Made a start on this kit a little while ago.

Airfix have really pulled the stops out as it goes together very easily, with little cleanup of any of the crisply moulded parts required.

I have used a custom mix of Vallejo greens as per emails with Mike Starmer to achieve SCC-15, the standard green used on British armour in NW Europe during 1944.

Mig filters have since followed along with a Mig wash pin wash.

On the sprues










Initial buildup




More to come

@saberdog – Michael,

Good to see you here again, it’s been a while. 76th scale, humm . . . first thing that really caught my eyes are the well detailed pre-formed tracks without the road, drive and idler wheels molded together as one piece. The detailing and recessed panel lines are very crisp and sharp. My goodness the drive sprockets even have the lightening holes in them, something you don’t see on some of the 35th scale kits. The part attachment points on the sprue trees are some of the nicest and up to current standards. About the only thing that you left out of the photographs is the decal sheet or not?

I’ll be dropping in from time to time to check out on your progress. I’m sure it will turn out to be a terrific build and on one of your creative bases it will be something to see!

Eddy

Michael, great to see this all new Airfix kit making an appearance here at last. I know this may seem unbelievable but I was thinking about this kit when I woke up this morning... I walked past a toy shop yesterday that had a big Airfix display but didn't have time to check it out for this one.
Really looking forward to more of this.

Same here. Im not usually into small scale, basically because of what Eddy just mentioed, but this one could break that stance. looks a great little kit. I would also be interested in the SCC-15 details, should you care to share.

Michael, a pleasure to see you back and where were you with this two weeks ago? I was at a neighbouring city's hobby shop and saw this kit on the shelf. It was only CDN$9.00 and now I am kicking myself that I let it pass. I, as the others, am particularly impressed with those tracks. Dragon, are you listening! My only question is, do the tracks have external track detail. The Pegasus kits have somewhat similar all in one tracks but the outside surface detail is sorrowfully lacking, Will be following this build.

Cheers,
Jan

That really looks like a very nice kit and about my speed. I'll be watching with interest as you progress.

Regards,
AJ

Paint is now laid down and weathering is well under way. Mig brown filter for dark green and a pin wash of Mig dark wash applied.

I cut the pin wash with 50% lighter fluid to ensure a flatter finish.

Moulded on tools are painted now, with both Besa guns painted black with a polished steel dry brush. Next up is some more panel lightening with yellow ochre oils applied dot filter style.

The tracks lack detail on inside but paint up well with good outside detail. Once a pigment wash is applied, the lack of inside detail should be not as noticeable.

I painted these chocolate brown, drybrushed over flat black primer. Polished steel was drybrushed on high points and the track teeth. Finally there will be a slurry wash of various mig pigments to "mud 'em up".

Images are iPhone pics, for quick progress report updates. The SCC15 green in the pics is a tad darker and less green than in actuality.

Intesting kit. I would prefer 1:72 scale but I would like to make in a future a variant about this model.

Regards.

Pedro.

Hi Jan,

The track detail is ok, Airfix have moulded a small 'triangle' at the centre of each link, nit the best but enough detail to look the part.

I was fortunate to build a test shot for Airfix Model World magazine last year, I felt hat it went together well and was my first small scale kit for sometime. It was strictly out of the box,except for the hull Besa which I broke off following a hiccup with reacting paint.



Michael, your kit seems to be coming along well, don't forget the optional wading stacks should not be used with the prong. The prong may have been a 'trial' version and may not have seen action.

Regards

Brian

Hi Brian

You build looks excellent.

I will not be using the Cullen attachment or the wading stacks on my build.

Michael,

Thank you for kind comment, it is a nice kit and you get decals with yours....as a test shot mine did not, and my instructions had a few 'issues'.

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Brian

Will get some more pics up shortly.

Update in text only for now.

Added the rear road wheels, idler and final drive, then attempted to marry up the tracks. Airfix indicate on the instructions that you need to "tweak" the idler to enable the teeth to engage to the track properly. I found this very hard as the fit on the idler rear was quite tight, so I prised them off and glued them into the correct position on the tracks. A much better result was had.

If I had thought of this earlier, then a lot less frustration would have been the outcome.

Hi Michael,

Yes I forgot about the tight fitting wheels and idlers, I gently enlarged all of the holes using a round smoothing broach. Yes the fit was very tight and I had hoped that this was only on my version.

Regards

Brian

Brian

All the running gear is on now, looking good so far.

All that remains to add are the skirts and turret hatch. Decals are going on shortly followed by some more weathering.

Pics soon as I can get downstairs and find time to snap 'em.

Some quick snaps of the Cromwell before base work commences.

Not 100% done (when is a model truly 100% done?) as yet.

For those interested and to answer an earlier question, I used a custom SCC15 mix provided to me by Mike Starmer. The Vallejo paint mix is as per below;

888 Olive Grey 50%
882 Russian Uniform 50%

I lightened the base colour mix with yellow ochre to fade panels, highlighting etc.

Mike is an acknowledged expert in wartime British AFV schemes.

This is a superlative kit, even with the interesting running gear assembly and track detail shortcomings.

Next up is a habitat for this British beast.

Michael,

Stuuning work! I like the fact that you picked your colours and weathered accordingly. I think that this kit is one of the bets yet from Airfix, I hope that they re-visit some of the older kits especially with the single piece track.

Regards

Brian

Thanks Brian.

I would love to see Airfix release some more new mould armour kits, especially of British subjects. Perhaps a Comet?

Excellent work,Michael!
With few minor differences,and ofcourse with few mm,this kit look like the Revell Cromwell.

Base is pretty much done now.

I have a newfound respect for Airfix. Nice finish on the Cromwell. The base is quite nice, as well.

Ahem, I think by just whacking it on the table as "pretty much done" Michael may be being misleadingly modest about the base. I assume this is another of your completely scratched bases, built, I think, on a drinks coaster?
Looks great, still not giving away too much on the method...

I am a modest person

Base started life as a MDF drink coaster. I had decided to create an urban base and dragged out my Noch self adhesive railroad cobblestone road. Cut to suit, it is a very quick method of creating the urban look I was seeking.

The corner behind the footpath was infilled with plaster (I mix white glue and Apple Barrel burned Umber to reduce the paint layers after it has set).

Whilst that was wet I sprinkled fine railway ballast, added 1:72 bricks and some scrap balsa to represent roof timbers.

Once the plaster was dry I base coated the ground work with Apple Barrel burned Umber with subsequent blends of Vallejo burned umber, flat earth and US tan. This gives an excellent match for mig dark mud pigment.

Bricks were base coated Vallejo greys and terracotta colours and the wood was based with stonewall grey. I then washed the wood with Citadel Badab Black to weather the beams and panels. Bricks were drybrushed lighter shades and mig smoke black added to the wood to "burn" them a bit. I added a resin crushed 44 gallon drum to give the base more "interest"

The street gully grate was then picked out with rusty reds and an overall wash of mig pigments applied over the cobblestones to make them more dusty. I added more pigments near the detritus as well.

Hope that explains things a bit more

Nice one!

G'day Michael. Great looking build!And great little base, i'll have to keep an eye out for the railway cobblestone material you used.
I have one of these in the stash as well as several of the Revell kits. I think the Revell kit is a bit better, particulary the tracks but was very impressed with the new Airfix kit. I also have the new bedford truck kit and it looks great. Glad to see Airfix is finally lifting their game and look forward to seeing what else they'll be bringing out next.
Cheers,
Tim

hey michael great looking cromwell love the paint job! i have two of the airfix cromwells atm 1 of them 80%ish done with the deep wading stacks aswells! absolute love these kits and plan on getting several more hopefully this weekend looking forward to seeing the dio finished!

Tony