Armoured Support for the British Infantry has Arrived!

Continuing my quest to flesh out my British Army and my new found love for Plastic Soldier Company (PSC), I have added a platoon on Churchill Infantry Tanks. I bought a box of PSC Churchills, which gives you the option to create Churchill mk III, mk IV, or mk IV (na75)s. I built the five models that came in the box as 1 mk III, 2 mk IVs, and 2 mk IV(na75s). I then bought one Battlefront Churchill mk VII to complete my Churchill collection. If my na75s can double as mk VIs, with these six tanks I can basically create any of the variations of the British Tank Platoon from Road to Rome and Overlord which mix and match the different marks. You have too look really close at the mk IVs and na75s to be able to tell them apart. Frankly I can barely do it, and I built them. I also think that they look more like mk VIs than na75s anyway. So in this case, even being an avowed rivet-counter, I’m OK with not actually having mk VIs.

So what is the difference between these different Chuchills. To be honest, not much. The Churchill mk III had a welded turret with angular edges and a 6pdr gun. The mk IV was the same tank but had a cast turret with rounded edges. So its easy to tell these two apart however in Flames of War game terms they are treated the same like the Sherman M4 and M4A1. The Churchill mk IV (na75) was a Churchill mk IV which was modified in theater, in Tunisia, to mount the 75mm guns from salvaged Shermans. The mk VI tank was the mk IV with the new mk V 6 pdr gun. Visually, especially in terms of the models, it is very difficult to tell the mk IV, mk IV (na75), and mk VI apart. Very slight variations of the end of the gun barrel are the only way. Battlefront also differentiates between the mk III/IVs and mk III/IV (lates) which had slightly improved armor but visually there is no real discernible difference. Towards the end of the war, production switched to the mk VII which had significantly increased armor and a the new QF 75 gun.

In the picture above, from right to left are the Churchill mk VII (with optional Crocodile flame trailer), 2 Churchill mk IV (na75)/mk VIs, 2 Churchill mk IVs, and a Churchill mk III. Can you spot the differences?

Like the Desert Rat Cromwells, I built a few weeks ago, my PSC Churchills are weighted with nails and drilled out with the pegs sawed off to magnetize the  turrets. I painted them using my standard British color scheme. I did add decals to these as well. So this platoon is from the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, 31st Tank Brigade. I left the Brigade markings off of the mk VII so that someday when I buy a couple more mk VIIs to create a platoon of Crocodile flame-thrower tanks it won’t be historically inaccurate. Although, it turns out I actually liked the detail on the plastic PSC tanks more than the resin/metal Battlefront model. The Battlefront Churchill mk VII had a resin hull and a pile of metal. This thing weighs a ton. Its heavy as Hell and I love it!

As heavy Infantry Tanks, the Churchills were really slow and as a result didn’t played a prominent role in the war in Europe after the breakout from Normandy. They just couldn’t keep up with the pursuit of the Germans. Never the less, I think my British infantry are going to appreciate the added support on the table top.