Churchill AVRE with Fascine

After the Dieppe raid it was obvious that new equipment was needed to breach beach defences and other fortifications. The Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) was designed to fill that need. Essentially the AVRE was a Mk III or IV Churchill with a new main gun and a host of attachments for various engineering tasks welded on. These attachments allowed the AVRE to lay tracks across soft going, to bridge small gaps, clear mines and so on. However, in the course of a normal Bolt Action battle, the most important change is the main armament. The AVRE is armed with a 290mm Petard mortar which fires an 18kg round, specially designed to level fortifications. The ‘flying dustbin’ of explosives moves slow enough for it to be seen, but the effect is devastating...

A fascine was a bundle of wooden poles that could be deposited in order to fill a ditch or create a step in front of the tank, allowing gaps to be traversed. The practice of affixing fascines to the roof of armoured vehicles was first adopted by the British Mark IV in WWI.

This stunning Trenchworx kit consists of resin, metal and 3-D printed components.