Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $30 Ever since Tamiya released the first kit in their new 1/48th Military Miniatures range a couple of years ago, the new releases have been flying out the door. All have been excellent kits, and while many of the subjects have been predictable, such as the Panzer IV, Tiger 1, King Tiger, Sherman etc., every so often Tamiya tosses in something refreshingly "different". The latter have included the Citroen Staff Car, M10 US Tank Destroyer, M26 Pershing, and now this latest release, the British Crusader Mk.I/II. As an actual tank the Crusader Mk.I/II was a bit disappointing. Despite a relatively high top speed of 25 MPH it was somewhat mechanically unreliable and only carried a 2 Pounder main gun. The initial Mk.I version also had poor armor protection although this feature was upgraded on subsequent Marks. Employed by British and Commonwealth forces in the North African campaigns, the tank was no match for the more powerfully armed Panzer III employed by the Germans. This said, the British used their Crusaders in large numbers in North Africa, and therefore it was an important vehicle in terms of numbers produced. If you have purchased any of the other tanks in Tamiya's 1/48th Military Miniatures range, you will not be surprised by anything you find in the Crusader kit. The standard cast metal lower hull is employed as per usual, with the road wheel suspension arms cast integrally with the lower hull. The plastic hull top is screwed down onto this metal hull bottom with the normal Philips screws front and back. As per usual, the metal hull is devoid of almost any detail whatsoever. Thankfully, the Crusader's road wheels are relatively large and with the sand shields in place, you probably won't notice this lack of detail on the hull bottom. However, test fitting a few parts indicates that there will be a bit of a gap at the front of the hull where it mates with the plastic front plate. Nothing serious however. One area that has always concerned me regarding Tamiya's 48th tank kits and that remains true of this kit is the numerous ejection pin marks on the insides of the kit's tracks. It is very time consuming to fill all these little divots and given the state of mold making technology today, I wish Tamiya would put a little more thought into their molds to eliminate this problem. Other than this area, the kit was devoid of any other ejection pin marks in visible areas. And being half way through construction so far, I can report that as with all my previous experiences with Tamiya kits, this one has lovely fitting parts, with very crisply molded details. As the box suggests, the kit allows one to build either the Mk.I Crusader with the small machine gun turret attached to the glacis plate, or the Mk.II which had this small turret removed (it was almost completely ineffective). There are also two main turret front plates showing the slight difference between the two Marks. And slide molding is used on the 2 Pounder gun to provide a nicely centered opening at the barrel tip. Parts are also included to allow the sliding turret "hatch" to be deployed either closed or open. Markings provided in the kit are for five different vehicles, two listed as Mk.I and three listed as Mk.II's. The two Mk.I vehicles are from "unknown units" in North Africa as is one of the Mk.II's. Of the other two Mk.II vehicles one is listed as being from the 7th Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division while the other is from the 1st Armoured Division both again, North African units. This latter vehicle is in a black and sand scheme. A complaint to Tamiya regarding paint: all five vehicles depicted call for "Light Sand" as the overall color, but the only paint reference called out in the instructions calls for the use of color TS-46 Light Sand. This is part of Tamiya's rattle can range of lacquers. Given the toxicity of lacquers along with the fact that many modelers today prefer to use their own airbrush, it would have been extremely useful if Tamiya had provided a suitable mix employing their range of acrylic paints. Decals are standard Tamiya: a tad thick but very well printed, and they always go down well for me whenever I use them. This kit is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys building models in 1/48th scale, or anyone who wants an enjoyable time building a kit that fits together well. For this reason alone I can't recommend this range of Tamiya kits more highly. My thanks to TamiyaUSA for supplying IPMS/USA with this review sample. The entire range of these excellent kits can be found at: www.tamiyausa.com .

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