Were British Churchills used in the North African campaign?

~Chip

and if so what color were they?

:-)

yes chip,

they saw extensive service in tunisia, where thier impressive hill climbing abilities came into their own,

they were sand with brown patches i beleive,

some had their guns ( 2 pdrs ) replaced with 75mm's taken from shermans

try searching google etc for more info

cheers

joe

Color "plates" in books seem to depict them as a khaki green or I guess, "bronze green", cammo'd with mud. Or at least the 1st 6 Mk3's that went in time for Alamein.
Then Mk2's and more Mk3's went, and as Sherman 75mm's became available for field conversion; NA75s..

A very important and much ignored AFV of WW2. Guess if more were captured and painted with black crosses, DML would be wrassling with Tamiya to squirt some.

So what would the model master paint equivlant be.?

:-)

In 1 word
yes

LOL...LOL...LOL!! Many thx for the belly chuckle so early in the morning nfafan! But don't say it too loud, you might make the modeling Gods mad, and they'll churn out yet ANOTHER bloody german kit just to spite ya! #:-)
Ya know, I've always been a big fan of the British WW II soft skin trucks like the AEC Matador, or better yet, the Morris 30-cwt 6x4 truck. But alas, noone makes an injected kit of any of them. I also really feel that a plastic kit of either the M50 Ontos, or the V-100 armoured car would go over well with the present modeling public.....but still no styrene options there as well.....
Sooooooooo, I thought if I called up Tamiya and just told them the V-100 for example is really a GERMAN Sd.kfz.250/somethingorother that has been field modified, or that the British Matador is, in fact, a GERMAN Blitz in disguise used to infiltrate behind Allied lines...maybe they'd fall for it and put two dozen little men working on the moulds right away just because it's GERMAN!!
Whadayathink?

Tread. #:-) #:-)

chip,
only thing is with the tamiya churchill it's a mk 7 the ones in Nth africa were earlier
versions and I think they looked a bit different on the engine deck ect

There were also some used by the 8th Army. They were transported over to be tested. Check out the osprey book on the churchill.

But what Model Master Enamel colors should I use to paint it in a N. Africa scheme?

~Chip

http://www.geocities.com/vqpvqp/nih/frontpage.html

You've got to read Arthur Chester's web memoir. He served in several Churchill marks in N Africa and Italy.

Can't help ya with the MM code. Last large-scale Churchill I built was the great Aurora 1/48 MkIII! Long before Model Master came to be! My 1st Churchill was the Airfix MkVII in 1/76th.
I have the Hase 1/72nd MkI/II and an ESCI MkIII to build yet. The cast-turreted MkI/II would be a nice kit in 1/35th...

As for "colors"... According to my Osprey/Vanguard...

The Dieppe MkI/II/IIIs were supposedly Middle Bronze Green, as were the post-Alamein tanks in NA and the Churchills in Italy. The Mid-Bronze was often cammo'd in mud-streaks, and "faded" to a khaki, IMHO .

The 1st 6 Churchills in NA - apparently all MkIIIs in Kingforce at Alamein - were hard-edge cammo'd in Dark Blue-Gray over Sand.

As the other poster said, the Tamiya example is a post-D-Day MkVII which would be painted in the same "British Greens" of their Fireflys and M4A4s. Note that the MkVII served in the Korean War as well, as Crocs and gun tanks.
IIRC, someone somewhere made resin conversions for the ESCI and Tamiya Churchills to the various other versions.

Chip,

Be careful here, the earlier Churchills in NA had different turrets, Mudguards, exhaust/Air intake louvres and the escape hatches on the side were of a different shape.

Addendum:

The colours (Although I cant give MM numbers) were of the bronze green with local mud smeared over them. So don't be too fussy, the colours will not have to be perfect becuase of weathering, bleaching from the sun and where the mud was smeared.

The photo's I've seen show the mud to have thickish lines through them so use an old paintbrush to get that effect.

Even in Europe no two tanks were the same colour, take into mind that rain, mud and sun discoloured each tank to a different shade.

Addendeum +2

The NA 75's with the Sherman main gun fitted, I think they had the entire mantlet mounted upside down (Or at least the gun, I forget the reason) maybe someone out there could clarify.