I collected my Churchill from Monique last Thursday and plan to do a tank from Kingforce which was a troop of 6 tanks sent to the Middle East for the El Alamein battles. These tanks were heavily modified and were fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks and a canvas skirt on the hull front called a "Dodger" which was designed to reduce the amount of sand kicked up in front of the driver. There has been a lot of discussion about the colour of these tanks but Mike Starmer (aka British WW2 colours expert) in an article for the 2021 Issue 5 of IPMS magazine has reached the conclusion that they were shipped to theatre in Light Stone BSc 61 with a Dark Chocolate camouflage scheme based roughly on that used on Crusaders at that time. I have a 1/35th scale conversion kit produced by Inside the Armour (kit 35019R) for the AFV Club kit, which includes many of the detail changes (including the extra fuel tank, turret box, sunshield rails, and dodger) so have a head start in the conversion parts required. I also intend to ask Bovington if they have any drawings/plans related to these parts. If there is anybody also planning to do one these tanks lets share the information and not do the same one
. I will probably do T31665R Lt Appleby in tribute to him and his crew only one of who survived (wounded) when the tank was knocked out on 26th October 1942.Stay cool,
Will.
