Introduction

Inside the Armour have developed a range of upgrade sets for the AFV Club Churchill. One area that the excellent AFV Club kit can be improved on are the addition of the correct front idlers.

Inside the Armour have had a replacement set available for some time. Originally these were trialed in all resin but then developed into the set available today.

The Set

The set consists of two replacement front idlers for the AFV Club Churchill Tank. These should be suitable for any of the styles of WW2 Churchill's you may be making.

The set is cast in a light grey resin with PE inserts. It comes packed in a zip lock plastic bag with a card backing showing manufacturer/product details and construction steps.

Each idler consists of two resin parts and a PE circular center section with the correct hole spacing. The idlers look nicely done although there may be a little flash to clean up from between a few of the spokes. To form the circular PE section you dry fit the AFV Club idler halves and mold the PE section around the center ring. Then glue the ends and mount between the replacement idler halves.

The photo of the idlers and PE strip shows a strip with 7 holes. This is incorrect as the strip should actually has 8 holes and has been replaced in current ITA kits but as I have had this kit for some time I hadn't realised the old PE fret was still around. I have included a photograph of the 8 hole strip and some build pics of the set are included.

As a build tip I would recommend rolling the PE strips with a circular object (I used the handle of my cutting knife). This will form the curl in the PE more naturally. You can then bend them around the AFV Club idler, remove and glue the ends and then role them from the inside a bit more. When happy attach the idler wheels to either side with CA glue.

Conclusion

This seems like a simple solution to correct the solid ring inside the idler wheels provided by AFV Club. I used a set of the first trial idlers when they were all resin and although not a fan of PE these should be reasonable easy to construct, with the original AFV Club idlers providing the template, and give a much better finish.

If you intent to expose the front idlers of you Churchill then these will will add a more accurate finish to the overall model.