1/50 Churchill MkIII Tanks for the Dieppe Raid

 

These models were posted to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog back in March, but I wanted to post them on our blog here as well. Anyway it's four 1/50 Corgi Churchill MkIII medium tanks, as seen (kind of) on the infamous Dieppe raid of 19 August 1942.

The four vehicles I've done are all Churchills of The Calgary Regiment (Calgary Tanks), aka 14 Canadian Armoured Tank Regiment (14 CATR). I had three of these painted already in a standard British armour green, but for Christmas was given another stock Corgi model by Challenger DaveV, which prompted me to revisit the three I'd already painted...

 

So I got the project underway in earnest, first re-priming all four models with flat black spray, researching the correct colour for the Canadian armour at Dieppe (turns out it was described as "dog sh!t brown" and I used GW Steel Legion Drab to replicate that), and sourcing decals for the tanks. I got these from Peddinghaus, a cottage supplier in Germany that makes a ton of very cool and obscure decals in 1/72 and 1/48 scale.

 

I also figured I may as well do some conversions on the tanks to better replicate their Dieppe configuration (because why not, right?) This involved scratch-building the exhaust pipe extensions that allowed the Churchills to deep-wade without allowing water into the engines. This was characteristic of the Dieppe Churchills and is seen on every photographed example. 

I made the extensions out of thick flexible wire (I think it's maybe soldering wire) bent to shape and superglued to the exhaust pipes of the tank. I then ran thread between the upper ends of the extensions as shown in photographs of the vehicles on the beach. The extensions were then heavily weathered with rust effect wash.

  

Unfortunately none of the Churchills at Dieppe were equipped with track guards for the upper runs, as seen on these Corgi models... sadly I don't think anyone makes appropriate models in 1/48 or 1/50 and taking a grinder to these models to remove the guards wasn't really in the project remit.

I decided to portray the three vehicles of 9 Troop, B Squadron - Bluebell, Blossom, and Buttercup, as well as the troop leader of 6 Troop, Bob (all four were Churchill MkIIIs). The decals from the Peddinghaus set are excellent and have great detail. However they did take a good deal of work to fit, as they are not "pre-cut" and need to be trimmed to size. There's also 15 decals for each vehicle!

I didn't do a ton of weathering on the vehicles as this would be the first time they were in action - just some light water streaking down the vertical panels, and dust along the lower part of the vehicles and suspension.

 

Here's a close-up of the exhaust extensions. Honestly they were a bit of a futz to build but I like the way they turned out - they really give the tanks the "Dieppe look":

I'm actually quite happy with the way these turned out. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Dieppe raid and I am looking forward to setting up a game this summer to mark it. We've played Dieppe games a few times before (but not for years) but I think the new Churchills are really going to add to the vibe.

Stay tuned for some more Dieppe armour...