CHURCHILL A.V.RE / S.B.G Assault Bridge - 1/76 Matchbox WIP BLOG Finished

Wow.

1982...... I remember.

Modeling was just beginning to crawl out of the stone age.

Strange that it has the Petard Mortar on it as well. Interesting kit. What are the tracks like?

The tracks are great actually. Detail looks good BUT I screwed up by installing them on the wrong side. I put them on in the correct direction, but I put the Left tracks on the Right side and Right on the Left. 

Pictures later today will illustrate why this is an error… 

DM - yup that was then. I think I used to sand off seam lines and putty against the sidewalk back then 

Hey now! Some of us cavemen resemble that remark!

Yes, you are not alone.

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

The Small Box Girder (S.B.G) Bridge assembly is done. The girders had some seam lines, ejector pin marks, and subtle flash but all in good places because after assembly, I couldn't see them anyway. The 'wooden' planks had sink areas at each end that needed attention, so I used putty and sanded flush.

The cross beams had sink marks too but were filled with putty and sanded smooth before assembly.

This Bridge sub-assembly is done and waiting for paint.

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Among the last of the 1/76 scale Matchbox kits produced along with the British Challenger tank. The subsequent Matchbox kits were made by Revell in 1/72 scale and were released under the Matchbox name. I have several of them, and they were pretty good for their time.

Hi Robin, yes this is my one and only Matchbox kit of this era and I agree

If memory serves, the last four were Monty's caravan, the Char Bis and FT17, Challenger and Churchill AVRE.

Man, you are treading on hallowed ground here, for me, anyway, Sprue! These little Matchbox diorama-kits were hugely important to my modeling roots. I think I built maybe a dozen or more? My favorite was the Jagdpanther kit busting through the brick wall--probably unrealistic, but I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen! I actually bought one a few years ago and then replaced the old mold with a 1/72 DML-Revell kitbash and updated figure. I LOVE these kits, still!

Can't wait to see what you do with it!

I still have a good number of old Matchbox armor kits, built and unbuilt. They were very well done for the time. My personal favorites were the M40 SPG and the Firefly.

Karl, Are you referring to this kit? Very Cool indeed. I bought this one because it had a bridge laying element to it on the box art !

Robin, They also seem to be well designed to hide all of the ejector marks after assembly. I've only found a couple sink marks (illustrated in above post) on the think parts

Also the use of multiple colors made it so you didn't feel the need to paint the kit, something that was optional back in the day.

All right,  great choice I will be watching this.

RX7850, Awesome, thanks for checking in and welcome to hang out during the whole thing

Robin, interesting. Some contemporary snap-kit automobile models are designed like this too 

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

I glued together the one piece road wheels / suspension part(s) with the outer and inner side parts. Then the fenders on top.

After the cement cured, I masked off the painted the base coat color on the under and back side of this sub-assembly. I did this because it would be difficult to get the paint there after complete assembly and I didn't want bare plastic spots to show.

M. Brindos, this is where I put the tracks on the wrong sides of the model. The tracks were attached to a central sprue section. This section of material had to be cut off of the LEFT side of one and the RIGHT side of the other.

The side that was cut off from every approx. 5th link or so now look ugly. I should have positioned these respective side to the inside and under and not seen ever again place. No, I glued them on so that this ugly side is on the outside to be seen by all who view this forever  

A clear example of the clever design of this kit. All of the puttied and sanded spots will not show after final assembly so none of that work was needed anyway.

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

I'm not sure that I see what you are referring to. It looks good so far. Is it something you can hide with weathering effects do you think?

It is not very clear in the above photos. I hope I can cover it up with weathering. It might be a "I know it's there and it's killin me, even if no one else can see it, I know it's there"

I understand 100%.

Don't feel bad, SPrue--I put the suspension bogeys on backward for my DML Ferdinand. Coulda kicked myself right in the head...THAT was a HUGE pita to undo and correct!

M. Brindos, cool

Doog, ouch, that must have been harsh 

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Ballast weight needs to be added to the interior rear area so the completed model, with the bridge attached, does not unrealistically 'endo' .

The i-Sheet suggests 20 grams of weight that is not included in the box.

I find a 25 gram, automobile wheel balance weight, in the recycle bin at work. Perfect shape to fit into this little guy.

Each section was a little wide so I ground away some of the material (dotted lines). This brought down the weight to an exact 20g.

These were glued in using white glue (PVA).

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Thanks for looking...

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

The i-sheet is not clear on the exact position of the 'rear plate'. It could fit on the model in two different ways based on the parts angles. I web searched and found several 1/35 build pictures. This helped with final placement.

This is too low but fits perfectly.

This will be final position.

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

thanks for looking ...

Yeah that was a good catch there. That's a tough one to figure out. There was no internet when this was released, right? lol

Hah, true that! If one of your buddies didn't know, then you had to go to the library. What library, what's that?  

Yep, the library, and if you were lucky you could find a book with good pictures in it for reference. Most of the history books I had available were not really concentrated on the details of such things. lol

There doesn't seem to be an edit option. I guess double posting must be allowed?

I was just thinking... that is an unusual place for a tow hook. It looks far too high to me. Kit? or were they really up that high?

Yeah, it looks high. 

You can edit your own posts by clicking on the little icon of a pencil at the bottom in the gray area.

AH HA! I thought that was editing tags. I'm used to it being on the bottom right side because of Genessis lol. They're in England, so it must be backwards, right? lol