Crusader II
3CLY

The model is based on a tank on a reference photo captioned 'Officers reviewing artillery positions on escarpment south of Mersa', 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), Egypt, 1942' so it should represent a 3CLY Crusader, according to the reference photo, close support version. The tank didn't have any markings (which was quite common for the Crusaders in this period), but being a CS tank, I guess that it probably belonged to the headquarters. At this time, the 3rd CLY was part of the 22nd Armoured Brigade, famous for its creative camouflage. This one is no exception and the reason I wanted to build this particular tank. The photo was taken in June 1942, at the time when Mersa Matruh was taken by Germans after the Gazala Battle and the 3rd CLY was relocated to the escarpment south of town. Not long before this, the 3rd CLY was involved in the intense fighting around the Cauldron and the Knightsbridge Box during the Gazala battle.

It is an old Italeri kit, with some new parts, mostly figures.

The only AM additions are the Panzer Art mantlet, Aber BESA and CS barrel (originally the kit included 2pdr), Eureka tow cables, and Panzer Art ammo crates. The tracks are original vinyl ones ?.

I enjoyed this build a lot.

The base color was airbrushed with MRP light stone, while the disruptive color was brush painted with Hataka blue line, specialized for brush painting. Disruptive paint applied on these tanks was (probably) locally produced dark brownish camcolor used for other purposes (construction industry etc.). It was applied by hand using whatever was available (brushes, cloth, etc.) and the result was not very neat, which I tried to reproduce.

Weathering is just some pigments, first sprayed with an airbrush and then rubbed here and there to make it look irregular.