Despite it's age, the Tamiya Cromwell is one of the best styrene kits around for the money in my view. It goes together like a dream. The tracks are showing their age though, so I added some individual link tracks from Hobby Boss. These were a bit more detailed and easier to work with. The turret was replaced with a Black Dog resin item with a moulded on cam-net. Before anyone points it out - the periscopes DO appear to be covered by the net - but it was too much hassle to hack the resin about to correct this.
Most of the other stowage was from the same set, with a few other items by Value Gear, Resicast and Ultracast. I used an Ultracast Crusader turret bin after seeing a photo of a Cromwell with one fitted - unusual. Seeing as 7th Armoured fought in the Western Desert, I thought this would fit my theme nicely. The small cable drum on the right fender was used not only to help keep the tow cables tidy, but also to attach wire to Teller mines to pull them out of the road. I've also seen photos of Pz III or IV roadwheels welded to the fender for exactly the same purpose.
The figures are all by Ultracast, from a variety of their UK/Commonwealth figure sets. The markings are for the UK 7th Armoured Division. The cap badges of the crew are RTR, so this would make my Cromwell from 5 RTR in Normandy.
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