Evan’s Churchill Project Part 1

D-Day: British

Evan’s Churchill Project Part 1
Making Tracks

I started my Churchill company project shamelessly copying Chris Townley’s “Big Four” Churchill article. But after I’d painted the base coat and added some modulation I was looking at photos of Churchills in Normandy and noticed they were festooned in many cases with spare track and hessian camouflage strips. Each Churchill frame comes with two bits of spare track so I figured I’d need more bits for this project.

I found instances of Sherman track being used on Churchills for the same purpose so that’s another possibility as well.

I decided to make a small mould of just the spare Churchill tracks and make some copies for my project out of Milliput putty. I super-glued 4 track pieces to a cardboard square and then added cardboard walls to finish off my “master”.

Ages ago I’d bought a product from “Greenstuff World” that is designed for this exact purpose. The main thing with using this kind of product is to make sure you mix it completely. There are other products that will do the same job, Silicone sealants are easy to find at hardware stores. 

There is also the hot melt mould stick material – you stick the strip into hot water, wait for it to go all gooey and then press it into the mould and it hardens as it cools. The good thing about this stuff is it’s reusable!

Hardware Shop Silcon Sealant
Green Stuff World Silicone Putty After I’d prepared the master mould I mixed the Greenstuff World silicone and pressed it into the mould box, I used a small jewellers screwdriver to make sure it covered the track bits as closely as possible.  There is no need for any mould release agent but if you like a small brushed on dab of dishwasher liquid will do the trick – let it dry though!  Make sure you leave the mould material to set completely and then de-mould ready for making the copies.

Milliput putty pressed into the mould

De-moulded
The product of Evan's labours.

I used standard Milliput two part epoxy putty for this project. Again make sure you mix it thoroughly and then press firmly into the mould, I also used the screwdriver to make sure it fills all the voids. When I was happy it was filled I carefully used a knife blade to scrape off the top of the putty to reduce the amount of cleanup required when it sets.

A quick sand on a home made sanding stick completed the job before painting them with my usual track undercoat of AK track primer.

I glued them onto my Churchill turrets following the photos I had, I had to cut one link off each track but I used these individual links on the turret front face where they curved, then some more track primer to touch up the exposed Milliput afterwards. Don’t forget you can also use Sherman tracks as well.

Priming the track links

Track links attached ready for Evan to complete painting In Part Two of this project I will add the Hessian strips...