James C Author
Taking a break from French subjects, but sticking with a WW2 theme, I decided to make a start on this oldie from Tamiya.

It's a pretty basic build (under 6 hours) but despite its age still went together quite well.
It's definitely showing it's age now and doesn't have any of the finer detailing of the more recent tooling from AFV club, but still looks ok and I plan to have a crack at dressing it up a little more without going the aftermarket route (excludeing the metal barrel)

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Count me in, mate 🙂
Is that cast armor texture a mix of putty and glue? Something I wanted to try for a while now but I am not sure when I will build a tank fitting for this next.

James C Author
Thanks mate, it's just Mr Surfacer 1000 applied with a small disposable nylon paint brush.
There were some vertical joins on the front of the turret that I wanted to remove, so the Mr Surfacer was perfect to use as a filler and restore the surrounding cast surface texture. I ended up going all over the vertical sides of the turret to keep the new texture uniform over what was already molded into the plastic. You can clean it up (including your brush) with Tamiya lacquer thinners.

Mr. Surfacer 1000 (Mr. Hobby SF284, No)

Guy Rump
Looking good James. 👍

James C Author
Thanks Guy 🙂

Rui S
WOh, I'm in 😎

James C Author
Welcome Rui 🙂

A little more progress made with the tracks dirtied up a bit and installed, then I got the hull permanently closed up. Will probably go over the tracks again during the weathering process as I'm not all that happy with the way they look at present. Also got the decals applied and sealed, ahead of making a start on the overall weathering.

James C Author
After applying a dark brown panel wash and a coat of flat clear, I made a start on the weathering using oils and Tamiya weathering pastels. Still trying to sort out some additional stowage items without breaking into my more expensive resin pieces, so am very much just winging this one as I go.

Johne 69
Oldie but goldie 👍
So far so good

James C Author
Thanks John and yes, despite its age, I've had no issues with it at all 🙂

I'd been messing around trying to create my own camouflage netting for the hull and turret. My first attempt was with some mutton cloth, but I found that the fabric was too thick and the weave pattern too tight for any use in 1/35 scale. My next attempt was with some medical gauze bandage, which was a lot better, but difficult to work with to get the results I wanted. In the end I decided to just purchase some ready made netting by Joefix studios, as it was pre-coloured, the right scale and most importantly; dirt cheap! ($10 for a sheet 55cm x 55cm)

With the netting sorted, I wanted to make some hessian strips to apply over the top.
For this I used some ordinary wet wipes left out in the sun to dry, then airbrushed them in assorted shades of green on both sides and set them aside again for the paint to dry. Then came the tedious task of cutting narrow strips of approx 15mm x 1mm, and applying them to the netting with ordinary (diluted) Elmers school glue.
Took a while but I'm quite happy with the result so far.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Looking damn fine with the camo net and the weathering.

James C Author
Thanks Robin, I'm still playing around with this one and experimenting with a few things.
I'm currently having a go at making my own tarps for stowage.

Slavo Hazucha
Cool stuff - Mr Churchill caught in a net... 😄

The different metal finishes add a very nice touch - proper old ironwork on the turret... Good job - I kind of want and do not want to try this technique on something at the same time... 🙂 Almost a pity it´s 90% under the net now...

Looking forward to see more of the scratch ideas here!

James C Author
Hehe, thanks mate. It looks quite a bit different now 😉

I've been using this one as a bit of an experiment to try out different ideas on.
Not having a clear plan from the start has resulted in a lot of work on the initial weathering being mostly hidden now, along with the cast re-texturing that I did on the turret.

Have been working on it off and on over the last week, but have been side tracked with maintenance jobs outside while the weather has been reasonably good. I hope to finish it off soonish if I can resist the temptation to stop fluffing around with it! 😄
Will post some updates shortly 😉

James C Author
I finally finished this one off earlier today.
Being an older kit, it was ideal to use as a test bed for new weathering and detailing ideas, without spending a ton of $$$ on aftermarket upgrades and accessories.
Some things worked out better than others, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

Cheers for following 🙂

Guy Rump
Great result James, your weathering techniques definitely work well! 👍

Mathias Decommere
Impressive work!

Michael Kohl
the nice Hessian camo makes this one special

Johne 69
Well done Mate 👍

Neuling
Top work in every aspect. Of course. And thanks for the interesting infos!

James C Author
Many thanks Guy, Mathias, Michael, John, Roland and Neuling. Always appreciated guys. 🙂

In my haste to post the completed build, I forgot to add a couple short YouTube links.
Have now added several to the album description.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Great result, James! 👍
Love these hessian strips.
Cheers mate!

Rui S
Beautifull outcome. Great work 👍

David Taylor
Nice one.

Pietro De Angelis
Beautiful!

James C Author
Thanks Robin, Rui, David and Pietro 🙂

Gary Curling
Love the hairy Churchill 🤣👊

James C Author
Thanks. In hindsight I should have tried to cut the hessian strips a bit more narrow (to keep them in scale) and applied them to the turret only, rather than the upper hull as well. It is loosely based on period footage I saw of a Churchill serving in Italy during WW2. Still, it was good to experiment with new ideas and learned a lot from it. 👍

Slavo Hazucha
Cheers James! A rather lovely finish and definitely "something else" - must say the "Churchill with dreadlocks" definitely looks ready to let some music play! 👍

Still feel a bit sorry that the turret cast detail practically totally went under, but it was for a good purpose in this case I guess 🙂

Nice one, keep´em comming!

James C Author
Thanks mate 🙂
I admittedly got a little carried away with it towards the end with the exterior camouflage, but being an older cheaper kit, it was fit for purpose.

My intention is to revisit the subject again with one of the more recent AFV club kits, and maybe even one of the D-Day "AVRE" variants as well, as I still have a set of aftermarket tracks in the stash that I didn't use on this Tamiya kit. 😉

Jennifer Franklin
I love the camo on the tank!

James C Author
Thanks Jennifer 🙂