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:
Decals as per DML’s instructions. I used the 4 in the red circle and it’s a good think the Dragon boys and gals had included a spare. Decals were tamed using my favorite Mr. Mark Softer from Gunze, then covered with Vallejo matt varnish.
Since the tank has been painted with about 7 variations of green I used a bit less pigment powders (Agama Sand, Dust and a bit of white) than usual to weather it. A bit of black behind the exhausts, around machine guns and gun muzzle and again a coat of Vallejo flat.
Another Armorama review build. This was one of those rare occasions when I decided to strictly follow the instructions.
I started by test-fitting the turret top and bottom. The locating pins in the turret base detail are too thick, so a step step was formed – they were quickly removed.
Turret with its bottom end up – the step is rather evident…
Since two options were presented for the main turret armament (parts C3 and B7) I went with the longer one 🙂 The aft end of the detail required some sanding to fit in the turret mask. Next, the Besa machine gun was glued in the mask. After the assembly was glued to the turret base (C5), I added the top detail (C9) to close the turret.
Well,considering the aging releases by ESCI, Airfix and Hasegawa the Braille scale world has been aching for a modern kit of this important machine for quite some time. Well – here’s DML’s attempt.
The kit contains 70 parts:
68 in grey plastic
2 runs of DS track
Oh I hear your cries about NO PE parts, but rest assured – this is a non-issue with the kit.
There are two main hull components, cast as separate parts – the upper one represents the top deck and the fenders, and lower part is the slide-molded hull tub.
Hull tub bottom – a look from front to backHull tub bottom – aft end
It is interesting to note that there are fuel can racks at the aft end of the fenders, and Dragon has included two pairs of British-style 2 gallon cans to be posed there should the modeler so desire.
