Bronco Models
Cruiser Tank Mk.II/IIA/IIA CS
British Cruiser Tank A10 Mk.I/IA/IA CS (3 in 1)

Bronco Models 1:35 Scale Kit No. CB35150
Review by Terry Ashley


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Introduction:
Notes from the Instructions;
Cruiser Tank
To meet the requirement of modern tank concepts, in 1936, the British War Office designated two different categories of tanks for future development. The first category is a fast mobile cruiser tank designed not only to perform reconnaissance and patrol tasks, but also capable of making forays deep into enemy territory. The second Category is an armoured infantry tanks designed to be used in close co-operation with infantry during attacks.

Tank, Cruiser, Mk. II (A10)
Tank Cruiser MK. I, code A9 was the first ever built cruiser tank in the United Kingdom. But while the A9 was still a prototype type in 1934, the British War Office had requested the production firm, the Vickers Armstrong Limited, to develop a more heavily armoured vehicle for better infantry support role.
On September 1937, a soft steel prototype Tank Cruiser MK. II, code A10 was produced. The armour thickness has been increased from 35/64 inch (14mm) in the A9 to 15/16 inch (24mm). To reduce weight, the two front single man machine guns turrets were removed. The increase in protection was achieved by bolting extra armour plate to the exterior of the hull and turret. This is the first practice of the application of additional steel plate design ever in British Tank.

Tank Cruiser MK. II according to their own weaponry can be sub-divided into three variants.
1 .Tank Cruiser MK. II (A10 MK. I)
Equipped with a QF 2-pounder cannon and two 0.33-inch Vickers water-cooled machine guns.
2. Tank Cruiser MK. IIA (A10 MK. IA)
Equipped with a QF 2-pounder cannon and two BESA air-cooled machine gun.
3. Tank Cruiser MK. IIA CS (A10 MK. IA CS)
The CS (Close Support) version had a 3.7 inches (94 mm) howitzer in the turret assigned for infantry support role.

The production run A10 tank has turret, engine and suspension identical to A9, but the thickness of bolt plates has been increased to 1 and 3/16 inch (30 mm) and weighs has been increased to 14.3 tons. The maximum speed on road however drops to 16 mph, while off road only 8mph. As a result, the A10 tank is too slow to perform the cruiser tank duty such as forays deep into enemy territory. This shortcoming self-explain although the A10 tank saw combat in most of the early battles, such as France, North Africa and Greece, the final production number was only 175 and phased out very quickly when new type of cruiser tank enter into service.

The Kit:
This new kit from Bronco Models of the British Cruiser Tank A10 if offered as a '3 in 1' kit with optional parts to build either a A10 Mk.I, a Mk.IA or a Mk.IA CS, the difference being in the armament as outlined in the kit notes above.
Note; this kit will form part of a Comparison Review with the Gecko Models A10 kits when they become available.

The kit consists of 9 plastic sprue runners and 1 etched fret with:

224 parts in light beige plastic (that includes 34 track link parts)
5 clear parts
18 PE parts
1 decal sheet
1 x 14 page instruction booklet
Clear and Etched parts
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The standard of the moulding is excellent with clean crisp flash free details and only a few pin marks that will be seen after assembly. There are the usual fine mould seam lines to be removed and numerous plastic 'nodes' on the parts that need care in removing, there are also some extremely small and finely moulded parts that will need care removing from the sprues and during assembly.

Dimensionally the kit measures up well against the 1:35 plans in the Armor PhotoHistory and Wydawnictwo Militaria books listed below with some quite minor discrepancies in overall size of the hull and turret dimensions but some discretion was needed as both sets of plans have some differences and also there were discrepancies between the dimensions within a particular set of plans with panels shown in one view differing in size from when shown in another view so this made for some head scratching. So, from that I can't really say definitively the kit is at fault or the plans but in any case, we are only talking a millimetre or two here and there, not consistently.

Where the actual dimension was known, with the road wheels for example I was able to determine the accuracy of the kit parts from this. This also revealed the plans in the Armor PhotoHistory book were more accurate overall than those in the Wydawnictwo Militaria book, but I digress.

The rendering of the bolt/screw detail is a little understated in places as these are quite prominent on the actual vehicle yet in some places were almost non-existent (the CS gun mounting securing bracket being a case in point, but more of this later) the placement and number of bolts/screws was quite accurate overall (apart from a few minor hiccups to keep rivet counters on their toes, no disrespect intended), there are also flat screws included where applicable to compliment the bolts.
The actual bolts on A10 turret as well as some on the hull are not the normal type bolts but have raised (pointed) centres with 'flat' edges on opposite sides of the bolt, the kit bolts have this feature to a degree but it is very subtle and not well defined, you really need to look at them under magnification to see the effect as they look round to the naked eye.

Actual bolt heads on most panels as described above
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The inclusion of the numerous finely moulded parts for the many grab handles and smaller fittings plus the etched parts for items like the turret vane sight and other details adds to the overall appearance, the only internal detail is basic details inside the turret hatches. One thing to note; when attaching the numerous grab handles you should drill out the locating holes as most were too shallow for the size of the pins on the handles etc.

While the kit scores okay for overall dimensional accuracy the main issue with the kit is not what IS included but what is NOT included. While 4 of the 7 marking options are for North Africa and Greece you don't get any of the desert modification features needed for these options, there are no sand shields, no rear hull mounted 2-gallon can rack or auxiliary fuel tank mounted on the front left fender (although this was not always used) which leaves just 3 of the markings options able to be built accurately from what's in the kit, these are; Option 1: Kreuzer Panzerkampfwagen Mk.II, 742(e), Option 2: France 1940  and Option 5: the initial deployment to Egypt in 1940.

Lower Hull/ Suspension::
The lower hull tub is fairly basic with the detail on the underside being very understated or not there at all but you can't really see this after assembly in most instances, added to the hull sides are two etched brackets per side (parts P2, P9) and the bogie mounting brackets (A10) plus separate central return roller and mounting post. The two-piece idler mounting is added at the front and note that the outer brackets (C15) can be rotated to adjust the track tension on the real vehicle but has a small notch to locate in the correct position for the link & length tracks provided.

The three part drive sprocket at the back has nice face details on the outer brake drum and just fine mould lines on the ridges around the drum, the central sprocket disc has the correct number of teeth but these are slightly undersized but nothing to get too excited about and this fits to the inner mounting disc, note it may be an idea not to attach the drive sprocket assembly to the hull until fitting the tracks to ensure the tracks align with the sprocket teeth correctly as the link & length track can't be moved to fit.

Each bogie unit is made up of just seven parts for a fairly quick assembly that is designed to be fixed in place after assembly, the detail on the parts is nicely done with good definition on the shock absorber springs with deep recesses between the coils for a good appearance. The mould line on the springs if quite fine but will still need care removing. After gluing the two fork arm parts together (parts A13/A16, A12/A17) there is a fairly large join seam down the middle of the main housing, this is either on the underside or mostly hidden by the shock absorber and wheels after assembly so it's up to you if you want to fill this before proceeding?

The actual wheels are in two sizes, the larger road wheels (actually called Bogie Wheels in the handbook) and the idler at 24 inches and the smaller bogie wheels at 19.5 inches in outside diameter, that equals 17.42mm and 14.15mm respectively in 1:35 scale. The kits wheels measure out using a pair of electronic callipers for the job at 17.37mm and 14.08mm respectively so we have a minimal discrepancy. They match the Armor PhotoHistory plans perfectly while the Wydawnictwo Militaria plans show them sightly undersized by the figures shown here.

Bogie wheel hub detail has the bolts in the correct positions and nice spoke detail, there is a fine mould line around centre of the rubber section that will be easy to remove and the return rollers include the small grease nipple as they should. Detail on the triangular bracket (parts A1) again has the bolt heads a little understated.

The two smaller bogie wheels fit onto the bogie bracket (parts A15) and you have to ensure all three wheels sit evenly when fitted, also most of the wheels had quite a bit of play which complicates aligning them correctly.
It's best to first glue all the wheels to the axles first ensuring they sit evenly and then attach the bracket with the two smaller wheels and the larger wheel to the bogie at the same time making sure all are level at ground contact.
Having to ensure the wheels are all level and straight as well as sitting evenly at ground contact all makes for a tricky assembly but with care everything should work out okay, not gluing the bogies when fitting to the hull mountings will help the alignment of the two bogies on either side.

Added to the hull sides before fitting the suspension units are two etched brackets per side, a smaller one at the front (parts P9/P14) and a larger one for the rear (parts P2/P3) these brackets should be fitted horizontal with the ground line, the instructions aren't that clear on this. Fitting the PE brackets caused some fit issues initially with the triangular bogie bracket (parts A1) not fitting flush with the fork arms pivot arms, after some playing around and test fitting the cause was isolated.

The etched hull brackets before and after bending
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Firstly, the outer (centre) edge of the PE brackets needs bending at right angles, this bend must be as tight as possible to the inner bend line, I burnished the bend further by pressing with a small screw driver head (while still in the bent tool) to ensure a tightest bend. Despite this I still needed to file down the outer edge of the PE bracket a fair bit for the best fit, see images. The two outer edges have more rounded bends and the PE parts are set up to allow this, I just used tweezers to bend these to get the more rounded edge on the bend.

modifications to the etched brackets for a better bogie plate fit.
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Next cut off the small locating tab on the inside of parts A1. This tab is supposed to fit into the corresponding notch on the PE part but it's hard to get this lined up when fitting and cutting off the tab alleviated most of the problem with the final bogie face fit.

Cut off the small tab off the back of the bogie brackets as indicated.
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It should also be noted that the front smaller bracket (parts P9/P14) do not have the holes as included in the PE part but is a solid bracket, making a new bracket would be the only solution to correct this if you wished? The rear larger bracket does have the holes as included in the set.

Reference image showing the flat profile of the springs and the front brackets (PE parts P9/P14) without the lightening holes included in the kit parts.
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Added to the front of the lower hull tub is the front glacis which has nice details with the three bullet splash guards and subtle rivet details, the two head lights mounted at the front have alternate clear plastic 'glass' or the night driving slit cover that you can fit as you wish, the connecting wires are also provided for nice detail. Added at the rear of the glacis (just in front of the driver's plate) is an additional bracket in PE (part P8) and this requires some careful bending as it has two segments that need to be bent back over themselves to form the two rearmost dividers and while this isn't too difficult to do you end up with join indentations at the front when the strip should be totally smooth. To fill these joins you would really need to solder the join and then file smooth, quite a job on such fine brass and it may be easier to replace the brass with thin plastic strip as there are locating marks on the glacis to make this an easy replacement for the PE. The fit of the glacis to the lower hull is excellent without any trimming or filler needed as is the lower front hull panel (part B30) and the two towing hooks added.
Note: I haven't fitted this PE bracket as mine was damaged in the kit, not sure how this happened but one end was badly bent and distorted on the fret when I opened the box and trying to repair this proved quite futile as it's quite fragile.

PE bracket as above
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The rounded rear hull plate is nicely detailed with rivet, flange and hinge detail and fits snugly to the rear hull tub without issues, added to this are fine grab handles and tow hooks, plus an etched fitting on the right side. The front hull panel also has rivet details included and fit directly to the front of the hull tub along with the tow hooks.

The standard full-length fenders each side are moulded in one piece, this includes the support brackets front and rear, there is a small issue where the curve of the front fender is too tight and this curve should be more rounded resulting in the front lip of the fender extending a little further out than it does, this is only a minor variation and may not be that noticeable from some angles, the Armor PhotoHistory plans show this curve as does period photos. The fenders fit directly to the hull sides as indicated but before fitting these you should fit the tracks as it's easier than trying to fit them with the fenders in place. I chose to leave the fenders off until after joining the upper and lower hulls together for easier handling but again this is up to the individual modeller?

Tracks::
The kit provides the track as link & length with two long sections of track for the top and one for the bottom runs, three shorter lengths to extend the top run and for between the first and last bogie wheel and the idler/drive sprocket respectively plus five individual links (parts A22) to go around the front Idler and nine individual links (parts A19) for around the rear drive sprocket. The detail on the links of quite well done with the fine ridges on the outer link face and well-defined recess in the centre as well as the end pins and flanges on the guide horns.

Fitting the individual links together will need some care as there is no precise locating point for the overlapping end connectors and they can move around quite a bit, so you need to ensure these are positioned correctly as the glue dries. I glued together the links for around the idlers and sprockets with slower drying glue and made sure the links were properly aligned, when the glue has just started 'go off' a little you can then fit them around the idler/sprocket to get the proper bend while the glue dries fully.

Fitting the tracks to the running gear was fairly straightforward if a little fiddly and the end result looks quite okay with the segments fitting perfectly without any gaps or other issues.

The individual links fitted around the idler and drive sprocket to ensure the correct curve as the glue dries
Make sure not to glue these to the sprockets in the priocess. .

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initial assembly of the top track run
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Fitting the track segments to the assembled running gear.
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A good fit without any adjustments needed, the top run was glued to the rearmost return roller onlt to keep the track in sitting straight.
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Upper Hull:
The upper hull is in three main parts, the large top plate and engine deck as one (part D), with separate front driver's plate (part B29), additional to this are two thinly moulded bolt panels (parts B21, C2) added to either side of the front crew compartment as these would have been difficult to mould cleanly given the location of the panels, the panels also act as the outer lip of the hatch openings and providing these as separate parts is a nice option in respect of the details.
There are also four curved bolt panels added around the turret ring (parts Ab3x2, Ab8x2) and some very minor trimming of the ends on the last two panels attached will be needed to get the best fit, test fitting before gluing will determine what trimming is needed, but this is easily dealt with and again adds a nice level of detail.

The hull correctly depicts the asymmetric intake boxes on opposite sides of the rear deck with separate louvers (three on the left and two on the right) and lower bolted panels, there are small grab handles to add the top louver on each side as well as on the engine deck hatches (all moulded closed). Added to the rear edge of the boxes are small PE flanges (parts P12, P13) that need to be bent to shape, there should also be rivets on the upper sides of the flanges as well, three on the longer edges and two on the sorter edges as shown in the image below. The rear ends of the intake boxes are also missing the numerous rivet heads that should be present and these will need to be added if you wish for accurate details in this area.  Additional details can be added to the louvers with the small attachment brackets at each end of the louver on both sides, this can be added with thin plastic card.

Rear hull intake boxes
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Note the lack of rivet details on the ends of the boxes and the PE flanges.
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Square attachment brackets can be added to the louvers to enhance the detail
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At the front, the two crew hatches are separate parts but designed to be glued closed as there is no internal details on the hatches, there is also a separate Driver's periscope housing with clear periscope, this includes the inside of the periscope housing which of course can't be seen after assembly.

The front hull driver's plate (part B29) has the good bolt detail but note they too have the conical bolts with the edges either side on the real vehicle, the bolt placement/count is excellent apart from on the right hand vertical side where there should be 5 bolts instead of the 4 depicted, the left side has the correct 4 bolts. There are also two bolts missing from the Driver's visor door flap, these are the only slip-ups in the rivet counters report here with the rest of bolt placement matching the original perfectly.

Reference image showing the couple of bolt issues on the front plate, the rest are all present and accounted for.
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The Driver's visor door on the front left is a separate part (B1) but it's best to glue this closed as there is nothing on the inside to show, on the right side is a choice of BESA MG mounting or a blanked off bolt panel (C35) but the instructions don't actually tell you which is which for the different options as all the instruction illustrations from then on show the BESA fitted, the only clue comes with the marking illustrations which show the usual configuration of the  BESA fitted for the Mk.IA and the Mk.IA CS while the Mk.I has the blank off panel. The fit of this panel to the upper hull is also excellent as are the two smaller side bolt panels.

At the back is the exhaust pipe and muffler, the hull outlet fairing in nicely done contours with the muffler is two halves, the fit is good with just a minimal join seam to be smoothed out. The outer exhaust pipe is hollowed out nicely with the edges of the pipe commendably thin but you can drill this out deeper if you wish using a 1.6mm drill.
Added to the exhaust is the etched guard screen, this has the diamond design in the mesh but the diamond segments should be more elongated and not square as depicted, not a lot you can do with unless an aftermarket part is released with the correct pattern?

Care is needed when bending this into the final tube configuration, annealing the part first would help but that may make it a bit soft and easily damaged so I have bent mine 'au-natural' using a bending tool initially and then drill bit shanks to finish off the circular bend. You really need to solder the join to form the circle as cyanoacrylate is too brittle considering the handling required to mount after bending, also you should also note it is not totally circular the whole length of the guard with the right end section frame being squared off at the top edge along with the corresponding mesh, (see images below) more reason to solder the join for strength. Another minor issue is the right-hand side of the solid under-section has a cut-out next to the brackets mountings, this isn't included on the kit PE part and you can cut this away to correctly portray the guard if you wish. (I didn't see this until after soldering so my guard is as it comes as in the kit)

The two muffler support brackets (parts Ab7) are added to the rear deck along with two grab handles (parts Ab15) a small fire extinguisher and two lifting eyes to finish off the rear hull fittings, it's best to add these parts before mounting the muffler for ease of fitting.

With the mesh guard bent to shape the muffle is then mounted inside with the locating pins on the muffler support bands fitting into the corresponding holes in the mesh, the fit here very good thankfully, the larger stubs on the muffler simply butt join to the lower solid part of the guard and all are secured with a dab of cyanoacrylate. The guard can then be mounted onto the two hull brackets and again the fit was good without any trimming needed, the sections of exhaust pipe, from the hull and the end section can now be added to finish the assembly, I had to reduce the thickness of the locating pin on the hull end pipe (part C17) as it meets the muffler at a slightly different angle than the hole in the muffler end bracket (part Ab6), but nothing to get excited over.
Some experience working with PE and soldering would be an advantage but we all have to start somewhere and the fit of the parts excellent to lessen any hassles with the assembly.

Mesh bent to circular profile and the ends soldered as per text.
The plastic muffler is attached inside the mesh guard

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Muffler/guard attached to rear hull, note squared off profile at right edge.
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Note the cut-out of the solid section of the gurard not present on the kit etched part..
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Reference showing the elongated diamond pattern and squared off end frame
plus the cut-out in the solid section as above.

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The fit of the main upper hull to the lower hull is excellent without any trimming or filler needed making for trouble free main assembly and once the hull parts are together and after the fenders have been attached the two large fender mounted storage boxes can be added either side (C19, C24), these have nice moulded on patch detail and fit without problems to the fender/hull. There are numerous other brackets and tools added to the fenders, these are all finely moulded with the attachment clips/brackets moulded with the tools and equipment, also supplied separately are some seriously small wing nuts.

Just a brief note when fitting the two small station keeping lights (Ab4) you will need to reduce the size of the locating lug on the fender as this is too big to fit into the recess on the bottom of the light, the wiring for the lights is also moulded onto the fender for added details.

Turret:
The turret shell in in one main piece that includes the roof (with hatch cut-outs) and the side and rear walls, there are two alternate front plates, one used with the Mk.I and the other shared for the Mk.IA and CS both with the appropriate cut-out for the gun mantlet so you need to decide which version you wish to build fairly early on.

There is a separate lower turret ring plate that fits neatly to the upper turret shell and storage compartments added under the bustle, dimensionally the turret measures out okay although the plans indicated the bustle overhang extension was a little long but as the plans in both books differed on this it's hard to make a judgement either way and it looks okay when comparing to period photos.

The two roof hatches are in two halves each with inner details included if you wish to add crew figures, there is also no pin marks on the inside details either to worry about with the Commander's hatch also including the vision periscope with plastic guard and clear plastic periscope itself. Other roof details include PE sight vane (P7) and hatch stop bracket (P18) in front of the Commander's hatch plus the left side spot light, small grab handles and lifting hooks on either corner. Note I had to remove the outer raised locating line on the turret roof for the hatch stop as the bent PE was slightly wider than the line, but this was very easy to do and then all fitted precisely.

At the back is a quite intricate antenna mounting and you will need care removing these fine parts from the sprues, also you will need to take care in assembling as the instructions are of little help at all and it's difficult to work out how they went together. I first glued the mounting brackets (C13, C14) to the rear of the turret on the outer edge of the raised ridges and then attached the top antenna base (C38) resting on top of the brackets. From there fitting parts C31 and C46 also became clear, I've included some images to hopefully help put these parts together.

Rear turret mounted antenna assembly
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The large PE bracket (P6) is added to the left side of the turret wall alongside the Commander's hatch but note when bending this bracket, the top has to be level with the turret roof meaning the bend angle is only about 45degress but test fit this before gluing so you get the bend angle right.

The 2pdr gun barrel is moulded in one piece with the muzzle hollowed out nicely and just the mould line to be removed but the Armor PhotoHistory plans show it 2mm too short while the Wydawnictwo Militaria plans show it 1.5mm too short. As a side note I have checked the many metal 2pdr barrels I have and none match the length of the plans barrel but do match the length of the plastic kit barrel which leads me to ask again if the "plans" are to be trusted?

The 3.7in howitzer/mortar barrel is also moulded in one piece with hollowed out muzzle and shallow rifling effect and again just the fine mould line to be removed, this barrel matches both book plans perfectly in diameter and length. The BESA barrels also have slightly hollowed out muzzles but the hole will need to be enlarged as the flash suppressor cone is quite thin on the actual barrel.

Mk.I Gun Option:
This uses the front plate (C49) with the gun mantlet (C22), this is attached from behind the plate with two small brackets (C40, C41), it's best to glue C41 first and let the glue dry so you only have to worry about one bracket when fitting the mantlet proper, the fit is quite snug allowing the elevation as required. The Vickers MG shroud is moulded with the mantlet and just the small barrel tip added (C39), this will need the bore hole drilled out for a better appearance and the 2pdr barrel is glued to the mantlet without any issues.
The fit of the three-part spaced armour is excellent with bevelled edges to get a gap free join, the assembled armour is easily attached the front plate which in turn is a perfect fit to the front of the turret.
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Mk.IA Gun Option:
This option uses the second of the front plates (C53) and has the mantlet (C23) sit on the outside of the front plate with the two small pivot points sitting into the respective hollows in the front plate allowing elevation. The mantlet just has a small fitting underneath (C43) and uses the same 2pdr barrel as on the Mk.I plus the BESA MG barrel with open bore hole.

The mantlet is trapped in place on the front plate by the large outer securing bracket (C51), this has large screw heads on the real bracket but these are quite understated on the kit part, also it doesn't hold the mantlet tightly and the mantlet/guns just flops about, so you may need to glue this in the required position or enlarge the two pivots on the mantlet so they fit tighter, this is up to the modeller of course. Again, the assembly fits perfectly to the front of the turret.
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Mk.IA CSC Gun Option:
The third option is the 3.7in CS and this uses the same front turret plate as the Mk.IA but with a larger mantlet (E4) that has three smaller bolted plates added for detail, it would have been very difficult to mould these bolts onto the mantlet directly so the separate parts add to the detail definition. The 3.7in barrel glues directly to the mantlet along with the same BESA barrel as used on the Mk.IA.
There is a heavier securing bracket (E3) but unfortunately the screw head detail is even less defined than on the Mk.IA bracket and you may choose to replace these with aftermarket screw heads for a better appearance. Another point to note is the BESA MG is not set parallel with the 3.7in barrel but is angled downward slightly.

The mantlet assembly is secured to the front of the turret front plate in the same manner as the Mk.IA and the fit is a little loose so again if you want the gun elevated it would have to be glued in place or the pivot enlarged for a snugger fit as with the Mk.IA.
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Attaching the assembled turret to the hull top is by of four small notches around the lower turret ring designed to clip into the turret opening on the hull, these are not the usual cut-outs for the turret notches so when you click the turret into place it will be very difficult to remove again. It also took a bit of pressure to clip the turret into place with hull assembled so you need to take care here and only fit the turret at the final step and probably after painting also.

You could of course modify this to the more standard turret attachment with just the two notches on the turret ring slipping into cut-outs on the hull ring and revolving the turret to the forward position to secure in place, thus allowing you to more easily remove the turret at any time, this is an easy modification and again is up to the modeller to decide.

Instructions/Decals:
These are the usual exploded view line drawings printed in colour with various parts and sequences highlighted with colour with the maim illustrations in B&W. The sequences are mostly clear and easy to follow with just the odd steps a little on the confusing side (the turret antenna being an example). I didn't notice any miss numbered parts or other bloopers but of course you should study these carefully before assembly to eliminate any problems.

The small decal sheet is well printed with good colour register

The kit provides seven marking options as listed below, one in German Grey, two in standard British two-tone green and four in various Caunter schemes as used in the MTO. Despite the continuation of the garish bright blue Caunter myth on the box-art those in the markings options are more subdued but we have to refer again to the fact that these options can't be built accurately without the desert modification parts that are not included in the kit.
The painting guide also includes the actual BSC paint numbers and on page 1 lists paints from Hobby Color, MR.Hobby, Humbrol and Tamiya although only the Hobby Color lists the equivalent BSC colours.

The Caunter scheme (not called that during wartime) is generally accepted as consisted of three main colours in a horizontal splinter pattern;
BSC 61 Light Stone as the basic colour, (a sand colour)
BSC 28 Silver grey, (light green-grey)
BSC 34 Slate, (dark green-grey)
Additional colours were sometimes also used in the same horizontal splinter pattern;
BSC 49 Light Purple Brown
BSC 51 Light Stone

A couple of book reviews that will shed more light on the Caunter scheme by Mike Starmer;
British Army Colours and Disruptive Camouflage in the United Kingdom, France and N.W.Europe, 1936-1945
The Caunter Scheme

Option 1: Kreuzer Panzerkampfwagen Mk.II, 742(e), Kummersdorf, Germany, 1940
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Option 2: A10 Mk.I, T5911, HQ 2nd Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division, France, 26 May 1940
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Option 3: A10 Mk.IA, "Edinburgh", HQ Squadron 2nd Royal Tank Rgt., 7th Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, Lybia , 1940-1941
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Option 4: A10 Mk.IA, T5941, A Squadron, 1st Armoured Division Royal Tank Rgt., 3rd Royal Tank Rgt., Greece, April 1941
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Option 5: A10 Mk.IA, T9219, C Squadron, 1st Armoured Division, Alexadria, Egypt, October 1940
Note; this tank could be used for a UK based vehicle as is.
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Option 6: A10 Mk.IA CS, "Eastern", A Squadron, 5th Royal Tank Rgt., 2nd Armoured Division, Libya, February 1941
Note; the 2nd Armoured Division sign should have a red background, not the black as on the decal sheet. (decal 26)
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Option 7: A10 Mk.IA CS, T5939, 3rd The Kings Own Hussars, HQ 7th Armoured Division, North Africa, January 1941
Note; this description is a contradiction as it should be either 3rd The Kings Own Hussars or HQ 7th Armoured Division but not both!
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Conclusion:
This new kit of the Cruiser Tank A10 from Bronco offers a choice of three versions and comes with a mixture of good quality clean mouldings with very little if any clean-up other than the usual mould lines, excellent fit of the hull and turret parts without any trimming or filler needed but also some fit issues with the suspension where the etched support brackets compromised the fit a little, something not uncommon when etched and plastic parts have to co-exist in the main structures of a model.

There are many very small and fine plastic and etched detail parts to enhance the level of details but also some areas where detail is missing and can be enhanced to improve the appearance as outlined in the review above as there is with most kits but overall is quite a nicely done yet basic kit without an overload of parts, the link and length track being an example.

The downside is the total omission of the desert features as described above meaning four of the painting options provided can't be built accurately without these parts, these schemes probably being to first choice amongst many modellers interested in the A10. But if the absence of these desert mods isn't an issue and you just want a basic kit of the early war British Cruiser Tank A10 then this will fill the bill with a little work along the way.

For the reason of the desert mods absence, I've rated it down a little, had the marking options just reflected the parts in the box or the additional parts included this may have been different.

Rating 7.5/10

Detail and assembly images
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The Sprues:

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Sprue detail images
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Instructions
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References:
British Cruiser Tanks A9 & A10
Armor PhotoHistory #5
Model Centrum Progres
Book
A9/A10
Tank Power Vol.CI
Wydawnictwo Militaria No.347
Book
Ground Power
Nov.2012 (No.222)

Galileo Publishing Co.Ltd.
Book
Military Modelling Magazine articles:
A10: Pt.1, AFV Special Vol.37 No.3, 2nd March 2007 and Pt.2, Vol.37 No.4, 23rd March 2007.
Note; these are also authored by Peter Brown and some of the information is also included in the recent book from Model Centrum Progres Armor PhotoHistory #5

Paul Owen on Track-Link is also doing a build review of the kit which can be seen here.

Thanks to Gecko Models for the review kit.

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Page created July 5, 2017



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