I always wanted to build a Churchill but always thought the Tamiya Crocodile kit was the only one available in styrene.

My favorite feature of the Churchill is the wrap-a-round tracks. Since I bought a Mk. 7 are there anythings I should be aware of before I cut away the mud shields? Can I lose them all or do I have to retain a certain section for this variant?

TIA

The Tamiya MK7 is a nice kit for it's age, but build as a Mk7 gun-tank or flame-thrower, either is OK for D-Day to well after post-war. I've built several.

If you want to build one without the track covers, then get any of the 1/35th AVF Club, Mk3, Mk4, or Mk5 tanks as the track guards are separate, as here Armorama AFVClub review pic & will considerably reduce the work needed to do so, plus the kit is some 30+ years newer.

Warning: Churchills are addictive, you godda collect them all!

The Mk VIIs were all built with the mud shields. Any missing sections are due to wear and tear and generally not because they were supposed to be missing. Mk VIIs were late war vehicles and were in action generally from 1944 on, though the earlier Mks were never truly totally replaced.

So, for a Mk VII it should always have all the fenders. In-action photos will show various sections damaged and removed so you can pattern your model after one of those photos to show more track.

If you want a vehicle with all the track removed, you'll generally have to look to the earlier variants (available from AFV-CLUB) as was said, above.

The top surface of the sponsons under the fenders on the Tamiya kit aren't representative of the real thing, so if you remove those fenders, be prepared to add back the detail missing from the kit, things like the skids and track guides that will be more visible with the fenders gone.

All the best,

Paul

Thanks for the input, I got to dry fitting the hull and looking at what it would take and it does look like a major task.

A couple of years ago, Ampersand publications released a pictorial on the Churchill "funnies" which includes the Mk VII Crocodile flame tank. The Crocodile version is generally accepted as the Mark VII model which saw the most use during the war. There is at least one photo of a Mk VII tank in Normandy missing the fenders under the turret on at least one side. These fenders were frequently removed because a battle damaged fender could jam the turret, which overhangs the track run. So it wouldn't be incorrect to depict the model with the fenders under the turret removed. I believe a company of British Crocodiles supported the seizure of Cherbourg at the end of June 1944, since the US had no equivalent flamethrower tanks in Europe. The Germans reportedly were prone to surrender when a Crocodile showed up, and there's documented instances of captured Crocodile crews being executed in Normandy because they were viewed as criminals for using flame weapons.
A few years ago, I built the Tamiya Mk VII Crocodile with the fenders removed under the turret to depict one of the vehicles used at Cherbourg. I had to remove the fender, including the circular ring around the turret trace, then backfilled the opening where the hull sponson was with evergreen styrene sheet, with strip styrene for the two track runs under the track. I was using Fruil track, so the weight of the track lay nicely on the track runs (the runs are just two parallel metal strips on the real thing). It's not that hard to do with a little thought about where you make your cuts. There are several sites on the web you can consult-- just type in Churchill tank photos and they'll come up. I'd post some photos, but I still cant figure out how to do that yet with my poor photo and cumputer skills VR, Russ

If you want to do your MkVII in France, bear in mind it is a very late war/ post war version out of the box. It needs work to backdate it

Google Chris Meddings & Inside the Armour for the best site, resin & book in the Churchill, but he is ceasing all production of his stuff at the end of this year...
Inside the Armour Churchill