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Crusader Mk II Gun Tractor Mk I

Drivers Compartment

Accurate Armour provide a nicely detailed drivers area, this build up easily and fitted in with no problem. The only thing to watch out for here are the small driver control handles, it is very easy to break these off when test fitting the sub assembly. I destroyed two, strangely enough the inside one, and ended up using a Bren gun handle to replace my losses.

17pdr Ammo Load

This is a bulk load, again nicely detailed but you’ll need to remove a fairly wide pour plug so a good sharp razor saw is required. The detail on the load is good and to it you add a surround PE metal cage (again no major problems here). Accurate Armour provide nice PE tie down straps to complete the load and a loose 17pdr ammo box that sits on top. I opted to add straps made form lead wire with buckles from Resicast as I want to show the straps undone.

Things to watch out for

Both the load and the drivers compartment need to butt up closely when fitted into the vehicle. The only issue here came when I fitted both into the hull and added the top back plate. There was insufficient room to add in the 4 rifles provided with the set that sit behind the ammo load on the rear bulkhead. Initially I thought this was my error but others have experienced the same problem, despite having pushed the whole assembly as far forward as possible. The answer to this issue may lie with the particular donor kit you use, as it’s possible there are slight variations in the size of the kits. This is something to bear in mind in any build you might do and with knowledge make any adjustments necessary, if possible to compensate for this.

Obviously the kit contains some small parts so be careful, this is particularly true of the two Thompon SMGs supplied for the front compartment. The barrels are joined to the sprue by a thin piece of resin and I only managed to remove one successfully loosing the other with a broken barrel. You get 3 driving leavers though and 3 opening arms for the hatches so you do have spares.

Frontal Armour, Side Bins/seats and Rear Plate

These four parts make up the new additional armour added to the kit and form the square around the open interior. There was a slight warp in the rear plate and the frontal armour and this made fitting slightly more difficult. The slight bend in the frontal armour was not so much of a problem as it is thin enough to be flexible. The rear plate however is very thick having additional detail cast on the rear. The side bin and additional side seating come as one part with a join between the seating and the bin. This is a weak area of the mould and I managed to snap off one set of seats whilst doing one of the many test fits I carried out. This in fact proved to be useful and I separated both front bins from the seats. I then joined the front bins to the frontal armour and the rear bins and seating to the rear plate. This gave me some additional flexibility when fitting these parts as I was able to deal with setting the front plate and bins correctly and then deal with setting the rear plate and seating correctly allowing me to get rid of the slight warp at either end.

The bins sit at a slanted angle and you may need to build up a little under them with Milliput or similar. You will also need to chamfer the rear of the front glacis plate to accept the sloped angle of the frontal armour. This is not as difficult as it might sound. If you look at some pictures of the actual vehicle the bins don’t sit flush with the side hull but have a slight gap underneath so with some test fitting you should get the angle about right.

The front armour plate has excellent interior and exterior detail allowing open or closed hatches and there are fitting and fixtures that will need added before you set the front plate in place. Just note here that the centre picture on page 4 of the instructions shows the part upside down!