Churchill Gun Carrier | Airfix & Scratch | 1/76

 Lately, I had been building models straight out of the box, and it started to feel a bit monotonous. I wanted to take on a more challenging project. With that goal in mind, I chose Airfix’s 1/76 Churchill Bridge Layer kit as the base for a full custom build of the Churchill Gun Carrier I had in mind.

I found technical drawings of the Churchill Gun Carrier online and used them to roughly determine the dimensions. I then cut the necessary materials from Evergreen plastic sheets based on those measurements.

Since the tank’s structure mainly consisted of flat surfaces, I thought this would be an easy task and started gluing the sheets. I began by estimating the position of the gun opening on the front and cutting a circular hole.

Afterward, I added the side and rear plates. There were some misalignments, but I didn’t worry too much since I planned to fix them later. The fixed turret of the tank had a forward slant, which I created by sanding the upper part.

I closed off the top of the turret as well, applying manual pressure to create the needed slant and making sure the top panel sat flush with the sides. Some areas had small gaps, which I filled with putty and later sanded smooth.

Once I completed the main turret structure, I added extra panels to the turret sides to replicate the proper protrusions. I also scratch-built or sourced various detail parts based on reference images and glued them into place.

I had overlooked the fact that the rotating turret socket was supposed to be circular. Since it was too late to modify, I covered the area with a canvas tarp made from Parafilm.

There were also rivet lines on the turret. These were supposed to be raised, but due to scale limitations, I lightly drilled indentations to simulate them instead.

I primed the tank in grey and initially painted it stone color, aiming to do a Malta camouflage. However, the brushwork didn't yield good results, so I switched to a three-tone desert camouflage.

For this, I used olive green and sky blue. At first the colors seemed too light, but after some adjustments (perhaps too dark), I’ve realized that I now prefer painting my tanks in lighter tones.

Once the main paint job was done, I began painting the smaller details. The towing hook on the side of the tank was almost flush with the surface, making it quite difficult to paint without errors. Aside from that, I painted the rest of the details without issue.

Finally, I corrected paint mistakes by hand and applied a coat of gloss varnish. After drying, I added decals from a Polish Army set and varnished the model again. 

To unify the tones—especially since the blue was too glossy and the other colors were more matte—I applied filters. First, I used white oil paint as a base filter. High-quality oil paints are essential in modeling; I use Winton, which is expensive but lasts a lifetime.

After the white filter, I applied a yellow filter to help blend the tones, and finally a burnt sienna filter to add a dusty appearance.

Next, I applied oil paint effects—a classic technique. I dotted different colors across the surfaces. On vertical areas, I streaked the paint downward with a brush. On flat surfaces, I blended it in circular motions.

I used white, blue, yellow, green, and burnt sienna oils. These helped break up color monotony and simulate grime and stains. I may have used too much white spirit, causing some areas to become overly diluted.

After the oil paints dried, I noticed inconsistencies in the wheel camouflage—some wheels had dual-tone transitions, which didn’t look intentional. I repainted each wheel in a single solid color, which looked more realistic.

I waited two days to let the oil paint fully cure. One of the main challenges with oil paints is their slow drying time. They may seem dry on the surface, but if you work over them too soon, they can smudge or lift. My trick is to apply oil paints before I’m on call duty, so the model has time to dry while I’m away.

Once dry, I moved to washes. The areas I had scratch-built were more prominent, so it was important to enhance them with washes and dry brushing. I used diluted black enamel wash by Humbrol, which gave great results without overly darkening the base colors.

Still, the scratch-built parts didn’t blend in perfectly due to lack of proper mounting surfaces. Glue had leaked out, and washes pooled unevenly. To fix this, I applied a tiny amount of black oil paint with a toothpick and gently spread it using a brush with some white spirit—faking a more natural wash. 

After finishing the wash, I sealed the model with matte varnish. The rough surface it creates helps pigments and effects grip better.

I started with sponge chipping using anthracite and Vallejo Chipping paints—careful not to overdo it. Excessive chipping can quickly look unrealistic.

I started with sponge chipping using anthracite and Vallejo Chipping paints—careful not to overdo it. Excessive chipping can quickly look unrealistic.

Then I applied dust effect liquids to the wheels, tracks, front, and rear areas. These days, I avoid heavy mud effects; dusty finishes look more realistic in this scale.

Light rust streaks were added to the side and front surfaces. Previously I used oils for this, but now I preferred subtle enamel streaks. I applied a general wash with a desert tone product, but doing it late in the process unfortunately erased some earlier effects.

Lastly, I added soot effects to the exhaust and gun barrel. I lightly weathered the rear with rust tones and added dry brushing and washes to the side tarps. Once everything was dry, I highlighted edges with a pencil to add subtle metallic sheens.

Overall, this was a fun and rewarding project. Despite a few mistakes in painting and weathering, I was pleased with the result. I placed the model in the display cabinet and moved on to the next one.

STRV 103C | Trumpeter | 1/72

I had previously built an STRV 103C model—actually the exact same kit. However, the result didn’t satisfy me, so I stripped the paint using DOT3. When that didn’t work effectively, I decided to buy the kit again and rebuild it from scratch. The kit is Trumpeter’s 1/72 scale STRV model. I really enjoy Trumpeter’s thin plastic, so revisiting the build didn’t feel tedious or boring.

Since I already had experience from the previous build, I avoided the mistakes I made the first time. The tank has a very unique architecture, but the build process is relatively simple.

Previously, I had misassembled the upper hatch and antenna ports, so this time I paid special attention to those. The side armor skirts had also been tricky, but I handled them quickly and smoothly this time.

Once the assembly was done, I started the painting phase. I planned to use four colors, so I began masking. I first applied dark green as the base coat, waited for it to dry, and masked the necessary areas.

Next, I sprayed a brown shade, which I mixed with red to create a dull, rusty tone. This blended better with the overall color scheme. After this, I masked again.

Then came the flat black paint layer, followed once more by masking. At this scale, freehand masking is difficult, so I didn’t strictly follow a defined camouflage scheme.

Finally, I applied a light green shade, but due to incorrectly mixing the paint with thinner, I had a lot of trouble. Eventually, I applied it unthinned, which resulted in a thick coat and noticeable layering in some areas.

Once painting was finished, I removed the masks without waiting too long. In the final result, the green was a bit too dominant, but not enough to ruin the model. Overall, I was satisfied with how it turned out.

After the main painting, I colored the details on the tank and finished with dry brushing using lighter tones mixed with white. Even though it looked a bit rough in places, it added visual depth to the model.

I applied a gloss varnish over the entire tank and let it dry. Sometimes I use satin varnish, but because this tank has so many surface details, I preferred gloss to make the weathering process easier.

Once dry, I applied the decals. STRV tanks don’t have large decals like WWII tanks, so placing the small decals took some time.

After applying the decals, I added another coat of gloss varnish to seal and blend them into the surface. If decals aren’t properly integrated, they can look ugly, so sandwiching them between gloss coats is crucial.

Once the gloss varnish dried, I applied an oil filter using burnt umber. I followed up with white and green oil paint filters. These help blend the color transitions and soften tonal contrasts.

Next came the oil paint detailing. I applied white to black areas and used various tones on other parts. Although not strictly necessary for a camouflaged tank, it helped establish good color transitions before weathering.

Because oil paints dry slowly, I waited patiently before moving on. After drying, I began the wash stage.

Due to the many surface features of this tank, I used washes to emphasize panel lines and crevices. I used Tamiya panel liner diluted with thinner for its ease of flow and cleaning.

Once I completed the black wash, I followed up with weathering washes like dust and grime. I even revisited some areas with black wash to restore contrast where needed.

After all the washes were done, I sealed the tank with a matte varnish to create a textured surface ideal for further weathering.

Weathering began with soot application on the barrel tip to simulate muzzle residue. I followed with soot pigments on the exhaust and lightly spread them around to mimic dispersal. I fixed pigments in place using turpentine.

Since I wanted a dusty look overall, I began dirtying the tracks with dusty washes, followed by metallic pigment weathering on edges, and finished with dust-deposit washes.

I didn't do much on the side panels since they’re barely visible. The wheels received the same dusty washes and pigments as the tracks. Where pigment had dulled details, I redefined them with black wash. 

I weathered the front and rear lower surfaces using dark and light pigment washes based on height. Finally, I applied a mud effect to the lowest areas.

The side-mounted fuel drums also got dust and grime treatment. I simulated fuel streaks running down from their caps and created a slurry effect by mixing fuel and dust in select spots.

The top of the tank is flat, so I assumed it would accumulate a lot of dust. I first applied a burnt sienna wash in recessed areas, then used dust deposit solutions for a layered effect.

The anti-AT iron grids on the front were heavily muddied, while the rear portions were dusted. I imagined the front would be dirtier due to splashes from the terrain.

For the crew-walked areas on the roof, I used sponge chipping with dedicated chipping paints and some anthracite weathering in select spots.  

To enhance the tank’s outlines, I used graphite and pencil on all corners. This gave the tank a metallic look and removed the toy-like plastic feel.

The lower front dozer blade got metallic chipping and rusting on the lower edges, then dust and grime to finish.

The lower front dozer blade got metallic chipping and rusting on the lower edges, then dust and grime to finish.

I did a final pass over the tank to fix visible errors. There was paint spatter on the rear track that I couldn’t remove, but I corrected every other issue I found.

With nothing else left to fix, I finally declared the tank finished. It was a satisfying rebuild of a model I had previously failed to complete. Its unusual design made it a unique and enjoyable project.

Another tank done and placed in the display case. Since my workbench is full of 1/72 kits lately, I quickly moved on to another.