Crusader Castle 1/72 MiniArt Fortress 72004

This is a kit my father built and I painted it for him. Instead of the typical grey, we decided to go for a southern looking rock, like in the Holy Land or similar, inspired in the Maltese limestone.

This kit from Miniart (which can be found at a really cheap price online) is screaming for a base, and so we went for a raised stand. It is made of cardboard-wood from the back of some frame, porexpan, and  liquid membraning for roof that works very well for this job, as is thicker than white glue, stronger, and it was already available in sandy colour.

I painted with acrylics a few crags on the landscape, and glued a few shrubs here and there.

My father glued the door to the keep in a raised position, to make it more difficult for invaders, and so I sculpted with milliput some stairs.

The castle has been left as modular and can be taken apart, for easy storage and to build in different configurations and bases.

The kit itself is a bit poor and requires a bit of work, parts don't fit, big gaps, not well thought, but at this price one cannot complain.

And well, let's see who guesses first from where I took the image of the flag :) .

Hasegawa Cruiser Tank Crusader Mk III 1:72 Revell Review Model Kit

This friday we will speak of a classic kit, the Cruiser Tank from Hasegawa;

Boxes; The first release box have all the flair of the 70s, the second one is just dull (I never liked the grey on Hasegawa's kits, maybe due to seeing them so many times). The artwork has more realistic colours in the second one, but in overall is not very exciting. The Revell box is typical Revell box, realistic and nice, more proper with desert colours, but it has been done like if it was a modern tank, and the driver looks like a Iraqi tank crew!

THE KIT - 9.0

One of the smoothest, easiest and nicest models to build I have had the honour of building (and that's quite a feat considering I've built around 200 model kits!). Everything fits perfectly, and if you are in a modelling spree, you could finish it in 2-3 hours! a perfect tank for a novice, and all the same with good accuracy. 

The only dark points you see after carefully comparing with the real thing, is that the turret is slightly squashed, and it lacks some angle on the roof of it. The real turret would be much higher. The front lights are big and they don't look like the real ones, so if you are one of those accuracy maniacs you will have a nice extra work replacing them. But knowing this was released in the 70s, you could say it's one of the best models of that decade!

Instructions are very clear, tracks are fantastic, soft and easy to assemble and adapt to the wheels (how nice it would be that all tanks had the same quality of tracks!) and decals are ok, but you will have to use some decal micro film or varnish or they will be flying off in a couple of months.

As always with hasegawa you get a nice little pilot, although he is in a very weird pose.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 8.5

Released since the 1970s, and if you ask me, at least in constant production from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s. This kit should be dead easy to find (although now you don't see much AFVs Hasegawa kits on shop, maybe Revell has bought all moulds, I don't know). But all the same Revell kits are easy to find, and quite cheap. And looking for it on eBay and finding it for less than 8 pounds can be easy, so a very good value here.


 Overall;

This is a important tank, besides having a interesting design (I had to check twice when I was kid to make sure it was a WW2 kit!), much different to the conventional tanks of WW2, it is a easy kit to do, cheap and easy to find, so stop reading and go and buy it! very appropiate for wargaming too. 

If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 
This is the Crusader I built, some 15 years ago so not much in way of weathering and similar, age provides that :);

Here you can get inspiration on other builds, gathered from the net;

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!