Hello all,

i'm currently part way through building a tamiya churchill and am having some problems finding reference photos. I'd like to do a churchill mark 7 in france in about 1944-45, but am having massive problems finding photos of units, my results all being photos of churchills left as monuments. does anyone know any good websites for photos of Mk.7 Churchills in 1944/5 france??

any help would be appreciated

sean

I'm almost finished building the same kit at the mo and had some of the same issues when i was at your stage.

Your best bet is the imperial war museums war photo archive which you can search here:

iwm collections

search for churchill tank though as otherwise you tend to get a lot of a certain Mr. Churchill!
The pics are a little small but are the best for original photos, also the unit is generally listed.

I have a couple more of Mk. VII crocodiles which are ok for reference if you are interested, drop me a PM with your e-mail and i'd be happy to share them.

Otherwise I have Osprey's 'modelling the Churchill tank' which although does deal with a lot of conversions has some excellent points and a great build of a Mk. VII crocodile in germany '45, and would definately recomend it.

Osprey also do a book on the Churchills history which I don't have but if its anything like their others in the 'vanguard' series will be packed with useful pics and reference.

Let me know how you get on. This is the second time i've built the kit and have gone to town with detail (a real blessing and a curse!) so will be happy to trade tips etc. with you if you need them.

Good luck,

James

kit itself isnt going too badly, just messing about with daft wee seam lines etc just now as it's just been primered. not a bad kit i like the detail like the wee bolts etc, and it's fairly straight forward. i built mines start to finish in abut 6 to 7 hours.

the croc will be the next on my list, after that i'm thinking a Mk.2 ARV (scratchbuilding fake turret and jib exercise, great for a 18 year old who loves the smell of superglue and spray primer) then possibly a Mk. 7 AVRE. seeing how easy the kit is to build i wouldnt be surprised if i end up trying to make a model of all of the variants!!

i'm also putting accurate armours toad conversion kit on my christmas list this year the parents and girlfriend can save up to get me that one

sean

on another note, have tamiya churchill turrets always been so hard to mount onto the kits own chassis?? mine doesnt really seem to want to go on, then when it does it has about a milimeter of travel side to side . no ring or turret mods, thats what its like.

sean

A minor nitpick with the Tamiya kit: the three rectangular access panels on the face of the air exhuast -- they were postwar mods and shouldn't be on a WW2 era Churchill. You'll see that they do exist on the IWM sample -- Tamiya used it as the basis of their kit -- but they added this later feature unknowingly. HTH

Hi Sean,

i don't know if it is in your budget but the Eduard PE set for the kit adds a lot to the kit.

Enjoy the build, I think the Churchill is a really interesting tank. As James says the Osprey book is quite good and not too expensive.

IWM should produce some references for you.

Al

Sean,

Its a great old kit, typical of Tamiya quality but also a couple of typical tamiya oversights (eg. no lenses in cupola)

backdating to a mark 2 is a massive undertaking in itself. Let alone the massive task of doing the bridge, i'd think carefully about that before going fo it as it really is a big job. You'd also probably be better off using AFV clubs upcoming Churchill Mk.III kit. That would save you having to replace the hull front, scratch build square hatches, add all the side rivet detail, re-build the mud chutes etc. etc. though you'd still have to replace the air intakes with the earlier variants.
Still scratching an early cast turret would be a big job too, but hopefully AFV club will follow up with a variety of early variants using their Mk. III as a base, kind of as they did with their Centurion line.

The toad is a real mean looking AFV, I saw some pics of the restored one at the war and peace show. Would make for a nice kit.

As for the turret, they do have some play when fitted, you could perhaps fix that with a shim if it bothers you, although it won't really matter when the kit is finished. I've checked both my kits and the turrets both fit on fine, perhaps check the fit of your two turret halves, or perhaps the ring underneath has some excess material on it?

Good luck, and post some pics up as i'd love to see your build.

James

Agreed, it may be a little late for your build but the Eduard set is great, though not perfect, the pioneer tool mounts are somewhat lacking for example.

James

i've had a look for osprey's book on the churchill up and around glasgow but it isn't in stock just now (also the demands of a girlfriend and friday nights have left me skint)

i'm just building my churchill straight out the box to get use to the kit and spot the trouble spots. i started off with 1/72 scale hasegawa kits and after about a month i could build these things in bunches of five without any help from the instructions. tamiya's churchill is so simple i'll probably end up doing the same with them. any conversions i do will probably be detailed up. but im going to do this one and a crocodile bog standard out the box first.

it's a ARV i'm doing, i'm not really a fan of the earlier (Mk1 and 2) churchills, too ugly for me (insert fussiness here) although i'll probably do one sometime. i quite fancy a Mk.4 in either standard tank version or some AVRE, a mine plough or something.

browsing around i found this website, which among other things has some good reference photos of the survivors.

http://www.armourinfocus.co.uk/a22/

this is the ARV i mentioned



and the Mk.7 AVRE



as you can see, this is just a Mk.7 with it's main gun replaced, with the opening adapted to suit and brackets for the various mountings it carried. the other survivor still has the platform for its fascine attaced, which i think would have been hydraulically operated. i've also noticed the Mk.7 AVRE's seem to have been developed with dual purposes in mind. a lot of the photos of them i've found show them carrying both fascines and bulldozer blades.

sean

Hi Sean,

This is the Churchill from the Imperial War Museum in London:





































and this is worth a visit:

http://www.warlinks.com/armour/north_irish_horse/index.html

and this

http://www.armourinfocus.co.uk/churchill/ctracks.htm

I'll post the pics of the Bovington example later

Cheers

Al

Hi Sean,

here's the Bovington Mk VII.













































Hope these help.

Al

thats great Al, many thanks. interesting how bovington's churchill looks like it has a different stowage bin on the turret compared to the tamiya kits.

just out of interest, does anyone have a list of the churchill Mk.7 used around/ after D-Day?? in perticular im looking for the hull numbers/ names.

sean

well, that's my churchill all primered up and ready for paint.

i've also just picked up another one from my local model shop- thinking of doing a Mk. 7 avre. problem is i know they had dozer blades (and how to model the mountings) but i dont have any photos which clearly show how the bracket on the front for the fascine is operated (i'm assuming hydraulics but i don't know where any cylinders would go if so)

i've managed to find these photos online, but neither show how the bracket was operated.







any help would be appreciated

sean

having had little luck finding clear photos online, i phoned up the tank museum's archives section today. the chap on the phone say's they're likely to have something, and i mentioned specifically that it's for doing a model. he said with any luck they should have some clear photographs or maybe even a set of drawings for it. i should hear within a couple days. until then i'll maybe construct the hull for it to make it ready.

sean

Hi Sean,

Here's one for you:
http://northirishhorse.net/articles-2/Units/9thRTR-2.html

Gerry