Correcting the AFV Club Churchill Mk. VI

In July 2024, I bought this already built model from someone here on Scalemates. It’s missing a few bits that came off in the mail, but they’re all there except for the mud chute on the right-hand side. 

This is the kit turret as built by the previous owner, straight from the box. The other part is the lower turret part for the Churchill Mk. IV, which is also in the kit. 

The height problem is apparent here: the built turret with the Mk. IV part against it. On the real tank, the Mk. IV and VI turrets were the same height, but the Mk. VI had a thicker turret ring — which the kit depicts, except it’s also been made too tall. 

I had to take apart the turret to correct it. Luckily, the previous owner had not used as much glue as I would have, so I could break apart most of the seams by carefully using a knife. I had to saw through the left-hand side, though. 

Another shot of the difference in height between the two lower turret parts. Notice that the Mk. IV part (on the right) has a “bump” on it at the back, which the Mk. VI doesn’t. 

Here, that bump is removed. This was fairly hard work with a heavy-duty modelling knife and a file. After taking the photo, I glued some plastic strip into the slots and then added putty over them to blend them into the turret. 

To make the thicker turret ring, take some 1 × 0.5 mm plastic strip. Wrap it around something that’s about 47–48 mm diameter and cut it to length so it fits nicely once around it. Then glue a second strip over the first to make a circle of 1 × 1 mm material.

When the glue has set, cement the ring to the lower turret part, evenly centred on the existing ring. When that too is dry, cut off the bit that sticks out on the RIGHT-hand side only. Don’t cut anything off on the left! 

I used more putty to close the gap between the ring and the kit part on the left-hand side, and also put thinned putty all around the ring to make it look like it’s cast integrally with the rest of the turret. 

For fun, I decided to also modify the turret to actually be that of a Mk. V. The Churchill Mk. V had a 95 mm howitzer, but photos show that its turrets were sometimes used for Mk. VI tanks. The difference is that the Mk. VI has a diagonal upper corner, like here, while on the Mk. V, that corner was square. You can see lines there on the kit part because AFV Club also has a Mk. V kit. 

By sawing, cutting and filing along those moulded lines, it was easy enough to square the corner.