Cromwells 1/76 Mk VIII "The International"

The MkVIII ("The International") was a joint British-American project, to build a battle tank to be used in those offensives the allies were planning for 1919. The war ended before it could be used in action, and this technically advanced tank only saw peace-time service in the US Army. 

Cromwells kit are, to my knowledge, the only one of this vehicle. It comes packed in a sturdy little box, made in that creamy yellow and easily worked resin that we know from the firms other kits. The main parts are a hull and two side tracks assemblies - detailed on the back - and two side sponsons. There is also a number of smaller parts, including hatches, MG:s, a semaphore, rails etc. The mouldings are of excellent quality, some of them very delicate indeed, but although none of these small parts were broken in my kit, Cromwell has wisely included a number of spares for the smallest parts.

The kit comes with a simple but efficient set of plans - which is unusual for Cromwell, who for the most time only supplies you just the parts in a bag. This is quite simply an excellent kit. It's accuracy and the level and crispness of detail is very impressive. There hard to find something to complain about, except the large moulding plug under the hull, and perhaps the fact that the large MG domes on both sides of the hull could have been made optional, as these was not used in all tanks. But except that, I think that this is one of the best resin kit of a small scale WW1 AFV that can be found. It can be bought directly from Cromwell Models.

For more info on this tank, click here! To see the kit built, click here!