Rapid Fire! Dieppe 1942 in 20mm (part 2) - The Churchills MkI and MkII of the Canadian Calgary tank Regiment

Amidst a hail of invisible fire from 37mm, 47mm and 75mm guns the Calgary Churchills are dealing with the treacherous shingle of Red and White beach right in front of main Dieppe. 29 tanks of the regiment left the TLCs, 2 sank, 12 bogged down and only 15 (16?) left the beach somehow and went over the seawall and reached the promenade. 

The models are all Hasegawa and "National Treasury " (the green one, copied from Hasegawa, very cheap but basically the same mould with worse plastic). They were collected along the years and I ended up with too many Churchill I and II. In the real event, four Churchill I, five Churchill II and  three Churchill Oke landed at Dieppe which means a  maximum of three early models on the table for RF!. On the contrary  eighteen Churchill III got to the beach and at least three models should be there. As the Churchill I and II are five in my collection I will just add one Churchill III (probably Dragon) to represent the 29 models ashore. 

By looking carefully at the bible for modelling the Calgary Regiment - Dieppe through the lens, from After The Battle - you can find a total of five/six different model variants of the Hasegawa Churchill at Dieppe. From Left to Right:

1- Churchill I with the 3" gun in the front hull.

2- Churchill I still with the louvres.

3- Churchill II with hull Besa.

4- Churchill I with the chespaling track-laying device.

5- Churchill Oke flamethrower.

A view of the under part of the track-laying device made of different plastic and metal types. The chespaling on its turn is made of carefully modelled two component paste. 

I used for this model the excellent site Unlucky General which has a series of posts about Dieppe.

 

A thin broom stick was used for the release cable and the commander is a hard plastic Matchbox figure with new headphones. The rear vertical structures were a way to extend the exhaust pipes and avoid  the water while leaving the TLCs. They were made of hollow metal tubing (like the real thing). 

In the end I got "Chief" the first tank to hit the beach at Dieppe. I hope to find the  colours of its  pennant as this one was the commander of C squadron, Major Allen Glenn. 

 Now some time for the Oke version. The Hasegawa copy was used for this one. The plastic is hard to glue but in the end with some extra cyanoacrylate you get the same thing as Hasegawa's. 

The  armoured box for the flame-throwing equipment is made of three layers of styrene and the tube is EverGreen. 

The flame-thrower is made of three pieces of stretched sprue.  

"Boar"was one of the 3 Churchill Oke of the Calgary. Even without the use of its flamethrower due to the loss of the armoured box while exiting its rampless TLC, "Boar" fought the entire morning and finished at the beach as a fort for the retreating Canadian infantry. The figure is PSC. 

In fact this was the look of the Calgary tanks before reaching the beach. Three box-shaped ducts (louver extensions) were fitted to the air intake vents of the Churchills for them not to drown the engines. Due to hurry or technical problems some of the tanks didn´t jettisoned the vents and fought with them throughout the battle. 

The vents were made of styrene sheet. Here you can see also the fire extinguisher on the turret and the metal extended exhaust pipes. 

"Company" was quickly immobilized at the beach and was not able to use its 3" gun but used the other weapons to good effect. 

The nice markings of the regiment are another attraction for this brave unit. You can find all of them for each of the 29 Churchills in "Dieppe through the Lens" down to the serial numbers. 

The two last tanks are "normal" Churchill I and II. Even so and like all others they received antennas, the metal extended exhaust pipes and taller engine exits. The tanks of Dieppe were painted SCC-2 a brown colour (also called Dogshit brown). I mixed 60% GW Mourfang Brown with 40% GW Balor Brown for that effect. 

Next: Probably some influence from the latest RF! books that must be arriving.