Rubican Crusader WIP

So, thanks to some research by me and other members of the Rubicon Forum, I have some pictures showing stowage on the Crusader cruiser tank.

I do have some concerns that the stowage may have differed between the Mk II and the Mk III, especially as the drawing in the George Bradford book shows the rail attached to the side skirts on the Mk II and not the Mk III.

On page 85 of the Osprey Publications book Campaign 220: Operation Crusader, there is a rear view of a Crusader tank with stowage on the rear deck, including a jerry can rack (useful as I used the wrong radiator grill, the one without the fuel tank fixings...).

So first up is the jerry can rack:

This uses four jerry cans from the Rubicon Models German Stowage 1 set (British forces made use of captured jerry cans plus British made copies (see earlier position including a War Department example).

For ease of removal, this is being built on a glass plate, PTFE plates would also work.

The rack is built up from 0.030" square cross section Slaters micro strip. There are spacers of the same material between the rails at the centre of each of the jerry cans.

End pieces were then added between the protruding rails to hold the cans in place. Each can is then strapped in place using 0.030" x 0.010" micro strip, first adding the strap through the handle and under the two bars (which mostly hides the spacers). This is trimmed to length when dry then the long strip is added. The picture above is the rack before trimming. The rack long side is then added, again from 0.030" square section micro strip.

Once dry, the rack will be removed from the glass plated trimmed. End pieces will be added and buckles added to the straps.

On the tank front, here is some work in progress shots.

The photographs I have seen with stowage show a long rail of rectangular cross section suspended from the side skirts. So first the rivets (sorry Rubicon) were removed along the line of the rail. Small square spacer sof 0.030" by 0.010" micro strip was then added. The white posts in the background are the mounting points for the stowage.

The rail itself is made from 0.040" square section Slaters micro strip, I did sand it down, first to remove raised parts where it is cut and second to make a more rectangular cross section.

Checking it all fits together.

Only just, as you can see the long six pounder almost touches the centre post. This will need to be cut down and form the boundary point on the stowage.

The rear view picture in the Osprey book it shows a tarpaulin on the left rear stowage box (the two white posts showing its location), an assortment of tarpaulins wrapped round what looks like tent poles (the three posts on the rear deck will provide mounting points) and a wrapped box attached to the right rear mud guard (it has a white post as well).

Other photographs show stowage hanging from the rail, a sack of some kind will hang between the first and second front left road wheel. On the other side there are mounting points for another tarpaulin and I may add another couple of sacks.

All soft stowage will be sculpted in-situ with boxes and cans added.