Introduction

When it comes to the Cromwell tank there is really very little choice from the majors dealing with injection moulded plastic offerings, Tamiya is the only real choice the modeller can turn to. One of the issues with Tamiya is that they very rarely provide the items that need to be replicated in photo etch. Items such as grills cannot be replicated in any other way and some elements are better scale wise in photo etch. In this review I will be looking at the photo etch offering for the Tamiya Cromwell tank from Accurate Armour.

Review

Accurate Armour is not a company I had anything to do with until I purchased three Chieftain barrels when Takom first released their kits of the Chieftain in 1/35th scale. I have know made several purchases from Accurate Armour as online purchases and these orders have always arrived in a very nice flip top cardboard box. The products themselves are usually packed in Ziploc bags with a full length card hanger. This offering but not all comes with an instruction sheet of paper. The result of all this is a photo etched sheet that has reached me in the condition the manufacturer intended.

The instructions were initially met with disappointment by me due to the limited number of images provided; most of us look at images for our guide to assembly but Accurate Armour has tackled it primarily via the written word. The writing is a little small for me as I am getting old and so after looking under magnification I discovered the wonder of written instructions and in this case they are superb. I found that having read the instructions all of the guess work was taken out of the task.

The set provides all of the mesh detail required for the model covering both the side and rear engine deck. The retainers for the cable have been covered to represent a part I do not believe is replicated in the model itself. A couple of optional elements in the set cover half round covers over the rear vent area that was seen of Welch Guard tanks and it says is believed to have been on others for a time and a turret basket option. The items that will likely be noticed by other modellers are the padlocks provided in the set for the turret boxes and the wing mirrors, but for me it has the be the turret roof mounted sights that really stand out.

Conclusion

I feel this is a good and affordable set of photo etch for improving the Tamiya Cromwell and lifting it to a level that modellers can live with at a minimum. The price is £6.50 and I feel you get a reasonable quantity of photo etched parts that cover the areas you would expect and offers elements that I was not really thinking about when I started looking for a product such as this. The result is I am a happy modeller who feels he got a good deal for his money.