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'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Saturday 10 November 2012

Armourfast Crusader II endstate...

... well, nearly. I'm still debating whether to add the characteristic Western Desert aerials with pennants. They would certainly give the Crusaders that extra bit, but it is almost inevitable that I would end up breaking the aerials off. The other remaining jobs are a tank crewman for one of them, and a dusting from the pigments jar. But here they are now:


The Crusader was a bit of a mixed bag, but even at El Alamein it was the most numerous British tank in the field, and most of them were still the two pounder armed Mark II. I must make time to find out what that first rate historian of the British tank, David Fletcher, has to say about the Crusader. The only first hand account of fighting with the Crusader I have come across is the justly famous one by the noted war poet Keith Douglas, Alamein to Zem Zem. That is one of the few genuinely literary works to emerge from the Second World War. Douglas' poetry stands the test of time too, with his 'Vergissmeinnicht' being the best known. I much prefer Douglas' work to that, say, of the other noted Western Desert poet, the Scot, Hamish Henderson, whose work is damaged, I think, by his political agenda/s, not least his faux Marxism. Oddly, I used to live round the corner from Henderson in his latter years - we used the same off-licence.

As I said in an earlier post, I think the jury is still out (or about to deliver the Scots verdict of 'not proven') on these Armourfast Crusaders. On the plus side, they are cheap, having two in a box is a good idea, they look fine overall, and they aren't made in China. On the minus side, unless one is happy with just the basic assembly and a quick one off spray finish, then one still needs the same amount of work to get them table ready. They look perfectly ok, as the photograph below sort of shows:


But, there is quite a bit of detail missing. In the photograph below, the Armourfast Crusader is on the right, compared with an Airfix Mk. III on the left:


The Airfix version sports rudimentary towing eyes and hook detail, along with rivet detail on the lower hull. It also has the smoke dischargers added to the exhausts. The smoke dischargers are a noticeable feature of the tank, and, of course, one could easily add them to the Armourfast kit, but, then, we are moving away from the 'fast' element of construction. Also, the Airfix kit came with the auxiliary fuel tank.


The front view comparison, above, also shows up detail differences, notably the representation of the  head lights, which, even on the Airfix version, could easily be improved.


Nonetheless, they look fine together - a mixed troop, or Rapid Fire squadron, out and about.

Finally, 10th November, and I have just taken these last four 'Red Falstaffs' from my little tree:


Keith Douglas was killed a few days after the D-Day Landings. I am able to enjoy my apples from my tiny English garden thanks to Douglas and the men like him.

9 comments:

  1. I use bristles from a nylon kitchen broom to make my aerials- never had one break yet. $1.50 provides literally hundreds of aerials, MG barrels, spears, flagpoles etc. The broom was bought for the purpose by me to avoid incurring the wrath of the Lady of the House ;)

    The other prominent but missing item is the spotlamp on the turret left side. I made mine by slicing the rounded end off a sprue. Close enough for government work!

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    1. Actually that sounds like a good idea. I normally use the bristles from a house paint brush, but I suspect the broom bristle option would be more robust. But the real problem is my ham-fistedness and poor sight!

      Yes, forgot about the searchlight! I'll have to add. ArmourFAST indeed!

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  2. Well, I like 'em. And you've done a great job on yours. Really like the chipping effect you've got going on there.

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    1. Cheers, Nick, Funny how the approach to chipping has changed over the years. Back when I did the normal thing of dry brushing with gunmetal, then I moved to pencil, now I've picked up the dark grey chipping habit. I wonder what will be next?

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  3. You have spruced these up nicely. You already know my views on Armourfast and I've crossed them off the list of fastbuilds I will consider for the time being. I was going to suggest bendy bristle aerials too, though getting the pennants to stay on could be a bit tricky.

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. Cheers, Dave. Yes, I think you're right. I haven't tried Pegasus fastbuild. Any idea if they are any good?

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    2. No first hand experience of Pegasus but they are the most variable range of all. Some are ultra basic (eg German trucks), while some have many parts and definitely aren't fastbuilds. In the middle of the specturm you have, eg, the US GMCs that Paul recently posted about on his blog. HoH is best place to check them all out in detail:

      http://henk.fox3000.com/pegasus.htm

      Cheers, Dave

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    3. Cheers, Dave. The only Pegasus stuff I've made is some of their Eastern Front houses. Good, wargame kit, but the plastic is very thick and surprisingly resistant to either the usual glues or even super-glue. I'll check on HoH before buying - although I'm currently resisting buying anything as I have a small stash of kits waiting...

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    4. That's interesting. I had read Zvezda were using some weird plastics too for some of their range, similarly glue resistant. I've just started work on my PSC 251/Ds - see what you mean about the sprues; they are a real b*tch to separate on the surfaces that are going to be visible on the finished model.

      Cheers, Dave

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