Thanks Collins

My primary references are:
1. Mr Churchills Tank - David Fletcher
2. Infantry Tank, Mk IV, Churchill (the MkI and MkII vehicle manual) - reprint from MLRS publications
3. Dieppe through the Lens - Hugh G Henry
4. Churchill Vol.1 (gunpower 26) - Leszek Moczulski


I'm also referring (less frequently) to:
1. The Churchill Tank: A Visual History of the British Army’s Heavy Infantry Tank 1941-1945. (Part One: The gun tank, Mk I-VIII). - Ampersand/ David Doyle
2. Tanks In Action the Churchill Tank - OOP
3. Churchill MkI/II plans Pack - the Tank Museum
4. The Churchill - Bryan Perret (ISBN: 0711005338) this is the OOP one from Ian Allen not the Osprey New Vanguard one which frankly I never use
5. A wermacht report I picked up off of ebay detailing the armour and basic construction and the effectiveness of german artillery and AT artillery on churchills captured at Dieppe
6. Tamiya Photgraphic Album - The Churchill Tank

Plus lots of photos and measurements I have collected of real churchills on my travels. I am a churchill obsessive I'm afraid

I figured you must of had some good reference material according to the extra detail you are adding. It must have taken a while to collect it all. Unfortunately for myself I'll have to stick mostly to the internet for my builds as I have several different vehicles to build. Imagine having to buy reference material for a dozen different tanks etc.$$$ Research is a pretty important part to model building no matter the subject matter.

Hello Chris,
I posted the Mg/drivers plate for you, did you receive it ok.
Cheers, Gordon.

Got it today thanks Gordon

Collins, That isn't even all; the churchill books I have, just the ones I'm using on this build I have another 7 or so that don't relate to the MkI/II or are too general for this level of detail. My name is Chris and I am an addict . I usually get a couple of books if a subject is one I'm going to model more than once. I like to build french tanks (1940 ones) so for that I just get the Editions du Barbotin books. I also only have a couple on the Cromwell. The churchill is just my favourite subject and collecting the books has become a pursuit in itself! However, I don't buy any now that I don't think will add something new to the info I've already got

you don't need to collect all the books, just ask here, or on ML or other sites and I'm certain there will always be a modeller willing to share info. Best thing to do is usually name your kit then what you want to do with it and someone will probably chip in with tweaks

Coming along nicely.

Al

Thanks Al

So next I finished the 2pdr stowage around the basket area. This is around 80 or 90 rods drilled out to look like empty tubes and it took quite a long time to complete. They are not, unfortunately, perfect, but OK for my needs

I also added the jack and a further can of besa stowage







Next I had a look at the upper deck as it will soon be time to glue it in place. This is the first time on the kit that you see the periscopes and a good time to talk about a small issue with the kit

This is how the instructions tell you to assemble them:


Now this is OK, but the problem is people usually stick the periscope bottoms, part H2 in first. If you do this you will have problems as the top of part H2 is narrower than the hole in the deck, this means you can glue it too far through the hole.

The result of this is that when you come to glue part E34 on top, you end up with a gap between E34 and the deck of nearly 1mm which is highly visible and highly difficult to fix.

The easy way around this is like this

First glue parts E34 to the deck:



Then flip the deck over and glue parts H2 to the underside:




Then flip it over again to add parts H1

Next I detailled the underside of the deck with the extractor fan and festoon lights:



Its doubtful you'll be able to see these when its all assembled, but I want this to be my most complete interior yet, so in they go

So with that done, I started construction on the basket:





I did this now as I need to check the fit into the hull before I can glue the deck on:






phew

More soon, thanks for looking and as ever, all comments criticisms etc welcome

Nice work so far!!

Watch the fit on the Cromwell turret ring and turret. I had gaps and fit issues with mine. It's not noticeable, but the gaps were big enough to let light in from the underneath. Cheers!

Carmen

Hi Chris,

Looking very busy in there now .

Any developments on some fuel tanks and a transmission

Great stuff.

Al

It seems to be a design flaw Carmen, the one I used for Ringer was just the same!

no developments yet Al I'm afraid, but I do have a full diagram of the fuel system and radiators, so the reference is now in place

Next I masked off the hull interior


Then got some paint on it









This is a major milestone, because now I can call the hull interior pretty much done.


So moving on to the deck, these are the surrounds you are given by AFV club for the driver and co-driver's hatches.


These are correct for a MkIII, which the kit is of course. But the MkI and MkII had rounded hatch surrounds like this:




Luckily these are supplied by Cromwell

I added the hatches to the rear plate. I started with the rearmost hatches that cover the transmission and gearbox.

This has location holes for the tools.



Unfortunately the tool arrangement changed from the MkIII onward so these are in the wrong place for my needs so I had to fill them

First I filled the holes with 1mm plastic rod. This was not a 100% snug fit, so I melted the ends before I inserted the plugs to make the ends slightly fatter:


then when the glue had set I shaved off the tops:


Next I decided to add the hatch handles. The handles in the kit are quite good, but are easily broken and are a bit thick.

A while ago I bought around five of these sets from AFV Club (in colaboration with Voyager):


The set includes replacement handles but to use them you need to fill the square location holes for the plastic ones, which was duly done:



Its best to cut these out on a bit of masking tape to avoid infuriating pings


Then I scratched some tool clamps:

First I added the exhausts:



These were pretty straight forward but there is a joint horizontally across the muffler/ silencer that needs careful attention. After taking care of that I covered them in liquid poly and stippled with a brush to give some texture in preparation for rusting later on

Next I had a look at the air intakes

Here are some shots of a real one from the Crocodile at Cobbaton. This one has had the top damaged, but that allows is to see the internal louvres:







The kit has solid grills so if you're going to build one OOB, then these are irrelevant. I'm using etched grills though, so I've added the louvres:







I also added the welds missing from the lifting eyes from stretched rod softened with liquid poly:





So, starting to look like a churchill now





Before we go, I managed to get a picture of company uploaded, so here is what we're aiming for



More soon

Nice work on the side air intakes!! I love it!

Thanks Carmen

Today I decided to finish the Glacis. Gordon did indeed get me a replacement very quickly for the missing one. However, I had already started on my own so decided to stick with that as mine had more interior details.

As we have seen, I've already done the inside bit, so now I had to scratch the outside bit. This was actually a bit tricky as I had to cut two holes in it which are each round cornered and flared. Then add some bolts, then some countersunk bolts. Got there in the end though:

Here it is in place:


Now I have a confession to make When I got this on I noticed the gun did not (at all) line up with the hole for the barrel!

Luckily the deck was not completely welded on as I only used a very small amount of glue to add it. So it came off without damage and I got the opportunity to reposition the gun

While I was at it I fixed something else. The churchill has two supporting arms that run from just inside the panniers by the doors up to near the centre of the deck to support it. I had forgotten to do these before I put the deck on, and was going to try to get them in through the turret ring. So while I had the deck off I fixed these too



I went to put the Cromwell 3in howitzer on, and to be frank, it seemed a bit undersized. I checked it against scale plans and it is around 16% too small. So looking through my stock styrene rod pot I found I had nothing at the right diameter of 3mm

As luck would have it though, the sprue carrying the kit's turret base is 3mm so after some measuring cutting and drilling I ended up with this:



I added a slimmer rod in one end to allow a good joint and got it on the tank:






After that I added the two pieces of mudguard on the inside of the suspension horns.

These were designed to prevent mud flying off the tracks and idler all over the bow, and glacis blinding the driver and getting all over the bow armament.

Initially there were also two triangular pieces in the corners between these and the hull, but these disappeared in the rework scheme with the guardfs switching over to the new type seen on later MkIIIs, IVs, Vs all the way to the final XI

However, COMPANY, and the other tanks at Dieppe occupy a very narrow window of production which I think must be somewhere in the middle of the rework scheme, because while she does have the new pattern guard section behind the air intakes, she has the earlier inner horn guards (but without the triangles) and the early rearmost sections over the idler

Anyway, the kit comes with the later pattern mudguards so the inner horn guards are the wrong pattern, so I scratched new ones:


I also added the sections inside the air intakes from the kit, filling the holes for the long crow bar as it wasn't stowed here on MkIs:


COMPANY has a track in the spare track holder on the rear left pannier, and Cromwell supply a nice piece with the clamps molded on, and impressively (considering how many people get it wrong) the clamp is perfectly accurate.

On the right hand pannier though, the clamps are empty, so I used the kit etch for this:


And I added the rivets seen on Dieppe churchills along the top edges of the pannier



incidentally, you may notice now the guards are on that my air intakes seem a bit low.

They are lowered from the AFV Club position quite considerably. The kit gives you options for a Kingforce Churchill, Pre-Raid Dieppe Churchill or Tunisia Churchill. The given air intake position is only suitable for the last as Dieppe and El Alamein tanks have them much lower.

I can only imagine this is due to the original air intake design and that they were lower, away from the open track run. Changing them eventually lead to them also being raised

To get them in the right position cut off the raised line under the air intake apperture and cut the locating tabs off the inside of the air intakes themselves then drop them to the desired position. The holes for the locating tabs are at the oustide edges of the correct postion, so if you can't see them, you've got it right

So this is where we are at the moment:


More soon

Great progress Chris and a good informative blog.

Al

Yes, this would be a great reference in itself for other builders. I'd like to see an out of box build sitting next to this one when completed for comparison.

Thanks guys

Armorama threads don't get a massive following do they I remember your churchill and valentine got a lot less comments than they deserved Al

Anyway as you may have noticed above, I have already fitted the rear mudguard on the right, however I've had a bit of trouble with the left. Firstly it got damaged while removing the pouring blocks:


I managed to repair it, and quite please with myself I was too until I came to fit it and discovered.............. Gordon had put two right ones in the set I could contact him to ask for a replacement again, but frankly I can't be bothered to do all that and wait for it to arrive so I've scratched a replacement:








As you can see, I've also added the exhaust extensions. These had a couple of air bubbles and the ends needed to be drilled out. I also added the bracket in brass from a peice if a Dragon etch fret:


I also added the rivets to the rear plate below the air outlet:

The next big job was the waterproofing.

All tanks (unless designed to wade) suffer from leaks in deep water. The churchill however, in its earlier incarnations certainly, leaked like an old seive.

The MkI when originally built was put into production before full testing had been complete in order to replace the materiél lost at Dunkirk. Because the threat of invasion was very real, it was considered that the tank need not be perfect so long as the tank regiments could be brought up to full wartime strength as quickly as possible and so when it came in to service it came with a list of faults, one of which was a very leaky deck coupled with an absence of drains in the floor. Consequently, when the MkI and MkII forded, or even in heavy rain, the water would just build up around the driver and co-drivers feet in inches and would slosh around with the movement of the tank.

Vauxhall, the manufacturers of the tank, sent engineers out when the tank was issued and most of the faults were very quickly rectified through changes in manufacture and post production work, but it remained leaky around bolts and the edges of panels meaning the Churchill took considerable effort to waterproof for amphibious operations


Waterproofing was accomplished by taking rubberised fabric (actually surplus barrage balloon fabric after the end of the Battle of Britain) and sticking it over the major appertures on the tank, including the turret ring, pannier doors, air outlet, gun(s), MG and sights. The fabric was stuck down with two grades of Bostik adhesive, and the same adhesive, a black tar like glue, was used to seal all bolts and rivets. A length of detonation cord was then glued around the appertures and connected to a switch by the headlamp switch on the driver's control panel. In theory, when the tank exited the water, the driver pressed a button, the cord detonated and the tank was free for action

The dark line on the turret here is bostik


The waterproofing is also quite visible on BERT



and on this experiemental carpet layer, where the lighter ballon fabric can easily be seen as well as the bostik:




So here's my attempts using thin latex glove material and a little CA:








And with that the hull is very nearly finished









And I made a start on the turret interior:





More soon....

I've finished the lower half of the turret. This was quite tricky because the stowage diagrams do not cover about 30% of the turret and leave out the Besa spent ammo bin and a couple of other details. I had an idea these should be there so had another look at my references and found a single shot in the 'Churchill Tank Power LXXVI 315 by Wydawnictwo Militaria' taken from the basket of the MkII looking forward to the driving compartment. This confirmed the suspected items were present and allowed me to place everything

So here it is:

Then I looked at the turret base and realised I'd missed a couple of bits; the Pisaba bin (under the commander's pedestal) and the turret traverse motor.

the motor is a different design to the MkIII, so rather than use an ITA one I had to scratch a new one:



this was then fitted and plumbed in:




then I did the top half of the turret. this is no finished yet, but is about 80% there:








The manual reprint by MLRS Books is invaluable for this sort of thing:


If you have any interest in British and US WWII Tanks and equipment then have a look at the site, they specialise in reprints of British WD reports and manuals (and US manuals) from the war an immediately after (Army and MOD reports written post war on wartime operations etc)

They even do some on German subjects, so something for everyone

www.mlrsbooks.co.uk

Finished

Awesome job. Great work and very informative thread as always. Can't wait to see your next one!

Hi Chris,

Ah, the isolation of the long distance blogger, know it well

You tend to find that you get a small number of actual replies to a build blog, other than form those who are more active on site, but if you check the number of hits on your post they far outway the number of actual replies. Lots of people 'look' but don't comment, which can be a bit soul destroying but that seems to be the case more often than not.

What's really annoying is that when you get to the 'finished' stage you get silence lol, lol. That's happened on more that one of my build blogs and you wonder well .............lol, lol

Anyway back to the present.

Excellent build and really useful blog (book marked for later). Nice work indeed. The finish looks grand and there are lots of useful tips and infomration bits in the build.

I wonder if AFV will get around to a Mk I version at some point?

Look forward to the next one.

Cheers

Al

Very nice indeed. It looks fresh which in this case is good as these tanks no doubt were fresh for the landing. The tracks look real painted steel with a bit of rust. The waterproofing looks great as does all the other details. The stones look like the right scale for Dieppe as far as I can see. That base finishes the whole thing nicely. I think that this will look super nice on yer shelf or desk!

Really nice......the Churchill's my favourite tank. Good job mate.

Well done Chris!!! Can't wait until your next build! Cheers!