UK mk 5 chieftain.

[martin57]

This will be my entry to the homeland build .
the mk 5 chieftain by tamiya 1/35 scale , going with out of the box build on this one.



NOW for some history .
In 1956 the british army started to work on designs for a replacement for the centurion tank .
3 prototypes for a vehicle called FV4201 were built.
two years later ,construction for a new tank based on those prototypes ,and incorporating the army s latest requiements ,was approved .
the vehicle was designated FV4202 nicknamed the chieftain .
The main inovations were a new turret and a hull although based on that of the centurion , was smaller , forcing the driver into a semi-recumbent position .
Production began in 1962 , after a preliminary series of 6 units had been built .
The tank came into service in 1967 .
THE CHIEFTAIN SERIES.
Improvements were introduced in each of the subseqent series of chieftans that were built ,and each was given a new designation , starting with MK1
through to MK 12 .
THE MK 5 first announced in 1970 , was the result of a modernistion of the original MK2 with a new engine .
the inside of the hull , which was made of welded steel , was divided into three sections .
The driver was positioned at the front .
The central , turret section held the three other crew members , the tank commander ,the gunner (tothe right) and the gun loader to the left.
The rear sectoin housed the propulsion system ,made up of a leyland engine with 6 cylinders and 12 opposed pistons producing 750 bhp-and a TN12
transmission system with 6 forward gears and 1 reverse .
The running gear, with a drive sprocket at the rear,comprised of 6 pairs of road wheels and 3 track idlers on each side .
The main armament was a L11A5 120mm-calibre rifled gun . the shells used were unusal ,insofar as the charges were separate : the war heads were
stored in the drivers compartment and the powder bags beneath the turret .
The gun was linked to an automatic firing system with digital ballistic calculator that determind the firing parameters,including making the necessary
measerments for firing at moving targets .
The tanks secondary armaments were 2 7.62mm machine guns and also 6 smoke grenade launchers on each side.

NOW SOME SPRUCE SHOOTS








some nice details





and the instructions









THANCKS FOR LOOKING .

[chief5437]

Great kit oob, builds really nice! Look forward to seeing the result!

[martin57]

time for an up date on the chieftain .
this looks like it will be fairly straight forward kit to put together so here we go .
started with the wheels and suspension there are some rubber type parts not to sure what the proper name for them are
but thay fit on the sprockets and there are some caps of the same type , to push on the wheels after fitting .
must be for the moteriszed version .



all cut and sanded ready to go .



that was painless suspension on and wheels ready for priming now were moving .







next up was the back panel fitted ok no drama



next up was the all the boxes and hooks on the back panel .




sorrey about this picture not sure what happend there , but yet again no problems .


picture of the gun rest .


right we are on a roll next up all the upper hull parts were cleaned ant fitted .




all fitted nice and easy .




back boxes cut out and fitted .




moving on the gun next yet again no drama .





thats it for this time be back soon .
i will say this has been a joy to build up to now and is a good kit for a beginner straight forward nothing to fiddly
eduard do a P E set for this kit so it can be up graded .
thanks for dropping by .

[schweinhund227]

That old kit is still looking superb !

I might have to look for one... to complete my
British MBT series..

Thanks for sharing your progress !

[martin57]

HI to all , new update .
started work on the turret sorted the machine gun and bits not a great moulding but it will be fine .


A nasty sink hole right in the middle of the commanders window and search light piece .



a bit of filler and all is ok.



next up was the side storage cages and all the other parts for the turret .









so all the building done including the crew , that was painless , a nice kit to build out of the box .
lets hope the painting goes as easy .








going to paint this black and green as on manouvers in west germany ,with some extra jerry cans and some cable on the reel , and a camo net .

got the primer down .







well thats it for now thanks for looking

[Nige201980]

Looking good mate.

[martin57]

JUST a short update for today , layed down the base coat of nato green , and primed up the figures .
going for the 2nd part of the camo tomorrow nato black these are tamiya paints .



sorrey the pictures are a bit on the bright side.















thancks for looking .

[martin57]

Another short update .
after laying down the nato green , next up was the nato black ,
this went down fine with no ploblems , i must say this has been a nice straight forward build up to now.
Next up will be the painting of the gun barrall covering and the rest of the details before doing the filter and gloss coat .






sorrey pictures are a bit light .
Thanks for looking .

[Paul]

Great entry and brilliant build log too

[martin57]

Back again for another update ,
after the camo was laid down i got some 5amp fuse wire to wrap around the cable drum .
then put on the tracks , not a great lover of these rubber type tracks .
then laid down a couple of coats of clear .
then when dry straight on with the decals .
this all went well , to be honest this hole kit from the start has been great to build , ideal if you are just starting the modeling journey .
so the next stage will be the u m p dark dirt wash , was going to use oils but untill i get some aqua gloss i am not going to temp fate and muck up my
precioussssss.





and a bit of camo net to put in the other side turret cage .










thats it for now thanks for coming

[martin57]

Another update ,
in this update i made up the camo net , i used a piece of non slip matting from the pound shop i managed to get the green one .



It looked ok, not to sure about the scale , but it looks ok , tried to find something in the house i could use for the leafs i thought maybe some tea leafs
but thay were to small more like powder .
so went on as is .
Painted some black in blotches , and rolled it up and used good old tamiya tape for the ties , looks good .



And here it is in place .



SO moving on i used U M P dark dirt all over , then took most of it off the turret and upper hull , because i did not want it to dirty on top.
I kept most of the dirt low down side skirts wheels etc , as if on light manovers .

then mixed in some rust and light dirt for the tracks.
Went over some of the fixings with a soft led pencil.









Next stage will be a bit of stowage in the other cadge with the reel in , and i am going to try and make a pair of front mud flaps
then a matt coat . so we will see how we go.
thanks for coming

[martin57]

New update only a quick one today .
i got this idea from CHIEF from a resent thread he wrote so i thought i would give it a go.
The track covers on the front of the tank or mud gaurds not sure what thay are called is what i wanted to do.



so got myself an empty beer can , one of the ones the wife feeds to the slugs in the garden.
And cut it up and rolled it flat , then cut it up .



Then measured the size needed and cut and bent it to shape , then super glued them in place .
I think thay are some sort of rubber i am not sure looking at the picture in the book thay were not dead straight or flat so thats how thay went on .



So there you have it .
THANKS AGAIN CHIEF FOR THE TIP.

[gustavlekstal]

some great building and a logg

[martin57]

A new update today, just to say i have put down the matt coat, with a tint of light gray ,mainly as an experment to see what it would come out like.
The idea being i am going to do a dio with the tank on manovers through and old ind area with old concrete and rubble so i wanted a slightly darker dust
effect, so thats where we are at the moment , hopefully next to do will be the crew .







Sorry about the photos a bit dark could not do them outside as it was raining .
Thanks for coming

[TommyKillander]

Great job on the extra equipment!

It's those details that make the build special and separates them from the plain OOB builds...

Weatering looks fantastic btw!

Cheers

[martin57]

Hi just another quick update .
started on the figures this morning , now you will have to bear with me i am still learning figure painting so thay might turn out rubbish .
So i primed them first then a bit of black shadowing, then a couple of flesh tints , followed by a gloss coat ready for a wash latter .
Then moved on to the rest of the figure olive green under shirts and then a light green for the overalls , gloss black for the headphones and radio mic.
So that is were we are at the moment .





Then i had a little play with the dio, some bits of polystrene for concreate blocks and a couple of bits of non slip matt for the road ,
got a plan rattling around in my head so we will see how we go .



well thats all for now thanks for coming .

[martin57]

HI again another quick update on were we are .
the crew are finished and in place , thay did not come out to bad ,still a lot to learn.



So now its time to turn to the dio.
The idea is the tank is on a training mission manovering through tight areas .useing an old derlict factory complex , so there is lots of old concrete and
rubble , bits of old rusty pipes etc .
I have started with a direction sign so the lads no witch way there going .




For this i used a spare barrel and cut the top out , beat it up a bit, pushed a bit of blue tack into the bottom, cut a piece off a stirring stick , and added
a small piece of tin for the sign board . and primed it gray .



Then moved on to some of the scrap what will be laying about , got another spare barrel drilled out the filler holes ,and scratched it up a bit.
next i got some spure and warmed it over a candle and bent it to shape ,( love doing that ) and then drilled out the ends to make it look like old piping




Soaked the polystrene in diluted white glue and primed them all gray .




well thats were we are for now ,
thanks for coming .

[vdbo76]

Oh wow, this is looking very interesting!

[martin57]

On the home straight now.
The next stage of the base work was to spread some tile grout over the walls to give them some texture , and then place them were i wanted them,
i will be weathering them in there positions .
The roadway had diluted white glue spread over and some fine dry soil spread on the top to give it some variation.





Then the tank was put in the position to see how it will look.



Just the amount of room needed ,



Was not happy with the soil so i added some more white glue and covered it with a couple of grey pastel dust colours .
I think it looks better.




Next up i weatherd the walls with UMP washes , and cut some wire for the renforcement bars for the concrete , spread some ground cover over different areas .
And some paint brush hair for wild reeds ,



Moveing on i needed some coregated sheeting , so i went hunting through my big shed and found just the thing ,an old lego box .



So i peeled the back of and to my surprise it came away in one piece .



So i cut some down to size , and out with the diluted white glue again painted them , let them dry, and selected some weathering powders .



I set about painting and weathering them adding a bit here and there trial and error really till i was happy with them .







And there you go not to bad if i say so myself .
Then i went on and painted the other bits of scrap and the barrel with the sign in it .



Then i wanted a broken concrete pillar , so had a rumidge and found a piece of balsa , so i snapped it in half and put some wire in the broken bit .





So after all that done i played about with the bits to get them were i wanted them , then touch up everything and its done .





















WELL THATS IT ALL DONE .
THE FINAL REVEAL WILL BE UP IN A BIT .

[Goose]

Love it!

great build and dio!

congrats

Goose

[martin57]

Love it!

great build and dio!

congrats

Goose

Thanks goose glad you like it .