Cromwell Mark IV
The British Cromwell tank comes after a long line of British Cruiser tanks. British armour doctrine of the time called for two classes of tanks. Infantry tanks, built to support infantry, was built with heavy armour and sacrificed speed. Cruiser tanks was the opposite, it had an reconnaisance and exploitative role, where speed was paramount and armour was secondary.
Built on the effective Christies suspension, the Cromwell Mk. IV with the Meteor engine, could get up to speeds of 52 km/h. While its armour and armament was weaker than most of its Allied and German counterparts, it's speed allowed it to be an effective fighting machine. Later Cromwells with heavier armour proved to be quite successful.
Numerically, it was probably the most important British tank of the late war period in western Europe. However, it is often overshadowed by the ubiquitous Sherman tanks and the aptly named but ponderous Churchills.
These models are made straight out of the box with no structural modifications. The plastic model kit is from Revell and the crew figures are from Antony Barton (Crew in battle dress - Set 1). The Revell kit was made in 2002, and is very accurate and well designed.
This is my Troop leader's tank. It is festooned with spare Sherman tracks from the Italeri Sherman M4A1 kit. British tank crew usually pile spare track links onto their superstructure to protect the tank against hollow charged anti-tank weapons.
The camouflage net is made from a bit of bandage, and the ammo box is from the AB British Tank Junk pack.
The Revell kit was quite an easy build. Fitting was very good, except for a little warping of the upper superstructure, which made it a little hard to glue to the hull. The difficulty level of this kit is close to that of the Revell Tiger I ausf. E kit, rather than the more complex Pz Kpfw III and IV kits,
The tracks are link and length, so I left the superstructure and hull seperate until I painted the model. The BESA machine guns, the searchlights, and the turret chimney are especially fine, and I had to take extra care when painting them. The headlight guards seem flimsy but are quite robust, I might go back to these kits and replace the light guards with brass wire in the future.
The second tank is slightly less embellished. You can see the tactical marking on the side of the turret. You can have a clearer view of the "Normandy cowl" over the exhaust. They were an improvement to the vehicle and were usually kept after the D-Day landings. The kit also comes with a hedge cutter for use in the Bocage country in Normandy. There aren't any more spare bits in this kit.
The bolted armour plates on the turret comes in seperate peices so that there are no compromises on detail. A commendable effort on detail and accuracy. However, the entrenching tools were moulded onto the mudguard, which makes them harder to replace, and not easy to create variety.
A rear view of the second tank. On the back of the turret is a white Allied star marking. Photographs of the Cromwell tanks from the Guards Armoured Division in Operation "Market Garden" showed the use of the Allied star in the rear of the turret.
The British "Flimsey" water cans are carried on the mudguard. These water cans were hard to carry, poorly made and tended to rust. Technically reusable, but they seldom survived that long.
The third tank was built without the exhaust splash guard.
My only real complaint about the kit is the lack of opening hatches. The only removable hatch is the commander's cupola, and even then, I had to cut the hatch into two pieces myself. The side hatch of the hull BESA MG gunner can also be left open, but you'd have to cut your own opening.
All in all, a very beautiful and detailed kit. But its lack of customising options is a little disappointing. Considering that I have got three of these tanks, I guess I'd have to do a lot more work in order to get some variety.
Conversion options include turning the vehicle into a Centaur Close Support tank with a 95mm gun. Perhaps Revell will follow Tamiya's route and release the Centaur as well.
© 2004-2006 Michael Sng Woei Shyong. All Rights Reserved.