Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Cromwell

So I've shown you my Jagdpanther, which was the first 1/72 model I had built and painted in years, soon followed by a pair of Fireflies with inaccurate skirts. What came next?

Well, I was undecided on whether to build the one Cromwell I got, and a pair of Su-85's. A lot of my facebooks are British, so the Cromwell won out by a landslide. I had thought I would build it as one for the Irish Guards in 1944, but as I soon found out, the Irish Guards did not field Cromwells, only Sherman V's and Fireflies. What to do? I promised!  Well, I found out that the Reconnaissance regiment of the 7th Armoured Division was the Queen's 8th Royal Irish Regiment, and they fielded Cromwells. But the markings? It wasn't as easy to find. Google searches gave me plenty of pictures of the badges worn on hats, sweaters, polos and neckties and pins, but not the tanks. Finally after persistent searching, I found what I needed, the marking for the 7th Armoured, a red Jerboa mouse on a white field, and a simple Green over blue square patch with the number 45 in it.

Back to work!




For this one, I wanted to do something different. I wanted the recessed details accentuated, and that way the raised details would pop out more. So I've tried pinwashing for the first time, then more chipping, and then weathering.

Decals... Cromwells had tank numbers on the turrets, but not three digit numbers like the Germans, oh no! A T followed by a six digit number. So not having such decals, I tried hand painting that, which failed, the numbers were a little bigger and spaced out further than the numbers on the other side of the turret, unacceptable. So I painted these over and ordered decals, and white stars in circles.

Those are on the way, so it is here that I must leave you, the reader, as I wait for decals.  In the meantime, I've started assembling two Su-85's and researched some suitable slogans to paint on the hulls once the time comes for that.

Until next time...

OH!! The unit badges aren't decals, I did manage to paint that part in by hand.

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