Churchill Mk. IV AVRE
Building AFV Club Churchill suspension, step by step. First, add one of the plates (parts D17 through D20) to the end of one of the side strips (D1 through D4).
Put a wheel arm (D21 through D23) at the same position.
Glue the second side strip on.
Insert a wheel arm into the second position between the strips.
Add a plate to the second position.
The same as the previous photo, seen from above. Glue the plate in place by flowing liquid cement into the joints from this side, being careful to not get any glue on the wheel arm.
Put a wheel arm in the third position.
Glue a plate in the third position as well, and continue these steps for all of the others. Be sure to use the correct plate and arm for each position, as they are visibly different at the front, middle and rear.
Completed suspension for one side. I keep the front section of two separate from the main part with nine, because this is easier to assemble and then glue together once they are on the model. Test-fit them to the sponsons before the glue sets so you can ensure they are straight!
Suspension modified to account for the weight of the bridge on the front, wheel No. 2 has a 2 mm spacer, then 1.5 mm, 1 mm and 0.5 mm. Wheel No. 6 has no spacer, while 7 and 8 had their spring rods cut down so they can extend further down. 8 needs to be all the way down as far as the arm lets it, 7 then lined up with the others. Wheels 1, 9, 10 and 11 need to fit as per the kit.
Spring rods: unmodified on the left, with the flange cut off on the right for wheels 7 and 8. Don’t cut throug the rod, but trim off the flange.
How the model stands with these suspension modifications. Wheels 2 through 8 are on the ground, the others float above it. No. 9 should NOT touch the track when that goes on later.
After the running gear is on, the rest of the hull is easy enough to build. However, B20 (the horizontal front plate) was too wide so had to be filed down to fit properly.
Temporarily attaching the bridge to the bare hull, I worked out how much counterweight to add to it so the model will be balanced.
One Captain Carrot, one Sergeant Angua, one Susan Sto Helit, and one Luggage seems to do the trick.
And they actually weigh what AFV Club tells you to add in the instructions — I had not expected that 🙂
Around 100 g of roofing lead cut and folded (with a big hammer 🙂) works nicely.
And then the hull roof could go on too.
Some deep-wading gear AFV Club doesn’t provide in the kit: metal cover plates to go under the rear hull overhang. (Illustration from page 21 of “6-ft Wading Instructions for Churchill I–VI”.)
I made the plates from plastic card, first a thin plate to close the hole and then 1.5 mm thick pieces with their edges and corners filed to a slope. The “tape” is strips cut from paper-thin plastic card. The towing eye (in the hull side) is filled with a punched plastic disc.
When I set the model down on my workbench, two rear wheels spontaneously broke off, almost certainly because of the weight in the back, as that rests on just a couple of wheels. I glued them back on, and the next day, cut a piece of 2 cm styrofoam that is wedged between the wheels so I can set the model down safely.
Most of the larger parts added to the hull.
Waterproofing tape added to engine and transmission hatches. For the latter, you need to install the mudguards because the tape doesn’t (shouldn’t …) overlap them, so might as well add them all.
I used artist’s acrylic gel medium, an extra-thick variety, to replicate the asbestos compound (…!) that was used to seal crew hatches etc. on the real tank.
I just brush-painted it carefully into the seams and joints where it would be applied in the real world. More needs adding later, as it shrinks a bit when it dries, and it also still has to be applied to some other hatches and things.
I replaced the petard mortar by a basic replica.
Winch built, minus half the winch drum and cable so the latter won’t get in the way. It’s still loose on the tank, of course. The ammo box attached to the mudguard is an old Verlinden item.
More (s)crap added to the replica mortar, to give the right shape under the covers that will go over it later.
Track links cleaned up, two times 50. AFV Club says you need 72 or 73 per side, but with the mudguards on, 50 is enough.
One track built.
Exhausts pipes built, but still loose for painting (as is the winch cage). I also replaced the engine access hatch supports by copper wire, due to the difficulty of cleaning up the delicate kit parts.
More waterproofing, now for the bow machine gun and the hull roof ventilator. These were made with Magic Sculp two-part epoxy putty.
Magic Sculp being used to form the waterproofing around the mortar.
Waterproofing around the mortar complete, though it will need more work once it’s hard,
Left side of the completely covered mortar.
I pulled the cover over the bow machine gun off again (carefully) because it was too big, then added a piece of brass rod to indicate the approximate location of the gun’s muzzle to help with attempt No. 2.
Smaller cover made from more Magic Sculp.
The tank now has a raincoat, so the waterproofing between hull and turret can be sculpted, yet leave the turret removable.
Waterproofing between hull and turret made with Magic Sculp two-part epoxy putty, using the photos in the waterproofing manual as guidance.
Waterproofing on the other side. The rear wall will be covered by the stowage bin, so I only applied it as far as it can be seen with that in place.
The real thing, from the manual for waterproofing the Churchill for deep wading. Note that the cover over the opening for the gun has not been installed yet here — that was done after the turret was sealed to the hull, but I did it the other way round on the model. Not sure why, as it would have been easier to do it in the same order as the real thing.
After the putty had hardened, I could easily take the turret from the hull due to the cling film I had put between them earlier.
The fabric waterproofing was improved by scraping and carving, then I added the turret details and spare track links, using photos of the real tank to get the details right.
Right side of the turret with more spare track links as per the original.
Bin fitted to rear, with waterproofing “tape” along all the edges.
Four bolts added to both rear mudguards. These probably held a spare bogie at some previous time, but not anymore at the time this model portrayed.
Each bolt consists of a punched hexagonal part glued to the mudguard, and when that was dry, I drilled a hole through it and glued plastic rod in, then glued another hexagonal piece on top as the nut.
The quick-release gear for bridge cable system got some details replaced and others added, based mostly on a photo in The Funnies by Geoffrey Futter.
The tank is now mostly complete, though the turret, winch cage and exhausts are still loose to make painting easier.
Also still missing are the plates over the exhausts and the tie rods that hold the ducts to the tank, again to ease painting.
The very busy engine deck.
I used a bit of copper wire to hook the bridge up to the winch system, just to see the whole thing together, and everything appears to hold!
Tie rods, hooks and turnbuckles for the wading ducts. The kit supplies all of these in plastic, but I made the rods from 0.5 mm brass rod (soldered together into a Y-shape) and the hooks from 0.5 mm copper wire because they will be thinner and less bendy. The turnbuckles were drilled out so the other parts fit into them. They won’t be fitted until after painting, though. The grey paint is Mr. Surfacer used as a primer.
The ducts and winch cage were sprayed in SCC 2 brown, using AK Interactive acrylic paint (the water-based kind).
Ducts taped up for spraying the rest of the model.
Tank sprayed with SCC 15 (British olive drab) using Tamiya acrylics, per Mike Starmer’s mixture of XF-81:XF-58:XF-71 5:1:1, though I added a bit of black because on my last model I felt it to be on the pale side.
Highlights added to the wading ducts with Mig SCC 2 (lighter and more yellow than the AK paint I used as the base), and to the rest of the tank with Mig IDF Green.
After drybrushing the whole model with Revell light olive, I applied an all-over wash from Army Painter Strong Tone, thinned very roughly 1:1 with water. This is a comparison shot to try and show the effect: left mudguard and wading duct (at the top) have not had the wash applied, the rest of the model has.
Waterproofing tape painted a light sand colour, which is total guesswork based only on it being a pale colour in the photos in the real waterproofing manual. It wasn’t done too neatly because the edges will be painted dark grey later.
Exhausts mostly painted, light brown plus darker washes and red-brown and orange-brown stippling for rust effect. The extensions are medium grey with a dark grey wash, and need light rust added to represent almost-new pipes.
Waterproofing finished by painting Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black over the edges of the tape on the engine deck, but only up against them on the turret stowage bin.
Fabric covers over mortar and machine gun painted (though the photo doesn’t show the shading and highlighting that well).
The rest of the fabric also painted. It’s a bit hard to see in the photos, but it’s a little darker than the first two bits, to provide contrast and indicate that the fabric over the mortar isn’t one piece with that around the turret ring. Again, there is a line of Tamiya NATO Black for the waterproofing Bostik “C” cement.
And from the other side.
Tracks given a sand-coloured wash (to represent sand stuck on them), followed by a brown drybrush to bring out detail and then the wear surfaces painted with Humbrol Polished Steel; unpolished above, after polishing below.
Running surfaces of roadwheels and teeth of idler also painted with Polished Steel.
Installing tracks on AFV Club Churchills is easiest to do by building only as much as you need for the visible bits (don’t forget the mud chute at the front), then sliding it through all the way so you have both ends exposed (leave the sprockets and idlers loose to allow this!), tying the ends together with string, and then turning it back so the string is under the mudguard. Don’t pull the string taut but leave it slightly slack.
Spare track armour on the turret painted dark red-brown, followed by a darker wash and a lighter drybrush.
It’s starting to look like a Churchill now 🙂
Exhausts rusted a bit more by stippling more brown paint on in various shades, then installed. The tie rods for the side wading ducts have also been installed.
All of the tie rods in place, as well as the winch cage (insert the ones to the rear duct from the rear after fitting the winch, but paint them first!), after which the rods were shaded and highlighted like the rest of the wading gear.
Resin 2-gallon cans from Resicast, with scratchbuilt handles from aluminium sheet, because the etched fret with the handles had inadvertently not been packed in the set (so I got a discount when I bought them).
The cans painted, in different colours for variation.
Glued to the rack on the rear mudguard, with the kit’s etched retaining strap over them. It still needs the second part of this added, but I wanted to let the glue dry before doing that.
Brackets now finished too. Don’t follow my example, though — fit cans and brackets before painting, it will make your life a lot easier.
Markings on the rear, mostly from the kit except the text WATER on the can, which is from a Bronco accessory set.
On the sides, the WD census number was assembled by cutting up spare decals for another kit. The text BRAMBLE LCT5 is hand-painted, like it would have been on the real tank (and is only on this side). The turret is crooked because the winch cable is inside the hull to keep it out of the way, so the turret couldn’t fit properly for the photo.
The star on the turret roof is from Star Decals, the number A2A on the stowage bin is hand-painted because I couldn’t find suitable decals among my spares.
Bowden cable for the release mechanism for the wading ducts added: just some 0.25 mm nylon fishing line, painted black and glued into a hole drilled through the mechanism.
Release mechanism and one of the kit’s blocks added to the bridge. The cable is 0.25 mm fishing line again.
The block on the tank side. I drilled through the clasp so it had a hole on both sides and replaced the kit’s plastic pin with one from 1 mm brass rod, because the cable pulled through the glued joint when I used the plastic pin.
And the bridge is attached! The model isn’t quite done yet, though, because I want to add a figure but the one I ordered hasn’t arrived yet.
A figure from Resicast was added to finish the model.
The completed model, from here to the end of the album.
Comments
63 20 March 2023, 20:01
Jakko I happened to have them at hand on my workbench and decided I might as well use them 🙂 Sgt. Detritus turned out to be far too heavy, at twice the weight of these all by himself …
For those wondering, they're Micro Art Studio figures: SCM Search: Discworld (Comic Fantasy Series) Micro art*
25 March 2023, 15:21
Pietro De AngelisI also saw the article posted on missing-linx, amazing work, congrats!
26 March 2023, 17:05
Michael KohlI have a soft spot for bridge layers (a Biber being the first model I bought and build when I restarted modelling), so I gotta follow this one. 🙂
20 May 2023, 18:23
Jakko A Biber is on my "to build sometime before the end of the world"-list … this one first, though, and then a related subject 🙂
20 May 2023, 20:10
Jakko I bought a whole bunch of them something like 15 years ago, mostly these two types of tin but even one or two with the very old tartan stripes — see robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/humbrol.htm 🙂 And as you might expect, even though these tins are something like 35–50 years old by now, after some lengthy and vigorous, yet careful, stirring, they're still perfectly usable. The only problem is that I don't really WANT to use them because they will run out eventually and there is no replacement 🙁
23 May 2023, 09:09
Jakko I moved all the bridge images to the separate album for that: SBG Assault Bridge | Album by Jakko (1:35) — I had put them in the one for the AVRE because I had forgotten I had made the other one as well …
1 June 2023, 12:28
Jakko I would very much recommend it — just not as your first-ever 1:35 scale armour kit 😉 Like all AFV Club kits it needs a good degree of experience, but if you have that, it'll build into a very good model, IMHO.
2 June 2023, 20:15
DoubtingmangoI couldn't tell if there is any brass that comes with the kit. Is there any photo etch that comes with it, or is it all plastic?
3 June 2023, 20:18
Jakko There's a small sheet of etched parts, for things like the sight "cage" on the turret roof (won't be on my model because the real tank seems to have lacked it), stops for the driver's hatch, straps for the oil cans on the rear mudguards, etc.
4 June 2023, 09:13
Jakko Thanks 🙂 BTW, you can check the instructions that I uploaded to this site to see where exactly the etched bits go. IMHO they've been used sensibly, in that they're only for parts where they will make an actual difference in appearance.
4 June 2023, 17:17
DoubtingmangoAmazing! What's the actual height of the elevated bridge? Suddenly Captain Carrot and friends don't seem like they would be enough!
5 June 2023, 22:31
Jakko Thanks. I didn't measure the height when I hooked them up last night, but the real bridge was about 10 m long, so in 1:35 that's around 29 cm; it's held at approximately 45° meaning the model is in the order of sin(45°) × 29 cm = 21 cm high, plus ca. 1 cm that the pivot point will be above the ground when the model is on its tracks.
The model is still resting on the styrofoam here, but the counterweight I put into the rear of the hull is clearly enough. If it wasn't, the whole thing would have tilted forward along the edge of the foam 🙂
I do wonder where I'm going to keep this, though …
6 June 2023, 08:34
Mr JamesReally brilliant stuff going on. Great amount of details added followed with a great paint and weathering job.
23 July 2023, 16:24
Jakko Thanks, though I didn't add much detail to the model at all — nearly all of it is straight from the box 🙂
23 July 2023, 17:01
Jakko Thanks 🙂 Not much more to do now … I need to wait for some glue and paint to dry, then I can hook the bridge to the tank, winch it up, and connect the cable to the block. A little bit more painting, and then all it needs is a figure — which I have on order, so I can't fit that just yet.
24 July 2023, 20:12
Jakko Now I got the bridge attached to the tank, I can definitively answer @Doubtingmango's question from a while ago: the whole model is 20.5 cm high when assembled, about 45 cm long, and 10 cm wide 🙂
25 July 2023, 18:29
DoubtingmangoThat is a model that demands a very tall display case for protection!
25 July 2023, 18:31
Jakko My "display" models go on top of a tall storage cabinet, so they're out of the way unless somebody goes and stands on a chair 🙂
25 July 2023, 20:25
DoubtingmangoOne of the most impressive builds that I've seen on this site. Well done!
10 August 2023, 01:08
Jakko Thank you all 🙂 I enjoyed building it — well, for the most part, anyway 😉 — and I'm kind of amazed that the bridge hasn't collapsed yet …
10 August 2023, 08:41
Album info
This will be a model of a Churchill Mk. IV AVRE tank with a Small Box Girder Assault Bridge as during Operation Infatuate II on 1 November 1944, and will depict tank No. A2A, T68927, of 87 Assault Squadron, Royal Engineers.
