Lancfan's Airfix Churchill III conversion.

[lancfan]

Cheers everyone, painting is well advanced and will be finished tonight, the pictures will be posted tomorrow afternoon. Coming to a decision on the colour scheme has taken some pondering and careful (magnified) viewing of the only confirmed Kursk Churchill image I could find. The early churchills overlapped the SCC.2 Service Brown/SCC.15 Olive Drab eras but I could not determine which colour was used for the 35 tanks deployed at Kursk so made the executive decision that I have too many SCC.15 Churchills and this one will be a brown tank.
The image suggested that these tanks may have had a disruptive colour applied over the factory paint so this will be done here in fresh 4BO.

David.

[BWP]

The early churchills overlapped the SCC.2 Service Brown/SCC.15 Olive Drab eras but I could not determine which colour was used for the 35 tanks deployed at Kursk so made the executive decision that I have too many SCC.15 Churchills and this one will be a brown tank.

Sounds a good enough reason to me!

The image suggested that these tanks may have had a disruptive colour applied over the factory paint so this has been done here in fresh 4BO.

That would be ... unusual, but perhaps they felt the SCC2 made them stand out from the crowd a little too much (because normally a Churchill would be hard to spot ). Is the image available online?

[lancfan]

Bruce, no it isn't as far as I know but it came from the Osprey book for the battle and shows one of these 5th Guards Army tanks after it had been knocked out at Prokhorovka. There are no visible identity markings but examining the picture through a magnifier revealed what appear to be faint colour demarkation lines.


David.

[lancfan]

Finished at last and finished (speculatively) as one of the 35 Churchill III tanks of the 5th Guards Army, all of the tanks were knocked out at Prokhorovka on the 13 July 1943.



David.

[Chris]

Super job david, one of your best ever.

[Ian]

I agree with Chris. This is a lovely model with all the extra work you put into it.
Inspirational!

[ShaunW]

That looks great David and your additional work has made all the difference to this golden oldie.

[BWP]

Bruce, no it isn't as far as I know but it came from the Osprey book for the battle and shows one of these 5th Guards Army tanks after it had been knocked out at Prokhorovka. There are no visible identity markings but examining the picture through a magnifier revealed what appear to be faint colour demarkation lines.

OK, it is what it is, I think it would be a tough job proving you wrong.

I have a small handful of photos of Churchills at Kursk, none of them are super clear. At best they demonstrate that the original British serial markings were left intact on the hull sides (so there was no general over-painting), although on a couple of them some Soviet identification markings have been added to the turret sides. None suggest any sort of camouflage scheme, just a heck of a lot of dirt.

Good job, regardless!

[ntrocket88]

A great result David! Inspiring scratch-building too.

[Molly-new]

Nice work David, it certainly looks the part to me.

[lancfan]

OK, it is what it is, I think it would be a tough job proving you wrong.

I have a small handful of photos of Churchills at Kursk, none of them are super clear. At best they demonstrate that the original British serial markings were left intact on the hull sides (so there was no general over-painting), although on a couple of them some Soviet identification markings have been added to the turret sides. None suggest any sort of camouflage scheme, just a heck of a lot of dirt.

Good job, regardless!

Bruce, it sounds like you have clearer images than the single picture I have, I will modify the paintwork to include the serials and remove the camouflage and faded turret marks.

David.

[lancfan]

Thanks for those words Chris, Ian, Shaun, Bruce, Neil, Chip.

David.

[lancfan]

Thanks to Bruces' advice on this the Churchill is now repainted in overall SCC.2 Service Drab/Brown and bereft of Soviet markings to more accurately depict a Kursk Churchill.


David

[Chris]

Don't forget to repost them in the gallery of completed builds David!