CHEAP VBCW TANKS (4)

Well, more "Cheap VBCW Self Propelled BIG GUNS" than actual tanks, but that would be splitting hairs:

A Self Propelled "Big Gun" painted in Cadbury's Corporate Colours
Seated Crew - Reiver. The gun can be raised into firing position
or lowered into travelling position.

The basis of this particular SP "Big Gun" is the old, nay "venerable", Airfix "Poly/Snap-Fit" 155mm Self - Propelled Gun, first produced way back in 1966:

Airfix SP Gun with Box 

The Airfix "Poly" model seems to be a simplified version of the M40 (or M43) Motor Gun Carriage, just coming in to service with the US Army at the end of WW2. For that reason, although huge numbers were produced by Airfix, it doesn't seem to have been a favourite of 20mm WW2 wargamers, even back when model choice was limited. For another reason, the howitzer itself is grossly oversimplified, long and spindly, resembling more of a peashooter than a big and powerful artillery piece.

So these "Poly" models regularly pop up cheaply on Ebay - don't go for the boxed ones (as collectors like them), but for the most "beaten up" types, even without the long and spindly howitzer, as you simply have to ditch that anyway. You could make your own replacement gun from any bits of tube, plasticard, wire or card-brushed-with-varnish (see HERE) as you like - or you could (as above) take a cheap plastic oversize 25pdr (Hong Kong variant), remove the wheels and most of the trail, then "chop it about" until it fits snugly into the Airfix model.

The good thing about the resulting "bodge" of a Self-Propelled Howitzer is that it is "scale compatible" with that armoured mainstay of the Hereford VBCW, the "Shoddy Tank" (see blogposts passim):

Another example of the converted Airfix SP 155mm, on this occasion in Fyffes Corporate Colours,
following a "Shoddy Tank" into action. Reiver seated crew again.

And while we are on "good things", Ebay prices can be such that a whole battery of these "SP Big Guns" can be purchased and bodged for very little:

An "SP battery" awaiting conversion (and their crews). Total cost less than one "historic 1/55" tank
model - and you wouldn't want to paint a historic model purple or yellow anyway!