Churchill Mk.VII 1/76 Airfix

The British infantry tank Churchill, for me as a modeller, is a great military classic – different versions, different colours, different battlefields. It is also a classic for Airfix, a traditional English manufacturer of model kits – after all, they released the model of this tank in version VII in 1961! In 2018, this kit was reboxed in the “Vintage Classics” red box edition with decals from Cartograf, and that’s how this old classic has come to me.

First, briefly about the 1/76 scale kit, which is supposed to represent a later version of the Mk.VII that no other manufacturer has yet released (only Heller repackaged this Airfix kit). It should be added that AVRE, Crocodile and Mk.VIII variants are also based on the Mk.VII and these models are produced (Airfix again and Matchbox/Revell, both 1/76). After inspecting the kit (which is 20 years older than me!) I found that it doesn’t offer us very much. Because of its age, there is a lack of details, and if they are already moulded, they are simplified. A schematic chassis with rubber tracks won’t make much of a show either, so I was wondering if I should start the kit at all… I was looking for some inspiration on the Internet for photos of the Churchill Mk.VII, and suddenly I came across tanks in improvised winter camouflage made of sheets and bedding somewhere from Belgium, probably from the turn of 1944/1945. I told myself that I would cover the less pretty parts of the model with the sheets and would make the uncovered details from scratch. And it was decided, let’s build!

First, I upgraded the turret; it got an additional lower mantle, a new rounded command hatch, a new 75mm cannon barrel, a flag case, extinguishers, some crates and tarpaulins. The middle part of the model was twisted, so it was harder for me to put it together, including the sponsons, which were already not very pretty on the joints (however, since they came to cover, I only made minor repairs on top of the fenders). On the sponsons, I added air intake covers, aprons for the front fenders and shelves with various canisters for the rear fenders. At this stage, I painted the entire model, applied decals and sprayed it with gloss varnish.

Next came the production of bed lining from a single layer of tissue. In order not to fumble and put too large pieces of “fabric” on the model, I made scaled-down cardboard templates of individual pillows, duvets and sheets, including several narrow strips, according to the dimensions of the bedding. Piece by piece, I then glued the individual bedding to the surface of the tank with diluted white glue, basically I used the artistic technique “decoupage”. Individual pieces of napkin are simply placed on the surface of the object and coated with thin glue, depending on the amount of liquid, the napkin loosens more or less, and it is quite easy to control how much it copies the individual protrusions or depressions. After this stage, it was still necessary to tie or fasten the individual pieces of lining according to the photos, but I couldn’t do that with cut tissue paper, as they are too delicate. Luckily, I had flat latex thread at home, which is used for knitting into textiles, so I used that. In some places I tied it with knots, in others it had to be glued with super glue, and although it went quite well, it was a lot of work. Before the patina, it was still necessary to give the bedding a proper white coat, because the paper became transparent in places due to the two adhesives, so I painted everything with white acrylic paint, including the tie downs. Then it was time for the patina: wash, drybrush, pigments and finally mud, which I added to keep the tank from looking “like it came out of the laundry”. 

All in all, I quite enjoyed building this very outdated kit. I experimented with new techniques and finally added an interesting piece to the display case, which will stand out from the other five or so planned Churchills in the future.