The Howitzer Motor Carriage M7 was based on the chassis of the M3 medium tank. 90 of these vehicles were sent to British forces in the Western Desert and took part in the Battle of El Alamein. They were referred to as the 105mm Sp gun "Priest" by the British, due to the pulpit-shaped MG mount. The later M7B1 model had the Sherman type M4 bogies.
The 1/76 plastic kit is manufactured by MATCHBOX, and is a good source of the M3 type suspension, useful for various conversion projects.
In response to an 8th Army HQ request for an infantry support SP gun, a 25 pdr gun-howitzer was mounted in a box-shaped turret onto the existing Valentine chassis. Dubbed the "Bishop", about 80 were shipped to the North African Theater. This was the first British designed SP gun.
This 1/72 model is made by ESCI. A 1/76 scale model can be made using the Fujimi hull with a Vac-U-Cast resin turret.
Several American M10 Tank destroyers were converted to the "Achilles" by replacing the 3inch gun with the British 17pdr gun. It proved to be a very successful conversion.
This model is composed of the FUJIMI M36B2 injection kit chassis and an Achilles resin turret manufactured by CRUSADER MODELS. I removed the incorrect bow MG and hull bolts.
ACCURACY WARNING! The color scheme is based on an illustration in one of my references from the 70s, but I believe it was an incorrect interpretation of a black and white picture. The scheme is more likely to have been black bands over khaki drab (the correct khaki drab color is shown in the new Extratech plastic Achilles kit).
In response to an urgent need for an effective tank destroyer mounting the 17 lbr anti-tank gun, British designers developed the Archer SPG, using the Valentine chassis, which was one of the few suitable vehicles in 1942. The extreme size of the weapon necessitated that it be mounted firing to the rear, a rather unique concept. Nevertheless, the Archer gave a good accounting of itself, equipping British AT battalions in Europe from October 1944 until the end of the war. It saw service after the war in both the British and Egyptian Armies.
This 1/76 resin kit was manufactured by MILICAST. The decals were both spares from other kits and obtained from Skytrex/Hinchliffe. The figures came from MMS. The kit has 13 parts which go together nicely. Some filing is necessary with the gun mount, and flash has to be removed from the wheels. I was tempted to replace the track assembly with that from a Fujimi kit, but the track pattern on the kit is actually more accurate than that of the Fujimi rubber track.
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