AFV Club RAAC Mk5/1 Centurion 1/35
Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 2:35 pm
Hi there.
This is my first post on ISM and I've only been modelling since around last September. I wanted to start out by sharing a work in progress so this is my Centurion Mk5/1 that served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in Vietnam plus an appropriate diorama base I will also be working on.
I received the kit as a gift at Christmas so I've felt really motivated to make it the best I can and add extra details. All the armour I had completed before this has been WW2 and I had never really considered bothering with any post WW2 subjects before I started this.
The tank is more or less together. Prior to this one I had just completed AFV Club's Churchill Mk3 AVRE so I was already a fan and I already knew what I was in for. There have been a few slip ups (gluing the metal 50cal ranging gun where the 30cal should go and vice versa was a big one) but nothing that's spoilt my enjoyment of the build.
As I mentioned, post WW2 armour wasn't really something I had considered so I'm ashamed to admit I was quite ignorant of the topic. I was always under the impression that more modern armour just took on a "generic MBT shape" and as a result was never terribly interested. For some reason I also had it in my head that tanks got smaller and lighter. Well I have to say, building this kit and reading up on the machine has blown all those misconceptions away. I think the Centurion as a tank looks fantastic (especially from the side) and as soon as I cobbled the hull together I quickly realised this thing is massive. I love it and I forsee a lot more post war armour in my future. I guess the centurion had it's beginning in WW2 so lets just call this my bridge into a new found territory.
Anyway, moving on to some of the details of the build:
Things like the tow cables and the searchlight have just been temporarily stuck on with a spot of blu tack since those will be painted separately with the tools, wheels and tracks. The mantlet cover has been scratch built with a bit of tissue paper and plasticard. It's all a bit rough at the moment so I will be sanding bits down and generally neatening it up. I am also yet to add bolts to the strips that secure the canvas in place. The wires that run the smoke dischargers were originally moulded on but I didn't like how they looked so I shaved them off and replaced them with copper wire. Once glued in place, I also intend to wire up the searchlight in a similar fashion. Speaking of the searchlight, that's another feature of this tank I think is ace but I'm still in two minds as to whether I should leave the lens clear or make it a dark red to be an IR lens.
AFV Club supplied a bit of black string to serve as the tow cables but because the Centurion cables are doubled up, they only supplied enough to make one complete tow cable or two incorrect cables with a single line. Maybe it was overlooked but I wonder if anybody else has had the same thing. Not that it matters though since I opted to twist up some copper wire of my own and I'm quite glad that I did so.
These are the last two pictures until I post with an update. I've been so pleased and excited with this kit that I wanted to give it a diorama base to really frame it. I have begun construction with a bit of black plasticard and some foam for the basic shape. I'll be modelling a narrow Vietnamese dirt road with plenty of surface variation to really take advantage of the workable suspension and give the model a real sense of weight. I'd really like to add a sense of scale for how big this vehicle is so no doubt I'll be adding a figure or two in there at some point.
Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments.
This is my first post on ISM and I've only been modelling since around last September. I wanted to start out by sharing a work in progress so this is my Centurion Mk5/1 that served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in Vietnam plus an appropriate diorama base I will also be working on.
I received the kit as a gift at Christmas so I've felt really motivated to make it the best I can and add extra details. All the armour I had completed before this has been WW2 and I had never really considered bothering with any post WW2 subjects before I started this.
The tank is more or less together. Prior to this one I had just completed AFV Club's Churchill Mk3 AVRE so I was already a fan and I already knew what I was in for. There have been a few slip ups (gluing the metal 50cal ranging gun where the 30cal should go and vice versa was a big one) but nothing that's spoilt my enjoyment of the build.
As I mentioned, post WW2 armour wasn't really something I had considered so I'm ashamed to admit I was quite ignorant of the topic. I was always under the impression that more modern armour just took on a "generic MBT shape" and as a result was never terribly interested. For some reason I also had it in my head that tanks got smaller and lighter. Well I have to say, building this kit and reading up on the machine has blown all those misconceptions away. I think the Centurion as a tank looks fantastic (especially from the side) and as soon as I cobbled the hull together I quickly realised this thing is massive. I love it and I forsee a lot more post war armour in my future. I guess the centurion had it's beginning in WW2 so lets just call this my bridge into a new found territory.
Anyway, moving on to some of the details of the build:
Things like the tow cables and the searchlight have just been temporarily stuck on with a spot of blu tack since those will be painted separately with the tools, wheels and tracks. The mantlet cover has been scratch built with a bit of tissue paper and plasticard. It's all a bit rough at the moment so I will be sanding bits down and generally neatening it up. I am also yet to add bolts to the strips that secure the canvas in place. The wires that run the smoke dischargers were originally moulded on but I didn't like how they looked so I shaved them off and replaced them with copper wire. Once glued in place, I also intend to wire up the searchlight in a similar fashion. Speaking of the searchlight, that's another feature of this tank I think is ace but I'm still in two minds as to whether I should leave the lens clear or make it a dark red to be an IR lens.
AFV Club supplied a bit of black string to serve as the tow cables but because the Centurion cables are doubled up, they only supplied enough to make one complete tow cable or two incorrect cables with a single line. Maybe it was overlooked but I wonder if anybody else has had the same thing. Not that it matters though since I opted to twist up some copper wire of my own and I'm quite glad that I did so.
These are the last two pictures until I post with an update. I've been so pleased and excited with this kit that I wanted to give it a diorama base to really frame it. I have begun construction with a bit of black plasticard and some foam for the basic shape. I'll be modelling a narrow Vietnamese dirt road with plenty of surface variation to really take advantage of the workable suspension and give the model a real sense of weight. I'd really like to add a sense of scale for how big this vehicle is so no doubt I'll be adding a figure or two in there at some point.
Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments.
. The basecoat is down and the wheels are all painted. I assembled it all together to see how the tracks fitted and if I would need to remove/add any links before those get painted too. The mantlet cover has had a slightly lighter tone to the body brushed on.
