A review of Cromwell Miniatures’ Centurion Mark 1, Tom Cromwell provides technical assistance and Matthew Lenton builds the kit.



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Thanks!

cromwell models have fame to be in 1/76 not 1/72nd.

That's as maybe, though this one is 1/72, confirmed by the manufacturer's kit number starting with 72.

Hi, just to follow up on the review... The final photos show the model primed in a pale colour, partly because I wanted to make the details clearer in the photos. However when I then painted it with ModelAir acrylic green I realised that the pale primer was a mistake, as it showed through in the wrong places, so all the paint was removed with nail varnish remover, which incidentally did no harm to the resin.



I then reprimed with Plastikote black craft primer; it pours out the nozzle at a huge rate, but I managed to get all the nooks and crannies black. Painting the whole thing in one go is quite a challenge, especially with the very light coloured resin.

So after some carefully applied layers of 71011 Tank Green the result was this, ready for some detail painting and light weathering:

Very informative review on what appears to be very nice model. Your green painting so far looks quite effective and I look forward to the further finishing. A very good job!

Cheers,
Jan

Thank you Jan, here is a little more finishing, mainly black enamel and some sepia oil. The shovels are a bit rubbish at the moment, I might have to do something with them - or just ignore them. Problem is the handle is a bit thick and lumpy, something I didn't take enough note of earlier.

Just to round off this review, here are some shots of the finished model. Basically the rest of the painting involved trying to increase the contrast of the finish, by repeated applications of pin washes, and green and white oil paint highlights.

As this represents one of a small number of prototype Centurions, all the photos I could find showed new and pretty clean looking tanks, so this is what I aimed for. Not sure what it is about the finish, but I don't think I have ever had a model that seems to attract so much dust; every time I look at it there is another speck of dust sitting on the dark green surface.

I also noted that many of the photos of early Centurions show them sitting on concrete surfaces, so I modelled the base from black Evergreen card and DAS clay. The concrete ridging was achieved with coats of Mod Podge applied with a bristle brush (invisible in the photos as it is so light). I was tempted to accentuate the concrete with some darker wash but decided that it should also look new. I kind of like the idea that this tank was produced at a turning point and looked forward to the future, so even the concrete is new...

Thanks again to Andras (Spongya) for sending me this kit, I enjoyed it.

Matthew,
Lovely job on both the review and the finished model!

Paul H

Matthew,

It's fantastic to see this one complete! Your finishing has proved to be quite effective and indeed adds to the model. It was amusing to read that you seem to be experiencing an issue with dust as the colour green you used does not look like its hue would display too much. By that I mean that a darker green such as a Bronze or Forest Green might more readily display dust particles but not this colour you used. Anyway, a fine job on a more than memorable subject!

Cheers,
Jan 🍺😃

Paul and Jan both, thank you for your kind words.

Jan, I wondered after I posted that about the dust if it might be anything to do with the resin, perhaps it holds a static charge which attracts dust.

Odd about the colour, it is actually quite a dark green in real life, and the lighter shades look somewhat exaggerated in the photos. Those from directly overhead look especially light I suppose as that is where most highlights went, but the lower parts remain quite dark. Quite difficult to photograph in such a way as to show what it really looks like - except for the dust!