A43 Black Prince

[Rich H]

New commission started

[gamer Mac]

Is a Black prince a 17 lb armed churchill?
Lovely work so far

[Rich H]

Sort of, the turret ring was too small for the 17lber so this is a new hull but it's a development of the Churchill

[Ultravanillasmurf]

What scale?

[Cubs]

Nice. The idea of a 17pdr on a Churchill hull makes me smile. Pity it wasn't available a year earlier, but then that's the age-old motto of WW2 British tank development I guess!

[Dragonstriker]

New commission started

Very nice.
Would it have made a real difference to the course of the war if it had been available for D-day? Probably not, but it’s a weirdly cool development despite being a dead end.

[Rich H]

This is 1/56 but being printed it's flexible.

I think typically this was a dead end, the heavy infantry support tank was being left behind.  The 17pdr is a tank hunter but on a slow chassis.  Same engine as the Churchill and ten tons heavier. 

It feels like the rest of the british 17pdr platforms - jam it onto any chassis and see what happens. 

Contemporary to this was the Centurion...  This is the end of a design's life, a Churchill stretched to the max.
The centurion was at the very start of its design life.

This isn't unusual, the Churchill design team was dealing with existing tooling, expertise and experience which lowered the project risks but this also constrained their thinking.

[Rich H]

Tracks still need fettling.

[Rich H]

Back deck details and turret started

[Cubs]

This all just looks like sorcery to me! I know if one day I learn how to do this magicky stuff, they'll invent a new thing that makes it obsolete the day after!

[Blackwolf]

This all just looks like sorcery to me! I know if one day I learn how to do this magicky stuff, they'll invent a new thing that makes it obsolete the day after!

Yep.

Nice work Rich,a fave!

[Rich H]

Mantlet Cover is being 'interesting' having to learn to use blender which is partially intuitive and partially completely nuts.

[Splod]

Lovely work! Do you use a mouse to do your magic, or do you have one of them new-fangled fancy drawing pads?

[Rich H]

I use a trackball as no flat surface remains clean long enough with a toddler about.

I do occasionally have to play hunt the ball as he likes to Nick the ball out of it!

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

This isn't unusual, the Churchill design team was dealing with existing tooling, expertise and experience which lowered the project risks but this also constrained their thinking.

Did it still have to conform to the physical limitations of the British railway network?