First up is the Urban Construct's Churchill ARK bridging tank. The casting was a bit messy and required a lot of cleaning up with files. The ramps are printed and thus have the line patina common to printed parts. Overall a decent model that reflects the prototype. I heavily weathered this model to reflect the rather disposable and abused nature of this bit of kit with other AFVs crossing over it. Still need to add transfers to this model. This model will join my ever growing Royal Engineer echelon for my WW2 late war British Army and will add some flavor to gap crossing scenarios.
Next up was Rosa Miniatures A30 Challenger. This was my first fully printed tank; needless to say I am very intrigued by the technology. The barrel is a bit chunky as are a few other parts and the hull has the usual print lines which are difficult to remove. A bit of effort saw the turret cleaned of these lines and barrel reduced a little. The model scales okay against the Warlord Cromwell. This kit is cheaper than plastic or resin and fills the gap in the range of the big makers. Stowage by Tamiya. The A30 Challenger tank was a variant of the Cromwell tank, which had a lengthened hull and a larger turret to house the 17 Pdr anti tank gun. They were usually deployed within Cromwell Troops, with three Cromwells and one Challenger tank. Later on they were replaced with Sherman VC Fireflys or Comet tanks. Surprisingly even with the taller turret it is still slightly lower than a Sherman.
The last item was Sarrisa Precision's 220 locomotive finished in wartime austerity black and heavily weathered due to wartime neglect. Buffers were converted from map pins, charcoal added to the tender to simulate coal and a vacuum pipe added to the front made from wrapped wire. This loco shall be used on tables representing WW1, WW2 and even the RCW. A fiddly MDF kit, well designed and worth the build.
