If you’ve previously worked on the Mk. IV kit – this one can be a quick and pleasant OOB build – few parts and the fit is rather good (no filler on this one).
A few letdowns, though:
– no parts for the deep-wading equipped Canadian Churchills for operation Jubilee;
– no corrections made for the errors in the instructions;
– thicker sprue gates.
As you can see from the images the results of the last problem are quire evident on the tracks and that’s partially my fault – had I selected the proper run placement these would have faced INSIDE instead of outside.
You do remember from the Mk. IV article I’ve started with the turret – and I did it with this kit, too. It’s very quick build, all you need to do is blank off the turret luggage bin, as the side facing the turret is open. I also filled what looks like angular ejector marks next to the locating holes for the fire extinguishers on it.
As the hull is directly taken from the Mk. IV kit the instructions will – again – make you glue the wrong halves for the driving sprockets and the idler wheels. To sum it up:
Dragon has moved ahead with their Churchill saga and just a few months later released a Mk. III to the delight of some of us and the horror of others.
Box top
Thanks to the kind editors of Armorama I’ve had the chance to play with the newer release, numbered 7396. Basically it’s the same hull as the Mk. IV release (kit 7424) with a brand new cupola, an extra fuel tank and a different engine deck.
Parts are spread over 5 separately packed sprues – 71 grey styrene and 2 DS runs. There are paint references and decals for three tanks:
The last pic in the previous post shows I forgot to add the PE plate between the upper hull and add-on armor, so I had to add it and paint it separately. Hatches and and some small details were added next. I then proceeded to spray the brown spots using diluted Revell brown under very low pressure. MM Burnt Metal was used to detail paint the S-hooks, tank jack, etc.
The decals were fixed using Mr. Mark Softer.
The wheels were added next, then the right side track run was superglued on. To my horror it turned too short, so I had to stretch it with most of it already stuck on the model. It ain’t a particularly pretty sight.
