Comparison shot between the Esci Churchill IV with AMRCR and the Tudor Rose Churchill Mk ? As this model almost certainly pre-dates the Airfix one, and definitely came before the Hasegawa Mk III and Esci offering, one wonders what the sculptor and toolmaker were using as reference material? There is an almost hybrid III/IV aspect to the turret, other than that it's almost the same size, and made a cheap troop/regiment when little else was available.
With the Churchill as a sizer, we have a Sherman on the left, this is marked "Made in England" but with no makers mark, I suspect it's a late production Kleeware (plastic colour as much as anything?), Kleeman - the parent company - having been bought by Rosedale/Tudor Rose.The Bofors portee is a strange one, we know it's aTudor Rose moulding, but the 'Tudor Rose' mark has been cut out of the mould? Again there is a clue in the colour of the plastic, this metallic blue was used on the ex-Pyro spaceships produced by Kleeware, so the assumption (only an assumption but also an 'educated guess'!) is that after taking them over, Tudor Rose gave the Kleeware facility some moulds for a range of garish pocket-money versions of the old khaki set? OR, that this mould was lent to Kleeware (there was interaction before the takeover) to provide a land-based element to one of the space sets?
Finally, the pop-up driver tank, a re-take of a US dime-store novelty, is again marked "England" but with no sign of a makers mark. Plastic colour of the hull points to Kleeware, however the bronze barrel is very Tudor Rose (they used bronze and copper coloured plastic for some of their spaceships) and a close look at the driver reveals he's had a run-in with the Tudor Rose cream gloss paint brush...so it's likly a Tudor rose model made with a batch of Kleeware granules.
The Plane is marked Tudor Rose, I've been told the cowboy 'walkers' are as well, but the bloke who told me was only an expert on early space, Dr. Who and Del Prado, so I stand to be corrected, they are unmarked. The staff car is unmarked, but identical to one of the two Pyro cars (licence plate; BV 4672, the other being a coupe with ducks tail; licence plate; DP 7189) so should be Kleeware or Merit, and again that yellowy-olive is a bit of a giveaway, however I've included it here as it has another version of thermo-printed Allied star.
Tudor Rose gun-line firing in support of the assault on the village as infantry tanks move off their FUP's. Crewed by Spencer Smith, this was the height of sophistication for a late 1950's - early 60's child's battle-gaming, all you needed was the imagination seemingly lacking in today's "can we have a set in shirt-sleeves to add to the 4 sorry; 500+ sets we've already been given since 1997" generation...
Churchill in fire support covered by a resin farmhouse (15mm) while the portee waits patiently for the last Messerschmitt in the Reich, or at least the last Messerschmitt with fuel!!There are a few more images from this sequence on my Imageshack account, link to top right of page. [07-03-2012; I've closed my Imageshack account so I'm putting them below...
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