Churchill Crocodile 1/35

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hansolo
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Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by hansolo »

Hi guys,

Here's my entry to the I love Tamiya SiG.

Here's some info on the Crocodile:

The Churchill Crocodile was a British flame-throwing tank of late Second World War. It was a variant of the Tank, Infantry, Mk VI (A22) Churchill Mark VII, although the Churchill Mark IV was initially chosen to be the base vehicle.
The Crocodile was introduced as one of the specialised armoured vehicles developed under Major-General Percy Hobart, informally known as "Hobart's Funnies". It was produced from October 1943, in time for the Normandy invasion.

Design and development
From early in the war, there had been experiments with mounting flamethrowers on British vehicles; leading to vehicles such as the Cockatrice, Basilisk and the Wasp (the latter being a flamethrower on a Universal Carrier). The Churchill Oke, a flamethrower carrying Churchill Mark II developed by a Royal Tank Regiment officer, was tested operationally on the Dieppe Raid. Parallel development work was carried out by the Petroleum Warfare Department, AEC and the Ministry of Supply (MoS) on Valentine tanks. The Department of Tank Design preferred the Churchill, which was the Infantry tank successor to the Valentine, as a basis for further work.
General Percy Hobart saw the Crocodile demonstrated in 1943 and pressured the MoS to produce a development plan and the Chief of the General Staff added the flamethrowers to the 79th Division plan.

Final design
The flamethrower equipment was produced as a kit that REME workshops could fit in the field, converting any available Churchill Mk VII. The conversion kit consisted of the trailer, an armoured pipe fitted along the underside of the tank, and the projector, which replaced the hull mounted Besa machine gun. The Crocodile was therefore still able to function as a gun tank with its turret mounted Ordnance QF 75 mm gun.
Of the 800 kits produced, 250 were held in reserve for possible operations against the Japanese. The remainder was sufficient for producing three regiments of tanks as well as training and replacements for battlefield casualties.
400 imperial gallons (1,800 l) of fuel and the compressed nitrogen propellant, enough for eighty one-second bursts, were stored in a 6½ ton detachable armoured trailer towed by the Crocodile. The trailer, connected to the tank by a three way armoured coupling, could be jettisoned from within the tank if necessary.

Flame projector
The thrower had a range of up to 120 yards (110 m) although some sources quote 150 yards (140 m). The pressure required had to be primed on the trailer by the crew as close to use as feasible, because pressure could not be maintained for very long. The fuel was used at 4 gallons per second; refuelling took at least 90 minutes and pressurization around 15 minutes. The fuel burned on water and could be used to set fire to woods and houses. The flamethrower could project a "wet" burst of unlit fuel, which would splash around corners in trenches or strongpoints, and then ignite this with a second burst.

And some nice picts:

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The box:

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The contents:

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Started the build

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Build finished

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Started painting. First black primer.

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Than the base color.

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Detail painting and decals.

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Weathering the tracks with Humbrol Weathering Powder.

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That's it for now folks.
Next up: Painting discolorations with airbrush and more weathering.
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
Augustus
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by Augustus »

I love the Churchill, nice work.
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hansolo
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by hansolo »

Thanks Augustus!
I've been wanting to build a Churchill for some time.
And this is a great opertunity. :th:
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
privatepete
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by privatepete »

Hi Hans nice build as always :clap: it must be very tempting especially for you to put your own spin on it, you must resist at all cost :lol: :lol:
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hansolo
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by hansolo »

privatepete wrote:Hi Hans nice build as always :clap: it must be very tempting especially for you to put your own spin on it, you must resist at all cost :lol: :lol:
It'll be a challenge. :-)
I'll try to control myself...
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
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HamilkarBarkas
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by HamilkarBarkas »

Top notch work so far, just as expectecd :) This will be eye candy!
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hansolo
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by hansolo »

HamilkarBarkas wrote:Top notch work so far, just as expectecd :) This will be eye candy!
Thanks Michael!
The fun will only just begin when I start weathering the Cr*p out of this Churchill :thumb1:
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
SteveAFV
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by SteveAFV »

Can't Bellevue how fast your out this together. I really like the trailer coupler.
On the bench:
Tamiya 1/48 7ton mk IV armoured car aka Humber
Tamiya 1/35 pz kpfw IV ausf D BUDDY BUILD with mincemeat http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19653
I Heart Tamiya Stug III B
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Les0012
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by Les0012 »

Thought about this kit myself, you're doing a far better job than I ever could, looking good

Les
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hansolo
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by hansolo »

Thanks guys!
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
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hansolo
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Final Update!

Post by hansolo »

Hi guys,

Here's the final update.

As the example for my paint and weather job I took the churchill tank that was painted and weathered by my great inspiration Michael Rinaldi.
I saw the many subtile color tweaks and decided to mimmic these with airbrushing as much as possible, to get me started and to have an easier job in the weathering process.

Here's the color tweaks. I used nato green, light brown, dust and dark yellow.

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I used Ultimate's dark dirt clay based wash for the first layer of weathering and to change from my usual pattern, I used this foam tool and dark grey to make chips.

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It's a very quick method and you can keep it as subtile as you like.
The one thing that I don't like about the hairspray method - that I usually use - is that often big chunks of paint come off.
And like Mr. Rinaldi says: "You can never have too small a chip."

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An other new thing for me is the stipple technique for making streaks.
I used these oil paints for that.

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Stipples applied.

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The result is a very subtile streak effect and in this image I have also already added some oil paint rendering.

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The rust on the suspension springs is done with these pigments.
They are oil based and dry very quickly and very flat. Which is perfect for rust.
Although they are oil based, it's very easy to remove parts of it with a stiff dry brush.
The effect is super.

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Final touches are done with graphite for bare metal effect, some light pigments for dust and some glossy black
enamel paint for oil spots.

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Here's the commander (that came with the kit. :thumb1: ) base painted with these revell colors.
I gave him a top notch english pointy mustage. :lol:

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I weathered with Vallejo dark grey and brown and finished with some light dust pigment.

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That's it folks!
Check out the final reveal here: http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 32&t=19693
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
Madmattmodels89
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by Madmattmodels89 »

Stunning amazing simply top shelf weathering!!! :bow::
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hansolo
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Re: Churchill Crocodile 1/35

Post by hansolo »

Madmattmodels89 wrote:Stunning amazing simply top shelf weathering!!! :bow::
Thanks Matt!
Cheers
Hansolo

May the sprue be with you. :th:
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