Cromwell Mk. IV

Manufacturer: Revell AG.

by Till Huber

Construction went straight forward, I did not find any imperfections or fit problems so this Review won't be that long at all. I left the Hedgerow cutter off, as I don't have any references that confirm the usage on a Cromwell.

CAMO AND PAINTING

As base colour I took Humbrol No. 105 which is a US armour color. I've attempted to find any references about British late war armour green and I think this colour is the best match. As mentioned in the preview I am not a friend of mixing colours to match the right tone because there are so many viewpoints you can look at this topic. Some modellers take the scale effect into consideration by lighting up the base colours, some do not; Some compare their colour with a real sample taken from vehicles (especially the airplane guys!) and finally some modellers say that sticking to a strict colour formula is not accurate at all due to enviromental effects, such as exposure to sunlight (bleaching, water, mud, corrosion etc...). I think I'm going to use my airbrush to apply some road dust texture on the lower parts of the tank. It still looks too clean for me.

I painted the tracks in gunmetal grey; after this I mixed some Fe2 O3 powder with water and applied this on the tracks. The next step was to silver the tracks which I supposedly overdid.

The decals are very nice and accurate, although my reference does not show the white allied star on the turret top. The big white star decals are very difficult to apply due to the bolted armour design of the cromwell. Definately it is better to leave them off until you use a decal softener but I haven't tried this myself yet. I wonder if the British tanks were loaded with the same amount of stuff on the outsides like German tanks had been. If so, my job is far from being finished yet ;-)

I think I only bought the kit because it was a NEW one :-)