How To Build Afv Club's Churchill Suspension The Easy Way

[ChrisITA]

One of the best things about the AFV Club Churchills is the suspension. This can be fully articulated and works about as closely as you can get to the real thing in plastic

Unfortunately though, AFV Club don't make it easy to assemble As they'd have you assemble 26 parts of it all at once!

Forget that, there is a much easier way....

Firstly stick the panniers together with the springs in place like so:

Next take all the parts from the sprues and lay them out in order. This means they are all ready to hand, and you won't get the various types of similar looking parts mixed up

when that lot is ready, take the two parts that form one side of a suspension and stick them together, then stick on the supporting cross parts:

Wait till this is pretty set

Then take the two parts that for the other outer wall, and lining up the supporting cross parts, stick them on:

Now, leave this for a few hours to fully cure If you don't, things start to fall apart during the next stage and it all gets very frustrating!

Once that has fully cured, you can insert the swing arms. This can be easily done, even with the rest set, as there is plenty of spring in the assembled parts. Simply take a swing arm poppoing it over a location pin on one side, then gently flex the other side until it 'pops' in:

You don't glue these in, once they're in place, the rest of the assembly holds it together

You end up with this:

Which can then be easily gued as one unit to the pannier:

Hope that is of assistance to some of the churchill builders out there

Chris

[Mike]

Nice one I take it the springs actually work, do they?

[ChrisITA]

Nice one I take it the springs actually work, do they?

They do Mike, but if you intend to put an interior inside (I understand theres a very good one available ) they have be glued in place and very slightly sanded at the top otherwise they go up into the stowage area when compressed. If you don't though, they are fully moveable, which could be great on a dio

[crookedmouth]

Chris - what paint/build sequence would you suggest. Do you paint all the bits first then build, or paint in situ? The latter I suppose. And what colour should the suspension "pistons" (the bits inside the springs) be?

[ChrisITA]

Chris - what paint/build sequence would you suggest. Do you paint all the bits first then build, or paint in situ? The latter I suppose. And what colour should the suspension "pistons" (the bits inside the springs) be?

Personally, I build it all then paint it all. The old AB gets in everywhere anyway

I read an interesting discussion on Missing Lynx that showed the primary colour was light stone with the dark disruptive colour painted over it. They proved this by showing the inside of the suspension was light stone. (A lot of effort to paint if it was green painted over with light disruption). I'd paint it all light stone. If you're into your weathering, you could add a heavy application of 'grease' to the springs. According to many accounts, one of the daily maintainance jobs for the crew was to individually grease the suspension springs

Chris:)

[crookedmouth]

Personally, I build it all then paint it all. The old AB gets in everywhere anyway

I read an interesting discussion on Missing Lynx that showed the primary colour was light stone with the dark disruptive colour painted over it. They proved this by showing the inside of the suspension was light stone. (A lot of effort to paint if it was green painted over with light disruption). I'd paint it all light stone. If you're into your weathering, you could add a heavy application of 'grease' to the springs. According to many accounts, one of the daily maintainance jobs for the crew was to individually grease the suspension springs

Chris:)

so you reckon it left the factory in desert colours? OKDOK

[Stormbringer]

Here's a link to the new interior kit

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/newk...dethearmour.htm

Pete

[crookedmouth]

Just to add my experience of the build so far - I would suggest fixing the suspension cage

(sorry - I pirated Chris' pics)

to the sponson

before attaching the swing arms.

I'd also suggest painting as you go, especially if using the hairy stick method, coz once this is all buttoned up there will be a lot of inaccessible but very visible areas .

Edited February 25, 2010 by crookedmouth

[NobleSavage]

Very helpful