Thanks Guys!  :D  Small update here.

I painted the Pioneering tools on the back deck...



Re-did the antennas... again...



And drilled out the MG barrels. I had to modify one of my drill bits for the task, but it worked out pretty good. In the future I think I will drill them before assembly as it as pretty nerve-wracking doing it while they were on the model.




I made up some shale for the beach. Some fine odor absorbing cat litter was the right size and shape, but lacked the colors. I took some of the stuff and mixed it with some Blue-Black paint I made up and some with a Dark Yellow color. Of course they turned into mush as they absorbed the paints. I set the kitchen oven to 250 degrees and laid the stuff out on some wax paper for 30 minutes.







PERFECT! Now all I need is the case to build my little scene in. 

Thanks for looking! Happy modelling my friends. 

That brown really turned out nice! I've been in the same position as you...the whole historial accuracy vs more work dilemma. It's never an easy decision. You did an excellent job though!

Man that looks great so far. You can't tell that there was a color change. It even  looks like it may have added a sense of  depth and shadow. I hope to post up soon with my build. I have been trying to spend an hr. or so a night on it.

Thak you guys ever so much for the really kind compliments! Duke, I wish I still had all of those old ESCI kits. I'd be updating the crap out of them these days. Some of the Revell kits still bring back old memories too.

I saw some of those Trumpeter kits at the LHS, but since I had no idea what to expect out of the box I barely gave them a passing glance. I will have to pick up one eventually. This kit has made me remember how much I love this scale.  :D

So, you guys want more? Well, okay :D  I did take some crappy pictures of the minimal work that got done earlier this evening. The lighting sucks for pictures but that lamp is great for working under.

A little more progress, but not much. I sorted out the exhausts, MG's, tracks, a little modulation, and a few other minor things.

So when am I going to see more 1/72 work from you guys? Huh? lol

Have a good evening my fellow modeller's.  :)

That really is a tough choice , especially after all that work. And might I ad a most adept recovery with the watercolors.  Dragon does make some great kits as well as other manufactures like  Mirage , Revell, Maco and Tumpeter to name a few.  Trumpeter's Sd.kfz 9 and 9/1 series will blow your mind when you open the box.

M. Brindos

Thanks Duke!  :D

680 of them?! Yikes! lol

I hope you can get back into building them soon too. They are rather nice and the more reviews I look up the more I'm thinking that Dragon is my new ESCI lol.

Every kit has its downfalls, but they do have some that are just brilliantly detailed and way better than anything else out there. In comparison these Dragon Churchill kits are probably the best being produced in this scale. Definitely worth picking one up.

Although there is not much more to do with this build, its not done yet, so there is more on the way.  :)

 

I agree. Dragon is my new ESCI as well. I built every ESCI kit ever released (except maybe one or two of the hardest ones to find) and I've done at least 3/4ths of all Dragon 1/72 scale armor. I have all their Shermans completed, and almost all their 251 halftracks too. Yeah, they do rock!

My most recent Dragon kit I completed two weeks ago was the M-65 Atomic Annie, so I'm still in the game!

I do love the new look on the Churchill with the new brown color. I am flabbergasted at the smooth and consistent color you got from your watercolor wash; that is simply outstanding! Brilliant idea and execution Mike! I can't wait to see more.

Thanks my friend. It was kinda tough. I mean, it looked cool in Green and I really liked it. But it is supposed to be brown and I spent a lot of time considering it. When I woke up this morning I decided to go for it and it turned out alright.

I still don't like it as much as i did when it was Green, but this is what it should look like.

I'm sure I'll feel better about it after I get the details painted and do the weathering. Once it's on the base it'll look right, I'm sure.

PM me an email buddy. I have all of these 728 pics I need to send to you.  :)

Mike - congratualtions! It must have been a tough decision, but I believe it was the right one. It takes some cojones to sacrifice some work already done in the name of historical accuracy, but I respect the people to do that! And the model is still looking good, so good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

This morning I decided to forgo the detailing and weathering I was planning to change to color to the correct S.C.C. 2 Brown that I should have started this build with. 



I wasn't originally going to use another filter because I had already applied the decals. But then I remembered that I have some watercolor paints in the inventory. I watered down some Daler Rowney Crimson Red to a very thin consistency and added a few drops of Tamiya X-20A to get it to flow easily. I applied several thin cotes very lightly till I got the right tone. There are still some areas where the Green shows up, but I'm not too worried about it. I assume these tanks were painted over the original Green they were supplied in by the British.



The watercolor made it really simple, as I just used a little clean water on a brush to just remove the paint from the decals. Once that was all dried I cleared it with some Testors Dullcote and now I've got a Brown Churchill. 








Now I feel more comfortable moving on to the next steps.

Thanks for looking. 

I've just learned that Dragon is releasing a Mk III AVRE with the 290mm petard Mortar this month.  :)

One step closer to a bridge layer!

I've contacted them about a sample for review. I hope I can get one  :D

http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA7327

Thanks Duke!  :D

680 of them?! Yikes! lol

I hope you can get back into building them soon too. They are rather nice and the more reviews I look up the more I'm thinking that Dragon is my new ESCI lol.

Every kit has its downfalls, but they do have some that are just brilliantly detailed and way better than anything else out there. In comparison these Dragon Churchill kits are probably the best being produced in this scale. Definitely worth picking one up.

Although there is not much more to do with this build, its not done yet, so there is more on the way.  :)

M. Brindos

Oh yeah. I used to exclusively model in this scale and I miss ESCI kits. I've never liked the rubber band tracks and I always avoided any kits with them, so ESCI was my preferred brand of choice back in the day.

Usually I don't build the entire kit before painting, but this time it almost seemed unavoidable because of those tracks. As I stated earlier I didn't trust those DS tracks to stick to anything but raw plastic so I took the chance I'd figure it out later, and I did lol.

I think I'd still rather prefer building in this scale. Especially after this one has gone by so fast lol.

Thank you for commenting my friend.  :)

 

 

Hey Mike, I still exclusively build in 1/72 scale and only stopped for two years. Right now I've completed 680 of the little models and have more coming down the pike. I'll build the while tank before painting it. I typically leave the tracks off until the end; painting them seperately. Then I add everything together before weathering.

Your Churchill is coming along nicely. Very clean and sharp looking model. I'm hoping to pick one of these up someday soon. Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Oh yeah. I used to exclusively model in this scale and I miss ESCI kits. I've never liked the rubber band tracks and I always avoided any kits with them, so ESCI was my preferred brand of choice back in the day.

Usually I don't build the entire kit before painting, but this time it almost seemed unavoidable because of those tracks. As I stated earlier I didn't trust those DS tracks to stick to anything but raw plastic so I took the chance I'd figure it out later, and I did lol.

I think I'd still rather prefer building in this scale. Especially after this one has gone by so fast lol.

Thank you for commenting my friend.  :)

Hello Mike!

That Churchill is looking really nice!

As for painting the tracks on the model - most of the time it can be done, and it's easier than you'd think - of course it's advisable to do some thinking before building and painting.

Sometimes it's good to paint everything black or dark gray and then paint the outer details. In this case, what you can't reach with a brush, should probably stay dark anyhow - problem solved!

Nice and quick build - ain't the 1:72 scale lovable? And to think some 20 years ago there were very little armor kits in that scale, after ESCI disappeared from the market. Good for us it's all coming back now!

Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

Well, that's a good question. I had to figure that out for myself after I glued the tracks on.

What I ended up doing is flowing some of the track color into the deeper areas around the sprockets after thinning down the paint. The tracks aren't glued to the lower bogie wheels so I just pulled the tracks out of the way and brushed the color on for the lower parts.

Anywhere I got a little bit of paint of wash where I didn't want it I Used a small, clean brush to wipe it away before it could dry.

looks great. How could you paint the tracks while on the model and still get unreachable areas

Thanks Allan. I blame Dragon for making it a nicely detailed kit to work with lol. It was my goal from the begining to intentionally blur the lines between scale. We'll have to see if I can really pull it off though. ;)

Thats impressive work. Hard to believe its in 1/72.

Thank you.  :)  Unfortunately I just found out that it really should be brown, and not green. The SCC-2 Brown is really the correct color the instructions call for, but its an ugly color and I wanted it to be green anyways lol.

Its a good little kit, but like usual, Dragon got a few details wrong. But I find that to be a fun thing to fix and it makes the building process more interesting anyways.

If you've been thinking of building this one, then go for it. It does make up an attractive little tank (even when its the wrong color lol).

Excellent job on this Churchill! I've been thinking about buying this kit, it's nice to see what it looks like all built up!

Actually, Razzie, the Tamiya Acrylics are new to me, but I love them! I picked up a bottle of X-20A acrylic thinner and they work like a dream through the Neo.  :D

Thank you  Gamera! It's looking even better now  ;)

Update time! ***********************************************

Wow, I got a lot done in a day.

Alrighty, let me begin lol. I started a little modulation for the overall paint scheme by mixing up some Khaki (XF-49) with the Khaki Drab to make a mid tone and then mixed a bit more Khaki and a touch of NATO Green (XF-67) for a tinge of green in the highlights.



Which didn't look too spectacular at first.




But after a green wash from Vallejo (#512 Dark Green) it blended pretty well.




I painted the tracks with Vallejo Black-Brown (#822 German Camo Black Brown) and gave them an AK Interactive track wash (AK 083)



Then I gave the entire model a gloss (Vallejo 70.510 Gloss Varnish) before starting the decals.



In the picture below, you can see that I had to cut the decals to get them into position. Also, since I lack any real decal solutions (Testors sucks) I used a touch of Liquid Cement to get them to conform. This is the first time I've ever used any decals made by Cartographer and they are really, really nice decals. But as you can see the LC ate them up pretty badly. Not much of a worry for me as I'm used to this happening anyways.



I usually use the LC trick for the decals on my armor because it lends itself to looking like it's been painted on and I like that look on my armor. I just get out the artist's acrylics and spot repair. However, these Cartographer decals didn't need any LC when they were applied to a flat surface, and thank goodness too, because the LC would've destroyed them little suckers lol.

Anyways, I persevered as always and sprayed another cote of gloss over the decals before using an AK Interactive wash for NATO vehicles (black wash) to pin wash in some of the details, such as hatches and panel lines.

After that I used Vallejo Matte Varnish to seal it all up.






Now all that is left is the detail painting and some touch-ups before a tiny bit of weathering. Maybe even a tiny bit of chipping, but these vehicles were relatively new and were well maintained before being dropped off as cannon fodder.

That's all for today. I think I'll let it all rest a while before moving on again lol.

Happy modelling, Gentlemen!!  :D

Looking good Mike!

Hi Mike ,what a small fantastic tank model u got here...

i see your still like tamiya painting :)

you gonna use the shades on this one?

I was just given the perfect references over on Armorama!

There's a photo of 'Blossom' here still on the beach:
http://www.ramtank.ca/churchill%20registry%202b.htm

Also colour photo here which you've possibly already seen:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/weapons-of-world-war-two/churchill-tank/

Absolutley perfect! :D

I shot some Tamiya (TF-5?) Olive Drab from a spray can on it this morning and although I like that color it didn't look right. I decided to go with the recommended Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab and it looks much better for the base color and I'm certain it will look a whole lot better then the red-brown the instructions are calling for (which doesn't look right to me at all).


^ Tamiya Olive Drab (TF-5?)





That's the base color that was recommended and I have to agree it looks like the best color to start with. After some highlighting, washes, and details, I'll add a green filter so its not too brown. 

I'm also not positive which of the three markings I'll be choosing for this build. "Calgary", I believe, was a Mk I, but "Beefy" was a Mk III for sure (Lots of pictures of it knocked out on the beach), and "Blossom" may have been one of the 7 Churchill's that made it off the beach and into town, but I'm pretty sure it was a Mk III also (I haven't found any pictures of it yet). So yeah, I'm leaning towards "Beefy" for the moment. If anyone has any clarification to this dilemma please let me know.

Well... now I have to watch paint dry.  :)

Happy modelling, mates!!  :D

Personally, I think I'm going to keep the molded-on tow cables. I know, I know, they look like poo. That is the one detail I really wish Dragon would have included as a separate part, but I'm not going to invest the time to fix that mistake. Not this time anyways. I am really liking the time this has NOT taken up to get this far into it lol. I'm almost ready for paint and it's been, what, a week?

After some paint it won't look too bad I hope, but yes, I know it drags down the overall feel of the build. Next time.

Those weld beads really make it pop. Should really do  justice to the build when it's done. Just curious if you are going to keep the molded on tow cables or replace them. 

No I didn't know about Prime Portal. I'll have to check into that.

As far as this build is concerned I've already moved past the building stage and I've got primer on it now.

For those of you who have been wondering if simulating weld seams on a 1/72 model will even bother showing up after paint, well it shows up just fine after primer and I'm pretty confident it will still show up after painting is complete. As long as I keep the paint thin lol.

I added the last of the parts that needed to go on and thinned those front fender walls down so they wouldn't touch the tracks. I played with the idea of completely rebuilding them from scratch, but there are some fine details on there that would be easier to save by just thinning down the kit parts.

The antennas were rebuilt just this morning after I squished them by accident earlier. The rebuilds look better anyways.

I also added a few tiny details to the top of the turret so it didn't look quite so flat.

So now the real fun begins. :D

Looking good as usual. Yeah I kinda know what you mean, I'm having a bit of difficulty finding good accurate info. for my build a 1942 T 34 /76 with applique armor. Anyway have you by chance looked into Prime Portal . They have walk arounds  of eight Churchill variants including two MKIIIs. Carry on....