Mike - look out on the hull! Seeing those rows of rivets or bolts on the hull I’m afraid those welds might not be correct there - but I didn’t research the Churchill, so I can’t say for sure. Good luck with your build and have a nice day
Paweł
Thanks Pawel! I’m not sure if the hull was still bolted together or if they changed that out for the welded hull when they changed out the cast turret for the welded one on the Mk III.
So far the indications are that they did switch to welded hulls at, or around, the same time. However, I’m not finding the type of information I want for this build. Such as how the fender attachments looked without the fenders on. I’m not finding those types of details, so I’m winging it, as I usually do, with what looks cool.
I’m surprised that I haven’t run into any kind of Churchill expert like the Sherman experts here, who know where almost every bolt was located and what it was for. I could use some of that help here lol.
Thank you again, my friend, for watching my back. 
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…
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. 
Have a great day Gentlemen!
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.
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.
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!!
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!
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?
Looking good Mike!
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.
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!!
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!
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).
Thats impressive work. Hard to believe its in 1/72.
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.
looks great. How could you paint the tracks while on the model and still get unreachable areas
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.
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
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!