Dragon 1/72 Churchill Mk. IV, kit 7424

Well,considering the aging releases by ESCI, Airfix and Hasegawa the Braille scale world has been aching for a modern kit of this important machine for quite some time. Well – here’s DML’s attempt.

The kit contains 70 parts:

  •  68 in grey plastic
  • 2 runs of DS track

Oh I hear your cries about NO PE parts, but rest assured – this is a non-issue with the kit.

There are two main hull components, cast as separate parts – the upper one represents the top deck and the fenders, and lower part is the slide-molded hull tub.

Dragon 7424 Hull tub bottom - a look from front to back
Hull tub bottom – a look from front to back
Dragon 7424 Hull tub bottom - aft end
Hull tub bottom – aft end

It is interesting to note that there are fuel can racks at the aft end of the fenders, and Dragon has included two pairs of British-style 2 gallon cans to be posed there should the modeler so desire.

Dragon 7424 Hull deck - aft end
Hull deck – aft end

Notice the fuel can racks.

Dragon 7424 Hull deck - front
Hull deck – front

The rest of the details reside on three sprues.

Dragon 7424 Sprue A top
Sprue A top

The vertical armor in front of the gunner and the driver has no posable parts, but there is detail molded on the inside of the driver’s direct vision port as you can see in the shot of the reverse side of the sprue.

Dragon 7424 Sprue A bottom
Sprue A bottom

Notice the spare tracks and nicely molded Besa machine guns (that won’t be visible at all once mounted 🙂 ).

Sprue B holds “the centipede” running gear, the sponson sides and some smaller details.

Dragon 7424 Sprue B top
Sprue B top

One of the two alternative parts for the main gun, possibly representing the 6 pounder, can be seen at bottom left here.

Dragon 7424 Sprue B - bottom
Sprue B – bottom

Gotta love all those springs! On the real thing there were actually two springs nested one inside the other for each bogie…

Sprue C holds turret details, including what I assume to be the QF 75 mm, and the motor deck.

Dragon 7424 Sprue C
Sprue C

The turret is a slide-molded part with separate parts for hatch doors – those can be posed open or closed. Antenna base, storage bin, fire extinguishers and periscope are also all molded as separate details.

Here’s a quick look at all the slide-molded parts (turret, machine gun armor and gun barrel) and the motor deck:

Dragon 7424 Slide molded details
Slide molded details

The DS tracks should be 205mm long and contain 75 links each. Instructions tell you to either cut them if they were too long, or stretch them if they were shorter.

Dragon 7424 Churchill DS tracks
Churchill DS tracks

A decal sheet for a single Mk. IV tank from the North Irish Horse in Italy, 1944, is included.

Dragon 7424 Decals
Decals

This newer Dragon kit continues the trend of “ease and speed of assembly” design. In my opinion DML has expertly filled the gap between earlier Marks and the later Airfix Churchill VII with an all-round excellent, hassle-free kit.