1/48 Tamiya Churchill Crocodile

 Depicted as a vehicle from the 79th Armoured Division on North West Europe 1944

Thankfully Tamiya continue with their 1/48 Armour line and thankfully the sometimes release interesting non German subjects. For me the Churchill Crocodile certainly fits the interesting bill. 

The Kit 

• 1/48 Tamiya Churchill Mk. VII Crocodile, Kit No 32594

Aftermarket

• Stowage from the Tamiya and various Black Dog sets

The build is typical for these 48 scale kits i.e. straight forward. I decided not to fit the front guards as I thought the tracks deserved some more attention. I broke the tow cable on the left side during the weathering process so I removed it and ditched it.

The figure is nicely molded I had to include it. I'm pretty happy with how he looks.

Paint

• SCC 15 Olive Drab

I started with Mr Paints representation which I didn't really like . next was Mike Starmers Tamiya Mix for SCC 15 Olive Drab which I sure is accurate but I wanted the base coat a little greener so I added some more XF 58 Olive green.

Weathering

Mainly Pigments for the dust and Oils for the washes. I am still trying to master pigment application and I didn't on this model.  

The Base

One of the aims of this build to use my static grass applicator and have a go at slightly more complicated base.

I started with a piece of timber covered with air dry clay. When this dried it cracked . 

Those cracks were filled with more clay. Once there were no more cracks I used some Tamiya texture paints for the ground work

This was painted with a dust colour. Then the grass areas were painted with watered down white glue and a mixture of static grass applied with the applicator. 

Some wood pieces were also applied along with some more grass

Once everything had dried the grass that had not stuck was dusted off and a couple of sticks from the garden glued one 

The pigments used on the tank were added to the base

I added a lot of grass tufts to add some more interest And then attached the tank blending it in to the base as best I could.

The Pictures

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