Current and Finished Projects > Land

A9 Cruiser Self Propelled AA vehicle

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Buzzbomb:
As a back story, the A9 Cruiser tank, the first of the line in that role was effectively retired from front line duty in the Western Desert in 1941. These tanks were gathered up in a Cairo base compound. The A9 as a tank, was outclassed and obsolete, but the chassis and running gear were in sound condition and it was also quite a fast tank, topping out at 25mph. Vickers in the UK was developing Valentine using, basically the same running gear.
 When the Panzerarmee Afrika was sending the British forces backward, the role that their air power was having was not lost on some forward thinking Officers so a couple of REME engineering officers thought about a mobile, armoured Anti Aircraft platform, using the well tried and tested 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun. A low number of the best A9 chassis were modified with a rudimentary, lightly armoured turret mount and the Bofors wedged in. It was ridiculously cramped and difficult to operate, but it did work. These modified vehicles were sent forward to front line, where they performed adequately, always hampered by the cramped conditions, but only for a very short time as the RAF Desert Airforce got up to numbers and soon had air superiority. As these tanks broke down or became again redundant, they were sent back to the base compound, where eventually they were broken up. Very few photographs were taken of these and remarkably little documentation. Imagine the surprise in 1944 when the REME officers, then back in the UK saw the "new development 40mm Bofors AA tank" based on the Crusader Chassis

This all started with Apophenia's Profile work on the Christie Cruisers.

I had a Cromwell Models/Under the Armour 1/35 Resin A9 Cruiser, well predating all the new injection releases (of course) However the kit was pretty below average, several poorly cast parts, not the correct number of each running gear, resin that stubbornly refused to glue... it goes on. It ultimately got tossed in a box at the back of the cupboard in disgust.  The profile work got me inspired.

The main event of course was the Bofors. No way I was springing for a new Bofors for this. I do already have a built Bronco 1/35 Bofors. The kit has lots of unused parts from the other Bofors in their range and I was able to gather enough as a basis to start.
I got out the built Bofors as a guide to replicate in a rough enough fashion


Test fit on the chassis after that got a bit of rebuild work.. the tracks are bloody horrible


So after a full arvo session this is where we are at the moment

Old Wombat:
The idea looks 8)

The tank looks :))

The tracks look :o

Keep it comin', BT! :smiley:

ChernayaAkula:
Niiiiiice!  8)

GTX_Admin:
 :smiley:

apophenia:
Oh, this has all kinds of awesomeness! Excellent bit of recycling - both in your basckstory concept and RW modelling  :D

Loving the scratchwork on the Bofors and its turret. And those blanked-off machine turret holes are perfect.

Watching with great interest  :smiley: :smiley:

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