No, they’re just tw*ts. That’ll teach me to drink with the officer corps(!)
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Although I won’t be starting yet, I can reshow what I will be building to start with…
AFV Club Churchill Mk IV AVRE with fascine.
Box
Instructions and printed image
Various sprues
Normal clear sprue, PE fret, vinyl tracks, turret looks nice, and the fascine carrier looks ok with some wood grain texture … Might consider making a really wood one as I can use the kit as a template…will look into that… And I have a plan for the fascine.
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My entry has finally arrived, the Sd.Kfz.251/3 Ausf D. I am still waiting for some after market parts.
If time permits I may have a go at the Pak 40.
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Looks good mate … I need to get the Churchill on the go …
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I’m in summer holiday cottage mode, so I won’t have a go at the halftrack until fall.
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You know, half-track kits really love summer cottages.
Just sayin’.
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I hear ya! Cottage is a lot about maintenance, lagers and ales, guitar, and campfires.
I could take it down and clean sprues, I guess.
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No, I believe that Ron is correct, they were not meant to block the landing craft, but tip them over in the higher tides.
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Thank you! So I did do my homework all those years ago. 
Waiting for the summerheat to lessen, before reaching for paints.
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As the Campaign organiser I thought it was a bit naughty that I hadn’t started yet …so here we go…
Some may already know I have the Chieftain and M1A2 on the go, so will do some Churchill building for a day or 2 to get it up and running so Ron isn’t here on his own 
Started off on the running gear housings. They consist of the metal springs over plastic struts with moulded on inner springs …
Not really sure about the springs needing to be metal… Not something that floats my boat, but that’s the only option so hey ho.
It did all go together nice and easy with practically no clean up needed.
Will get the other done tomorrow and see how far I can get… This will hopefully be a nice easy OOB build, only major add on will be the fascine that needs to be made, which I have a plan for
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On the plus side metal springs can be made to scale more easily than plastic, don’t have seam lines to clean up, and are already a metal color.
They just have to be weak enough to not launch parts of the kits later on.
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don’t feel bad about not starting, i put my kit back on the shelf when i realized how many half finished kits i have on the go at the moment lol
i will start it in a month or three, i just need a little room to work…hmmm isn’t that the excuse hitler said 
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I’m on the same boat. I dropped my name on this thread and on the IDF 76 build and I haven’t started either because of the shelf of doom. 
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Well, the startin’ part ain’t the problem…
It is the finishing-thingy that causes issues.
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My sincere apologies Ron. I got my shore side backward in my reference photos. I did not intend to give you bad info. My bad. Sorry.
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No worries!
I always appreciate people chiming in.
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Ok, now some people may like the AFV club Churchill, but to me it’s horrible … Well the last 2.5 hours have been… And I only got one side partially done…
The pain really starts in section 4. Adding dividing slats between D1 & D2. We’ll call this 4a which wasn’t to bad …
The real real pain starts at 4b…
You have to get D22, 21 & 23 inserted above the dividers, between the sides D1 and D2 … The holes in them allow them to flop around, so it’s impossible to fit D21-23 above the dividers and then join the other side… Everything moves to much … This was so frustrating… And I almost 1. Binned the entire build, or 2. Shelved it and built something else…
In the end I had to do one insertion at a time, which took ages… Mate the holes up , get the dividers lined up, liquid glue and force apart , insert the wheel holding bit, and push back together quick, then rinse and repeat… Soul destroying…
Now for even more pain and tears… Once you have done all that, you then have to get that section fitted to the spring section that’s already been built.
Springs … What happens to a spring when you compress it … Yeah, it wants to get back to it’s original shape immediately…
So when you try and get the top piece on and pushed down to mate up with the spring section, the springs which you have just slightly forced down want to reassert themselves straight away … And bear in mind this is happening on all 11 stations …so the glue never gets a second to even begin to set.
So I had to start at the rear station, join the 2 parts together with tape, then apply glue externally…
Then a station towards the middle, same process, then the front station and then all the rest individually…
Complete and utter PITA… No joy at all, and I still have to do the other side.
All that work (2.5 hrs to do) and this is where it’s at …
I go back to my point about the springs being workable, a serious pain and I just don’t see the point or need for them… It’s massively over complicated…
I will never ever get another AFV Club Churchill as I imagine all the running gear is the same and it’s just not worth the effort for what you get in return…
Just did a quick part count for the side I’m working on… For just this one running gear unit, there 115 parts to do before you join it to the lower hull…
Nightmare !!!
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Friends don’t let friends build AFV Club.
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Some friend you are Bootie !!! 
you knew I was building it !!! … seriously though … I would never build another one … which is a shame as I always wanted the carpet layer …
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Would you have listened if I did. 
You had time to review the instructions and plastic before starting this journey. Some people do like AFV Club kits, I am not in that club even though I do like some of the their releases and will have to suffer when I get around to building them.
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