Warlord games ITALERI Bolt Action Plastic Cromwell Cruiser Tank Review
Once more exciting times when the postal fellow arrives bearing reinforcements for my Bolt Action forces. Today we look at the British Cromwell Cruiser Tank!
As you can see I was rather excited to get started as the Cromwell is one of my favourite looking tanks. It's so.... flat. It was a late war tank but still some of that typical British flat and awkwardness to it.
Lets take a look!
Great art on the front, a photo of the model with some nice effects added. Clearly labelled Warlord and ITALERI.
We get a funky insert sheet telling people more about Warlord Games,
An insert from ITALERI as well giving you more ideas about the range.
Decals... always a massive bonus to have decals in a kit, and such nice ones as these as well.
The back of the box is nice, some painted examples and history on the Cromwell.
The instructions,
A single sheet double sided set of instructions.
Only 2 sprues, all sealed up
Nice Crisp casting
The same style track as the Sherman.
The track is assembled in 4 pieces, the plate and rollers as one, the upper track, lower track and the return roller that goes on. Easy to assemble and looks good as well.
I got stuck into building the hull, there are more pieces then the Sherman but this does not have many curves, lots of flat plates and lights and hooks. All nicely detailed pieces with no clean up required apart from a tiny bit of filing where you cut it off the sprue.
It all goes together smoothly and nicely, really crisp detailed casting that fit together perfectly.
The exhaust is really detailed but will hardly been seen certainly on the tabletop so you can see they have not skimped on this item.
There was no issues fitting the upper hull on to the bottom one, it just slots in nicely. The track sections have locating slots to slide into the hull so you cant really get it wrong.
And finished! As you can see all it needs is the odd bit of sprue clipping filed down and its perfect for priming and playing.
So many little parts to this kit, like the periscope view port, the lights and lightguards, the tow hooks and aeriels.
There is an option for open hatches or closed hatches, but since it does not include any crew I opted for closed hatches.
Rivets and little details are everywhere on this kit.
As you can see the hull fits perfectly and the tank looks Excellent.
It is nice and in scale with my infantry.
Sat next to my Warlord Sherman it looks again perfect for scale
Longer and lower than the Sherman as it should be. With those great big Christie style suspension set up you can see this is a tank built for speed, and will add much needed Firepower and mobility to my small British force.
So overall what is the kit like?
Being honest I looked at all the small parts and was dubious, but everything fits great, all the lights and hooks have holes for them to slot into and they fit perfectly flush into them. The hull is always troublesome on tanks, but again a perfect fit. The tracks? I love the upper and lower assembly method, again a great fit. Its a highly detailed kit, really clean and crisp and the only work you will have to do is the sprue marks, nothing else, the gun barrels are solid, the kit goes together easily. Keeping the box handy whilst building was useful, as I could refer to the instructions, then the pictures on the box if I was not quite sure about something.
(What he isn't telling you is this model took an hour to put together, including a smoke break. Pretty good for the fiddly bits you have to manage! Pre-dilled barrel, a good touch. One of my favorite looking tanks as well, it just looks fast. Playing it in World of Tanks frequently helps with that opinion, too.-Morgan)
What score does the tank get? A solid 9/10! what could they improve? The only complaints I have are the lack of a commander model as an option, and also it would have been nice to have the howitzer version so I could make the CS Centaur. I know they where not used often, but would have been a lovely addition to the kit (Is that even an option in BA?-Morgan) (yes.... yes it is! MART)
Final thoughts? A great model, very pleased with the results, so all I can do is recommend you pop over to Warlord Games and pick one up! Or with Tank Wars now here, pick up a load!!!
Lets take a look!
Great art on the front, a photo of the model with some nice effects added. Clearly labelled Warlord and ITALERI.
An insert from ITALERI as well giving you more ideas about the range.
Decals... always a massive bonus to have decals in a kit, and such nice ones as these as well.
The instructions,
I got stuck into building the hull, there are more pieces then the Sherman but this does not have many curves, lots of flat plates and lights and hooks. All nicely detailed pieces with no clean up required apart from a tiny bit of filing where you cut it off the sprue.
So overall what is the kit like?
Being honest I looked at all the small parts and was dubious, but everything fits great, all the lights and hooks have holes for them to slot into and they fit perfectly flush into them. The hull is always troublesome on tanks, but again a perfect fit. The tracks? I love the upper and lower assembly method, again a great fit. Its a highly detailed kit, really clean and crisp and the only work you will have to do is the sprue marks, nothing else, the gun barrels are solid, the kit goes together easily. Keeping the box handy whilst building was useful, as I could refer to the instructions, then the pictures on the box if I was not quite sure about something.
(What he isn't telling you is this model took an hour to put together, including a smoke break. Pretty good for the fiddly bits you have to manage! Pre-dilled barrel, a good touch. One of my favorite looking tanks as well, it just looks fast. Playing it in World of Tanks frequently helps with that opinion, too.-Morgan)
What score does the tank get? A solid 9/10! what could they improve? The only complaints I have are the lack of a commander model as an option, and also it would have been nice to have the howitzer version so I could make the CS Centaur. I know they where not used often, but would have been a lovely addition to the kit (Is that even an option in BA?-Morgan) (yes.... yes it is! MART)
Final thoughts? A great model, very pleased with the results, so all I can do is recommend you pop over to Warlord Games and pick one up! Or with Tank Wars now here, pick up a load!!!
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