I'm looking into available options for 1/35 Churchill Mk. III as used by Canadians during the Dieppe Raid in 1942.

There is a limited serie by Cromwell that has directly the Mk. III version available in 2 markings.

Tamiya has Crocodile and Mk.VII so it would need some conversion. I found 2 so far. Castoff's mentioned in Osprey's Modelling the Churchill Tank and IMA's reviewed here. I've also encountered notes on Resicast #35.120 but I cannot find it anywhere (just the AVRE version #35.170).

Could you give me a feedback on the best option to go with? Cromwell seems to be expensive (plus I'm not sure about availability) but Tamiya + conversion may end up at the similar price tag... How those compare in terms of quality? Is anybody aware of any future plans by any reasonable company to release Mk. III?

Hi Gilwitzz,

My thinking would be to go with the Cromwell Models kit. It will be the most accurate and by the time you buy PE, Wading Gear and all the rest you'd probably be better off.

The Tamiya kit is the only one on the market that I know off in Plastic. You'd have to get one of the resident Churchill experts to tell you what need to be done to it to convert it to a Mk III, but most of the upper mud guard would have to go along with a new front, I don't know what's available turret wise or how much work you'd have to do there.

See what else turns up in your thread, I may well be worng

I'd been thinking about a Mk III myself and I'm leaning towards the Cromwell kit.

Cheers

Al

HI Galwitz
As AlanL said go with the cromwell models version , the Tamiya kit takes a lot of scratch building to get it back to a mk III Dieppe , would recommend a book called Dieppe through the lens this shows every tank on the Dieppe beaches ,and it shows how the mkIII,s varied from tank to tank

Thanks guys. I've been leaning toward Cromwell as well just because the volume of necessary changes on Tamiya seems too much for me. The book Dieppe Through the Lens is exactly what triggered my interest in this case. I've found some pictures from it here, if anybody is interested...

I cobbled together Churchill I parts from Resicast but the nice thing about Cromwell is that it's all inclusive (including tracks).

I'm working on their Mk V version right now -- it's a gem of craftsmanship!

AFV Modeller 32 has a couple of articles you might find useful, you can buy them as downloads here

http://shop.afvmodeller.com/customer/home.php?cat=326&XCARTSESSID=46709a3bf74e1033382d9ab4da2003ad

David

The Cromwell kit will certainly be more accurate but it is a tad expensive. The Tamiya kit can be had for a lot less money and even when resin turret sets are added, it is less expensive. Of course you can save more money if you scratchbuild more of the conversion yourself. My buddy, Steve Guthrie had a front cover soncersion of the Tamiya kit to a Dieppe Mk II a few years ago. It is a big conversion, but doable. He used to even sell the Mk I turrets to those silly enough to contemplate the conversion.

Still, it's up to you which way to go.