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Osprey Publishing |
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Modelling the Churchill Tank |
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by Mark Bannerman |
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Reviewed By Michael Scott, #43177 |
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MSRP: $17.95 USD 7.25 x 9.75 inches. 80 pp. 252 Color illustrations As the publicity blurb says, the Churchill in all its variants saw action from the disastrous Dieppe raid in 1942 until the end in Berlin, 1945. The British morphed this tank into many different uses, so the possibilities for the dedicated Churchill modeling nut are numerous. There are probably not too many Churchill nuts on this side of the Atlantic. Still, after reading Bannerman’s book, I, a dedicated Panzer modeler, detect a small spark of interest. It is best to approach this review with what the book is, and what it isn’t. It is a knowledgeable modeling journey through four variants of the Churchill – 1) An Mk III from the Calgary Tank Regiment which was wiped out at Dieppe; 2) A Crocodile in Germany 1945; 3) An AVRE with SBG (unfortunately for me AVRE is never defined in the book so I’m left with the notion that it stands for Armored Vehicle Royal Engineers but probably not, SBG is Standard Box Girder, as in ‘bridge’), and finally, 4) A Churchill Mk V of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade, Holland 1945. There are a slew of other Churchill types nestled between pp 59 – 74. Each comprises one to three pages of very nice color photos illustrating some modeling detail step: weathering process, conversion detail part attachment, etc. My favorite is a two-page construction of a Churchill CIRD (Canadian Indestructible Roller Device) for blowing up mines. To make this thing, you need access to an industrial lathe, drill press and similar tools. No mere plastic here. As Bannerman points out, the CIRD requires “177 individually lathed and milled parts from aluminum, brass and copper.” It’s a magnificent contraption. Then one Daniel Munoz, I suspect, went and painted it olive drab. Who is Daniel Munoz you ask? Well, Mark has relied upon other modelers for many of the conversions and builds he chronicles in this book. Along with Daniel, there is Mark himself, of course, and Dinesh Ned (who builds one nasty – in the good sense – weathered Crocodile), Mark Cooper doing the SBG thing, Arthur Sekula collaborating on a diorama, Werner Kamphelve/Wolfram Bradac, Pat Johnson, Jorge Lopez, and Mike Rinaldi. Yes, you also get six pages of diorama construction fitted around the Mk V Guards Churchill. The book begins with a short overview of the tank and its variants. This is mostly pictures with a long, double-column table of “types and variants”. The next chapter is the obligatory but mercifully brief “tools” section. I mean, do I constantly need to be reminded to lay in a supply of sharp hobby knives, sandpaper and glue? Then comes the more detailed build sections for the four variants mentioned above, followed by the “gallery”, two pages of further reading and research. There is more here than you would suspect, given the subject, a couple of pages on available kits – another surprise. Thirty-four 1/35 kits, seven 1/72 and a rather large assortment of stuff in 1/76, 1/87, and 1/285 scales. I probably couldn’t even see a 1/285th scale tank without magnifiers. The book wraps up with some photos of aftermarket conversion stuff, one page of “tips and tricks” and a page detailing how Allan Crowther scratch built an Mk I/II turret. That is what the book is, what it’s composed of, but what it isn’t; is a detailed complete description for building the Churchill tank variants. Obviously, basic modeling skills are prerequisite here, and that’s fine, but I found the descriptive passages and the accompanying photographs to be incomplete at times and also out of synch. Some examples from the first build, the Canadian version – some pains are taken to describe in the text the partial removal of the ribbed track guards, which turns out to be a detailed and complicated half-hour procedure. Fine, but a photo or two to provide clarity to the description would have been worth tossing a couple of ambiguous photos purporting to show paint applications. There is an “in focus” section clearly showing in quality photos the construction of the long, extended exhaust pipes from brass and aluminum tubing. The ribbed track guard modifications procedure will forever remain a mystery. We are told that all weld seams are made with the “styrene paper method”. Great, but it’s never mentioned again so I’m left to speculate on the use of paper and plastic to replicate weld seams. There are photos showing the application of winter whitewash but no text to explain why this is necessary since the model was first painted overall white to simulate the whitewash. In sum, I feel there could be better coordination and integration of the excellent photos with the description of the build sequence in the text. The end results are very fine but there are some bumps and omissions relating to how they were accomplished. There are, as well, a great number of examples of fine writing coupled with clear text explanations. I found the section on building the Crocodile Germany 1945 to be outstanding and the painting and weathering talents of Mr. Ned are top caliber indeed. My conclusion is that this book holds a great amount of information on the Churchill tank variants and, more importantly for a wider audience, a significant amount of information on more advanced building, painting, and weathering techniques, especially coupled with conversion details. The sometimes choppy presentation and linkage with graphics can be forgiven, especially as they are minor and are more than compensated for by the overall quality of the work. Even though Michael Wittmann might not agree, I believe the armor modeler who has ventured into “advanced” territory and wants to see and understand this quality of build will profit from Mr. Bannerman’s work regardless of the models being built. |
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