From DallasE: Churchill Tanks at Dieppe (LV426) (105 points)

So this is about as close as I get to a "points bomb"... four 28mm (1/50) vehicles combined with one planetary visit. Anyway it's four 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.

I'm visiting LV426 with this project as one of the planetary themes is "a really really bad idea." Now if you've read anything about the Dieppe raid, you know that it was pretty much universally considered to be a disaster, notwithstanding some really heroic conduct by some of the combatants, some isolated success by the Commandoes on the flanks, and the ex-post-facto justification (largely by Mountbatten) that Dieppe was vital practice contributing to the success of the Operation Overlord (D-Day). Having said all this - Operation Jubilee was a really really bad idea. Dieppe was essentially a fortress, the beach was almost purpose-designed to break tank tracks, and the plan didn't take into account the extensive German fortifications on the headlands overlooking the beach. A really really bad idea.  

Points:

4x 28mm vehicles:     80 points

LV426 bonus:             20 points

Total:                        100 points 
 

Cheers,

Dallas

I know less about Dieppe than I should. I look forwards to finding out more at the 80th anniversary! I've always found the Churchill to be an unattractive vehicle, but you've done great work on these vehicles. The colour alone is hard to describe! The light weathering is really nice, and your attention to detail with the conversions and decals is worth a few extra points.

Barks