1/32 Airfix Crusader Mk.III

[Sunray]

I have always wanted to build one of these since I was a kid and it was one of those presents you wanted but never got. So when I saw one in the show a few weeks ago I decided it had to come home. So off we go.















My first job was to sort out the wheels. As the kit first come out in the 1970's you can guess there would be a bit of flash and there is. So I tidied up and assembled the wheels.



Next came the suspension which again needed a bit of flash removal and they were glued to the lower chassis and then I test fitted a few wheels to see how they looked.



The instructions indicate to assemble the lower chassis, wheels and tracks first but because the lower chassis and upper body are slightly out of shape, I decided to start gluing them together a bit at a time to get them lined up as best I can. So As I was waiting for the glue to cure I moved on to the turret. The kit barrel didn't look too inspiring so I thought it needs replacing. I could fine any after market parts so I would have to make my own. Luckily enough the barrel didn't look tapered so I thought I would get away using brass tubing. I had a look in my draw and I had some tubing the same diameter as the kit barrel. Basically its the same stuff I use to make the stands when I am making an in-flight display for an aircraft. I had a look at the gun mount to see how I was going to do it.



The barrel stub on the mount has a slight taper on it so the stub would have to stay. But the problem was how would I attach the brass barrel to the stub barrel on the mount as they are both the same diameter? To get around this I used a slightly smaller diameter piece of brass tubing to act as a spigot to join the mount and the brass barrel. Then I had another problem. The brass tubing I had was imperial and my drill bits are metric. The diameter of the tubing was 3.25mm. So to get around this one I drilled a 3mm hole down the stub barrel on the mount.



Then using a small pipe cutter I cut off a small piece of the 3.25mm tubing to act as a spigot.



Now to reduce the diameter of one end of the spigot I put it into my trusty Dremel and use a needle file.



Then I glued them together with CA glue.



Now using the kit barrel as a template I proceeded to make the new barrel.



For the brake at the end of the barrel I just used a larger piece of brass tubing cut to size.



And I just glued the together with CA glue again.



With that done I had a look at the machine gun. Again I thought I would have a go at making one of these as the kit one wasn't very strong.



or the barrel I was going to use a syringe needle and I had to have a think how I was going to make the flash eliminator. I had some very small diameter brass tubing I had left over when I made the inside frame of my Piper Cub. So out came my trusty Dremel again and needle file and I managed to make a flash eliminator.



The Tamiya paint pot is there to give you an idea of scale.



I used CA glue to join the barrel and the eliminator.



I then just cut off the plastic barrel off the gun, drilled a hole and attached the new barrel with CA glue. Then I brought them all together and attached them in the turret.







Then I went back to sorting out the chassis.

[Clashcityrocker]

Great start, and nice improvements so far.

Nigel

[B4en]

Excellent start and fine dremelling!

[splash]

What a change the brass has made, thanks for sharing your techniques.

Regards Splash

[ShaunW]

It's great to see you applying your obvious talents to an armour subject Ian and your work so far on this is excellent. This is a kit I wanted as a kid as well and never received either. I've yet to build one and will watch this with interest.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Fantastic work there so far. Never knew Airfix made a 32nd scale Crusader. I keep seeing Rommel's 'Greif' Sd Kfz 250 around and now I kinda want one......got the old Monogram 32 scale Panzerjager IV in storage, too. Such a great scale!

[Sunray]

Thanks folks for the kind comments. I have done a bit more work on the Crusader. First I replaced the plastic kit turret hatch handle with a stronger one made from copper wire and as the kit shows only one handle, so I checked some references which showed it had two so I added another. I made these by just bending the copper wire around flat nose pliers (the ones that has jaws that are smooth and flush fitting with no teeth). I then trimmed them to size and glued into place with CA glue.



Because this is an old kit the fit isn't the best, so a little help from clamps, etc, is required to get the parts of the hull to stick where the should. Also there are a few gaps to fill as well but by taking my time and waiting for the glue to fully harden it has paid off. One of things I did notice was that the plastic on the mudguards and side skirts so I reduced them by using a needle file and sanding stick to give them a better look. First the front mudguards.







Followed by the rear mudguards.





And finally the side skirts.









By doing this it made them a better fit and they were easy to glue to the hull without too much trouble.



I started to add one or two things to the turret like periscopes and vent until it was the turn of the search light. I hide a look at the light to see if I could improve it.



The light comes in two parts the lens and the light main body which as you can see from the photo is made from normal plastic. First I thought I would see if I can make the lens glass by using a 4.5mm punch, a hammer and a scrap piece of flat clear plastic. If I could I would carry on but if I couldn't I would use the kit light as is.



I placed the clear plastic on a small piece of MDF and hit the punch with the hammer on the plastic. Then I popped the new lens from the punch.



Now using a Dremel and two cutting bits I removed the old non-clear lens from the lens frame. Then using the frame as a guide I also cut out the inside of the light to make the reflector.





I cut the reflector slightly smaller diameter than the inside of the lens frame so the clear lens had a ledge to sit on. I glued the frame and the rear light assembly together, then painted the reflector with metallic aluminium paint. I did try using kitchen foil for the back of the reflector but to me it looked too shiny and out of scale so I went with paint. When the paint was dry I glued in the new lens with PVA.



Lastly I tried the light on the turret to see if it looked ok.



Then I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the light and the light bracket for a piece of copper wire to give it more strength and to act as electric cable for the light. Using CA glue and Tamiya glue I attached the light to the turret.

[B4en]

Really nice work! I tend to use files, drills, and knife points where you use the dremel. That may change though after following this build...
If you use a punch on clear acetate it will usually result in a nice 'dome' shape ideal for headlamps etc. I can't quite see if your searchlight glass is flat? Also if you want a sharper corner when bending wire for handles a few taps on the bend with a light hammer while it is still held in the pliers works very well.
Looking forward to more. (Yes I wanted this kit too as a kid and never got it.)

[ShaunW]

I have to shake my head in wonderment Ian, you are really transforming this oldie. Recently I have used lenses from Little Cars to improve the look of moulded in lenses on larger scale kits as I can't live with them either - I find they can be just about passable in 1/72 or 1/76th but not in 1/48th or larger.

[Sunray]

Really nice work! I tend to use files, drills, and knife points where you use the dremel. That may change though after following this build...
If you use a punch on clear acetate it will usually result in a nice 'dome' shape ideal for headlamps etc. I can't quite see if your searchlight glass is flat? Also if you want a sharper corner when bending wire for handles a few taps on the bend with a light hammer while it is still held in the pliers works very well.
Looking forward to more. (Yes I wanted this kit too as a kid and never got it.)

I have used a Dremel for years now and I wouldn't be without it and its well worth the money. Also I use one of those battery operated nail manicure buffers with changeable bits, which run at low rev's as not to melt the plastic.



Here is a photo from another build and its at the bottom left of the photo with the "pink" button and a bit from a set of tools both bought off ebay for under a fiver and they are an excellent pieces of kit Thanks for the tip about using the hammer and the acetate. The reason I used the plastic sheet is that I have loads of scrap from when I make vacformed canopy's so I thought I would kill two birds and one stone. Thanks mate.

Thanks Shaun I might give those lenses ago.

[Sunray]

This just a quick update to let you know how I am getting on. I added the storage boxes, shackles, drivers hatch, etc but I didn't like the look at the front headlight guards as to me they were one of those parts that would want to snap off, so I made my own which are just bent bits of copper wire and glued in place. I used the kit parts as a template.



Also I used the steal helmet from the kit which came from the stores hanging on the rails on the side skirts. I am not going to use the rails but some of the bags on them I am going to add later on.





To make it a bit more interesting I also added the fuel line and new bracket to the auxiliary fuel tank. First I made the bracket from a piece of brass from a sprue of old photo etch. I drilled a small hole the using a jewellers brogue to enlarge the hole to the right size as I didn't have the right size drill bit.



Then I cut and then bent the bracket to shape. Here are the tools I used to bend the bracket. They are not as expensive as the Tamiya one in fact all of them combined were a lot cheaper than the Tamiya one and do the same job.



I then glued a piece of copper wire to the fuel tank and the bracket to the hull and drilling a hole in the hull using the bracket as a guide. Now it was just a case of gluing the fuel tank assembly to the hull and passing the copper wire through the hole in the bracket and into the hull gluing with CA glue when done.





Also the kit towing strop to be honest looked naff so I made my own from braiding two long pieces of copper wire. All I did was to put a nail in the jaws of my vice and tightened it up. Then I bent both pieces of copper wire in half and I put the looped end around the nail in the vice. Now I got hold of the four ends of wire and pulled them tight putting them in the jaw of a hand drill doing up the chunk, while keeping the wire tight.



Now I just wound up the hand drill until I was happy and you get a nicely braided piece of copper wire. I then cut the wire to length and bent the ends to make the towing eyes. Using small gauge copper wire I wound it around the ends of the towing eyes and I ran CA glue over the top of the smaller gauge wire to seal it. Its not the best towing strop but its better and stronger than the kit one. Now I just added it to the hull using a copper shackle made again from copper wire and securing it again with CA glue.







Not it just waiting for paint.

[iggie]

I'm looking forward to seeing this one out of the paint shop; it's really whetting my appetite to tackle one of the 1/32 tanks I have yet to build

[Sunray]

I'm looking forward to seeing this one out of the paint shop; it's really whetting my appetite to tackle one of the 1/32 tanks I have yet to build

Thanks Iggie. Today I managed to do some more work on the Crusader. The track comes in four pieces so I glued them together with thick CA glue, to make two track sets but I haven't made the track loop complete if you know what I mean. That will be done when the wheels, etc are on the tank. Once the glue had cured I gave the tracks a coat of primer. I also primed the hull, turret and wheels followed by a bit of pre-shading and then the base coat of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth.











For some reason the colour of the paint in the photo's looks a touch washed out on the tank but that is just because I forgot to turn off my table lamp when I was taking the pictures. The one of the wheels gives a better idea of the colour. I mentioned in my previous post regarding using CA glue to seal the smaller gauge copper wire I used to wrap around the towing cable and this is what I meant.





For an old Airfix kit I think it tidies up quite well.

[ShaunW]

Wonderful Ian - 'tis wizardry I tell ye! In addition to the quality of the work, your build threads are always top notch with clear photos and featuring stuff like the tools that you have used which is great info, especially for viewers who may be returning to the hobby or just starting out.

[ntrocket88]

Excellent scratch building work and a great demo build!