Hi, just wondering if anyone knows of a company makes an aftermarket set of decals depicting WW2 Churchill Crocodile’s in 1/35
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I don’t know of any specific sheets for a Crocodile-equipped unit but if you identify a particular unit you should be able to concoct what you need from what’s available from such manufacturers as Accurate Armour. You’ll need Arm of Service, formation signs, Allied star, some numbers for use over the AOS, squadron markings for the turret and a vehicle serial number. The last will be difficult so any kit ones might be the ones to press into service though of course by using those you do narrow things down to a specific vehicle.
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I have just finished reading Flame Thrower by Andrew Wilson and have been inspired to build my Tamiya Crocodile. I have ordered Sector 35 tracks and have an Eduard PE kit ready to go. I was thinking about ordering a Churchill Crocodile reference book by David Fletcher, but can’t find any reviews of it. After my what if build I think im after a detailed accurate build.
If you want to do an accurate build, be aware that Tamiya’s Croc trailer is pretty wonky dimensionally. There are also some post-war features on the tank itself.
Some fellow Mafiosi and I measured up Bovington’s a couple of years ago but I’ve not finished drawing it yet. In the meantime Dick Harley published some dims in a recent Tankette.
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As Robert says, the Tamiya Crocodile trailer is underscale - the proportions are good so it looks correct, but scales out about 10% undersized. It is also a late-war trailer so is more appropriate for a 1945 setting rather than 1944. No-one does a better option as an aftermarket choice and to be honest, it’s such a big, bulky trailer that it isn’t immediately obvious that there’s anything wrong with it. Overall, despite it’s age, it builds well and has a satisfying level of detail.
I think Andrew Wilson was with 141 RAC (raised from the West Kent Regiment - The Buffs) so the kit markings should be OK as they stand. Apart from the Normandy campaign (June-August 1944), the Crocodile regiments in 31st Armoured Brigade came under the control of 79th Armoured Division for most of the campaign in NW Europe and carried the Division’s bulls head badge rather than the 31st Armoured Brigade green diabolo (the two triangles joined point to point to create an ‘X’ shape).
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I’d check with Dennis @DennisatAutoloader , he makes top notch decals and I bet if you tell him what you need he could make them. ( His quality and prices are amazing.) 
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Thanks for the link @Frenchy Frenchy, as Amazon isn’t widely used here in Aus (not by me anyway haha), I had a look at the reviews and it doesn’t seem to be the most specific to Churchill Crocodile’s, moreso Allied flamethrowing tanks in general. It could be a good start though.
Thanks for the info. It is not surprising that the trailer part of the kit is not accurate to scale considering the age of the kit. Hopefully in the future it can be released to the correct scale dimensions (nice to dream).
Thanks Ezra, I will get in touch with Dennis and see what he might be able to do. Thanks for the suggestion.
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It’s a curious thing - Tamiya physically measured the Crocodile trailer at Bovington and proportionately the trailer is bang on. But for whatever reason all the measurements are about 10% under scale. I could understand it if one measurement had been incorrectly recorded but to get all of them wrong means there was a wider issue somewhere in the process (I suspect at the drawing/design stage).
The Tamiya 1/48 scale Crocodile trailer is similarly under-sized. I think the only plastic trailer that is scaled correctly is the one in the Airfix Crocodile kit.
David Fletcher’s video about the Bovington museum Crocodile :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=143&v=dfTZEsMh0oM&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=TheTankMuseum
H.P.
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