Airfix 1/32 Crusader

[Ratch]

[inkpen]

This is one of my favourite Airfix kits.  I've built a fair few covering the period from release in the mid-70s until now and I expect that I'll continue.  I've always thought it to be a good kit, promising all levels of builder a good model.  I've never finished one in the green, but the model fetured looks good in that colour.  I think Airfix proposed an all brown finish too.  Mine were/are sand and black.

Was it one of those models that Airfix assimilated into its range back in the mid seventies - I can't remember the name of the original firm but do recall that the kits including Bedford Portees and US M3s were super to build and resulted in good models.  I've recently got hold of the 1/32 Grant and am looking forward to building it!  

 

[john redman]

The Crusader was an Airfix original in 1/32. It is by all accounts an excellent representation. It's a useful pairing with the 17-pounder in the same scale, as the RA used turretless Crusaders as tractors for them. 

You are probably thinking of the Bedford Portee and White Scout Car, which were indeed bought in IIRC - the giveaway being that they're 1/35.

[Ratch]

They were Max kits 😉

[Tour de Airfix]

Excellent … I have half a dozen 1:35 AFVs awaiting space on my bench and seeing these pictures are certainly inspiring me to move them closer! 

[john redman]

Ratch has posted his nice build of the 1/32 Crusader on here. The best thing about the kit, which you'd not know from photos, is that the way the Christie suspension has been engineered, you can set each wheel independently at a different height. So if you wanted to pose it on a bit of uneven desert terrain, with the wheels not in a nice neat straight line as they would be on level ground but uneven, to match the ground, you can do that. 

The prices are getting collectory these days, especially for the Lee and Grant, so if ever I persuade myself that it's possible to wargame in this scale I'll go for 1/35 rather than 1/32. You can still use Airfix 1/32 figures with their 1/35 tanks because most of the figures aren't all that 1/32 🙂

Edited April 14 by john redman