Crusaders

[Fitz]

This is the British Cruiser Mk.VI A15 Crusader III, the last in the Crusader line. It mounted the excellent 6 pounder gun, replacing the 2 pounder of the Crusader I and II. The 2 pounder had been a very good gun in its day, but by 1942 it was no longer sufficient to deal with the newer German armour. The Crusader III also replaced its old engine with the "Liberty" engine, which solved most of the reliability issues the earlier versions had suffered from.

The model is 1:100 scale for 15mm gaming, and is my own design (you can get the Crusader III STLs here, or the Crusader II here). This one has been printed in resin on my Mars Pro, but the models have been designed with FDM printing in mind. It should scale up for 20mm gaming without any issues at all, and even for 28mm if you don't mind the rivets looking a bit like tennis balls.

The Crusader is one of my favourites of all the British tanks of WWII, for all its shortcomings.

[has.been]

The Crusader is one of my favourites of all the British tanks of WWII, for all its shortcomings.

I agree. I used to watch a TV series with my father, an ex-8th Army WW2 veteran.
The series was, 'All our Yesterdays' in good old Black & White. The presenter (Brian Ingles ?)
used to preface each clip with the phrase, '25 years ago today...'
I was always taken with the dash of Crusader tanks.

[Tom Dulski]

Nice colors.

[CapnJim]

Nice looking Crusaders!  Well done.  But then again, as a former tanker, I have a soft spot for tanks.....

[Fitz]

Continuing with my Crusader fetish, this time it's the Crusader II, also in 1:100 scale for 15mm gaming. This version mounted the 40mm 2 pounder gun, and was originally fitted with a bow machine-gun turret, though these were often removed since they were basically worthless. The commander figure is one from a set I bought some years ago from Battlefront.





Speaking of Battlefront, I found that I'd also bought one of their resin and metal Crusader II models years ago, and completely forgot about it. That's it on the right of this photo. It's broader in the beam than my model, but I've double and triple checked my measurements, and I'm pretty confident that I'm right and they're wrong.





I printed my model some time ago in FDM on my Ender 3, before I got my Mars Pro, and at the time I thought it was an okay wargaming model. I guess it is really, since it does look like what it's supposed to be, but since I started printing models like this in resin my quality expectations have risen quite a bit, and now I hold it in contempt — I probably won't even finish painting it. It's like when you go to drinking proper wine out of bottles instead of el-cheapo plonk out of boxes; it's a bit painful to go back once you get used to it.

[Dr Bogo]

Really nice work on all of them, particularly the Crusader III, and the Crusader is my favourite design of the war too even with its various foibles...

[Ultravanillasmurf]

They are very nice models.

The Crusader is a very nice looking tank.

[Fitz]

I thought, since I was doing Crusaderish things anyway, I really ought to do a model of the first of them all, the Crusader I.



In many respects it's very similar visually to the II and III versions, but it does differ in many details. The two pounder uses an internal mantlet, the same as that seen on some A13s and early models of the Valentine. The long-run sand shields are absent, with the Mark I having deep shields only at the rear. Early production vehicles had the wheels covered with flat steel discs, which were usually removed (or not supplied) on later ones. There are differences in the configuration of the exhaust mufflers. And so on.

The Mark I was terribly unreliable, especially in desert conditions. When it was working, it was very speedy and had a hard-hitting gun (for its time), but there would be a pretty good chance on any given day that it wouldn't be working.

The STLs for this model are available at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/a15-crusader-1/

[CapnJim]

More nice-looking tanks!

[Fitz]

I finished off my 3d printed 1:100 scale Crusader 1.

I elected in the end not to go for a Caunter scheme, mainly because I just liked the look of the model in the pale Portland Stone.

For a change, instead of painting the unit markings, I used some BF decals, and as always when I do that, I kind of regret it. It made life easy, but honestly, BF decals are pretty crap when it comes to colour registration.

[zemjw]

Excellent models

Like several others here, I have a soft spot for the Crusader. It just looks like a tank should look

I agree with you about the Brigade models one, it does look too wide