I have been thinking for a while of building a series of British tanks in Soviet colours. The tanks I have decided to do are the Churchill, the Matilda, the Valentine and the Universal Carrier (Possibly a Lee/ Grant if I have the time/money)

I know Miniart does an excellent Valentine, so thats sorted out.

Im thinking I can do a Tamiya Churchill mk IV, and paint it soviet colours. I think that will suffice.

The Matilda is the hard part. As far as I know, Tamiya is the only company making Matildas. I havnt found any information on whether the Matilda III/IV was sent to the Eastern Front or not. If only ICM had released the specially made soviet matilda....

As for the Universal Carrier, Tamiya makes a MK.II which I think should be sufficient.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1GWwRr-Uyc&feature=related

I am also guessing this video is slightly false, as no Covenators or Crusaders were sent to Russia......

http://otvaga2004.narod.ru/publ_w5/028_matilda.htm

http://www.vrazvedka.ru/main/learning/razvedka/sbornik/n-19_09.html

http://www.militarists.ru/?p=4109

http://www.o5m6.de/ForeignArmour.html

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/Lendlease/Matilda.htm

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/Lendlease/Matilda_bp.htm

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/Lendlease/Matilda_img.htm

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/Lendlease/Churchill.htm

http://www.o5m6.de/universal_mkI.html

http://www.o5m6.de/universal_mkII.html

...You have to use google translator

Hope this can help you

cheers

Actually you don't have to worry about painting into "soviet colors". Soviets did not repaint lend-lease vehicles (well, unless it went through a major repair/overhaul).

Hi,
Tamiya doesn't make a MKIV Churchill. They make a MKVII which wasn't used by the Russians. AFV makes both a Churchill MKIII and a MKIV which were used by the Russians. The Tamiya Matilda needs some work to represent a Russian vehicle,most of which were MKIVs. It needs the later style tracks, which you can get from Bronco,and there are some good conversion sets available through Firestorm and Tiger Models to upgrade other areas of the Tamiya Matilda to a MKIV in Russian service. Hope this helps.
Regards, Bob

Thanks for all the links and answers! They were very helpful! 1

Yes, that's it. They weren't re-painted by Russian army

There wouldnt happen to be an all-in-one soviet conversion set for the Tamiya Matilda?

Also, can the AFV club Churchill III be built out of box and still be used as a soviet vehcle? I still need to find some decal guides and such for it.

Also, according to http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/Lendlease/Matilda_img.htm

They did seem to repaint the lend lease matildas at least sometimes. Very strange, almost German like colour schemes too....

Yes Ted, it can be built out ofthe box as a soviet Churchill, even the decals are included

You might want to think about an interior for it to.... now if I could only remember who does one

Yes, they did, but it happened in rare cases. If I were you I'd use the origianal paint.
Colored profiles are interesting and useful, but sometime they are slightly wrong or inspired by "artistic" interpretations of the draughtsmen, so be careful


Cheers