It's a nice subject matter, and something I have fancied doing myself.
Will look forward to seeing how you get on.
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I think that's a Croc turrent? Not sure, but that's what it looks like to me.
Croc turret? Do you mean Crocodile, as in Churchill? That had a standard Mk. VII turrret, no different to the non-flamethrower variants and that is not what we are looking at here.
This is definately a Cromwell/Centaur turret as Dave mentions, at least in appearance if not dimensions. The gun however is more likely a 6pdr, and not the Ordance QF 75mm as found in the Cromwell. And there appears to be some sort of basic hatch in place of the cupola (likely as this is a prototype).
The turret rings would certainly not have matched between this Matilda and a Cromwell, and what I understand this hull would have been specially adapted to mate the turret to it.
From my understanding this was either an attempt to up-gun old Matilda's or to test the Cromwell turret before the chassis was available. There is an explanation out there!
The Matilda as we know it was the Mk. II, the Matilda Mk. 1 was a small outdated tank armed with just one machine gun that saw limited use in France (and apparently 1 in Poland) but was obsolete before the war began. I'm not aware of a Matilda Mk.III ever being in production, but it's possible that if this was an attempt to re-arm old Matilda chassis, then perhaps it was known as the Mk. III.
Hope that helps a bit,
James
