

Nice little experiment going on here......I will follow closely to see if any of this will work in 1-87 scale.
Rick H.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Interested to see how this turns out……

 

[adt70hk]

Nice little experiment going on here......I will follow closely to see if any of this will work in 1-87 scale.
Rick H.

Interested to see how this turns out……

Thanks guys. I'll try not to let you down!!

 

[Steve Jones]

Nice idea Andrew. Its amazing how a lighter primer changes the look of the same base coat on the darker primer. Great work my friend

 

[grumpa]

While not a big fan of anything smaller than 1/35, (old eyes) I must say these are coming along very nicely indeed.
Jim.

 

[adt70hk]

Nice idea Andrew. Its amazing how a lighter primer changes the look of the same base coat on the darker primer. Great work my friend

Thanks Steve. It will be interesting so see how it works out and will of course give a bit of variation on the battlefield..... That of course assumes I don't screw it up!!

While not a big fan of anything smaller than 1/35, (old eyes) I must say these are coming along very nicely indeed.
Jim.

Thanks Jim. I'll let Junior know!! Glad to have you along for the ride!!

To be honest though, my eyes aren't up to all but the largest pieces at 1/72 and so you often see me wearing an optivisor!


Thanks again gents.

ATB

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

Hi all

So I started to lay down the SCC15 mid-week.

I'm not fussy about being accurate but there is an SCC 15 mix made up of Vallejo Model Colour at a 1:1 ratio of 70.924 Russian Uniform and 70.888 Olive Grey that Mike Starmer came up with.....his Humbrol and Tamiya mixes were far too complicated for my taste. I've been using it for a while now and it looks ok, so why not?

As I didn't have a lot of time and more importantly didn't want to rush it, I have only got the initial the initial layer of green down and pretty thinly at that, so the colours you'll see below are somewhat 'off' the final finish - plus it was getting a bit dark outside - but I'm more interested in the effect than the exact colour at this stage.

The all grey 'baseline' tank has obviously just had a light all over coat, as had the grey with pre-shading. I'll obviously very slowly coat it in hopefully even layers, so as not to kill the pre-shading. In this case I did a bit of pre-shading on the bottom half of the turret sides to hopefully create a slightly darker area compared to the top which might see a bit more light - at least that's the theory!

As you'll hopefully see with the black, it's had a mottled layer of green laid down, hopefully to create darker areas in the right spaces. In areas that see more light like the front of the track covers and the top of the exhaust covers, I put a bit more green down than in most other places. The idea is that hopefully with the even layers of green subsequent going over the whole tank, these 'exposed' areas it will be a bit lighter than the less exposed ones. I did the same thing on the tops half of the turret sides and the turret top for the same reason.

Then once I have the base coats down, where I think necessary I might do some highlights of a slightly lightened mix of my base SCC15 - just a thought.....

Whilst I still have a way to go, I'm pleased with the start I've made.

All comments welcome.

ATB

Andrew

PS - ignore the grey rings around the turret holes, that's were they're blue tacked to my DIY paint stands.