Historical Background
In 1943, the Directorate of Tank Design was ordered by the British War Office to design a new 'heavy cruiser' tank design, designated A41. After a history of fairly mediocre tank designs, coupled with the threat posed by the German 88 mm gun, the A41 was required to have increased durability and reliability, the ability to withstand a direct hit from an 88 mm gun and an increased protection against mines while remaining within a maximum weight of 40 tons. A high top speed was not required although an agility on par with the Comet tank was needed. The Directorate responded by creating a longer hull (lengthened by adding a sixth wheel) but using the same set of long-travel five-wheel suspension of the Comet. The entire drive train consists of three bogies with two wheels each. The original Christie suspension was replaced by the externally-mounted Horstmann suspension. While having a lesser ride quality, the Horstmann suspension took up less room and was easier to maintain. The hull was redesigned, incorporating welded, sloped armour while the turret was partially cast. Armament was the well-regarded Ordnance QF 17-pounder gun. A 20 mm Polsten cannon was mounted to the left of the main gun on a separate mounting. Powerplant was the tried and trusted Rolls-Royce Meteor engine. The A41 was named 'Centurion'.
However, it was soon realised that the requirement to withstand 88 mm projectiles cannot be met within the 40-ton weight limit (the limitation was set so that the A41 can be carried on the existing Mark I and II transport trailers, which have a 40-ton weight limit). The War Ministry dediced that it would be better to build new trailers rather than altering an already excellent design. In addition, heavier designs were being contemplated, carrying armour comparable to the best-protected infantry tanks while having the performance superior to the early cruiser tanks. In short, the A41 was the first British tank to incorporate the best features of the infantry and cavalry tanks in one package, known as the 'universal tank'. The design mockup was built by AEC Ltd and was viewed in May 1944. Subsequently 20 pre-production vehicles, designated Centurion Mark 1 were built. Divided into four groups they were armed with a 17-pounder gun, a 20 mm Polsten plus a 7.92mm Besa in the turret rear; another batch has the same armament but having an escape hatch instead of the Besa; 17-pounder and a co-axial Besa and finally a 77 mm gun and a remotely-operated hull machine gun. The Mark 1 has a glacis plate 76 mm thick (actually thinner than the Churchill and Matilda) but the sloping armour actually gave it a higher effective thickness. Three vehicles were sent to Belgium for trials in March-April 1945 but they arrived too late to see any action.
Concerned with the Soviet armoured threat, the Mark 2 was introduced in 1946. It had a new cast turret and a thicker (110 mm) frontal armour. It entered service in December 1946 with the 5th Royal Tank Regiment. Marks 1 and 2 were later upgraded into Mark 3 standard when the latter entered service, or converted into recovery vehicles. In 1948, the Mark 3 was introduced. The Mark 3 introduced the new Ordnance QF 20-pounder (84 mm) gun which incorporated a fully-stabilised gun control system, enabling it to fire even more accurately than previous tanks. The introduction of a more powerful gun plus the fact that 20 mm rounds were unnecessarily large against infantry, caused the Polsten gun to be removed from this mark, and was replaced with a 7.62 mm machine gun. The Mark 4 was an abandoned 95 mm gun-armed close support version. The Mark 5 was the most advanced of the A41 variants. It featured a thicker armour, a more powerful version of the Meteor engine, a Browning 7.62 mm machine gun for the commander's cupola and a ranging 12.7 mm machine gun. The sub-variant 5/2 introduced the famous Royal Ordnance L7 105 mm gun, developed after the 'capture' of a T-54A tank during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The rest of the Marks (up to Mark 13) are basically upgrades to the Mark 5 with improved armour, redesigned features or with additional equipment. A total of 4,423 Centurions, including specialised versions were delivered by the time production ended in 1962.
The Centurion first saw combat during the Korean War. Three squadrons of Centurion Mark 3 belonging to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars landed at Pusan (now Busan) on 14 November 1950, and were subsequently followed by other units. The British Centurions faced combat in sub-zero conditions, akin to what greeted the German Wehrmacht in Russia during World War 2. The Centurions covered the withdrawal of the British 29th Brigade during the Battle of Imjin River from 22-25 April 1941, losing five of their numbers. The Centurions of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment were also instrumental in defeating the Chinese forces during the Second Battle Of The Hook (28-19 May 1953). In general the Centurions showed better performance than the American M26 Pershing. In tribute of the Centurions, General John O'Daniel of the US 1st Corps remarked that
"...In their Centurions, the 8th Hussars have evolved a new type of tank warfare. They taught us that anywhere a tank can go, is a tank country: even the tops of mountains". The Centurions were also deployed during the 1956 Suez Crisis. When the 6th Royal Tank Regiment landed at Port Said on 5-6th November 1956, they fought against Egyptian T-34 and SU-100, suffering no losses. In the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the Indian Centurions proved superior against the Pakistani Pattons at the battles of Assal Uttar, Khem Karan, Phillora and Chandiwa. Israeli Centurions (called Sho't by the IDF) was used from the 1967 war onwards; their 'finest hour' came during the engagement at the 'Valley Of Tears' at the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War where roughly 100 Sho'ts of the 7th Armoured Brigade defeated around 500 T-54/55 and T-62s of the Syrian Army. Modernised Sho'ts also took part part during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The Centurion was also used during the Vietnam war by the Australians. Following field reports stating that the Royal Australian Armoured Corps' (RAAC) M113 ACAVs were too light and too vulnerable to support an infantry attack against a well-equipped and determined enemy, the Australian government eventually decided to deploy a reinforced squadron of 20-pounder armed Centurion tanks (The Australians retained the 20-pounder gun as they deemed it to be adequate for operations in South-East Asia). On 24 February 1968, 'C' Squadron of the 1st Armoured Regiment landed at South Vietnam and was headquartered at Nui Dat in the III Corps Tactical Zone. After several weeks in-country, the Centurion crews removed the side-skirts in order to prevent mud and vegetation build-up between the side skirts and the tracks. Additional armour was welded onto the glacis plate to improve protection against RPGs. The normal basic load was 62 rounds of 20-pounder shells, 4,000 rounds of 12.7 mm and 9,000 rounds of .30-cal.
The Centurions took their first active participation in Operation Pinnaroo in March 1968 to clear the VC from their strongholds in the Long Hai hills. The tank crews developed a standard method for bunker clearing by firing three to four canister rounds to clear the thick jungle foliage and then firing one or two APCBC rounds to destroy the bunkers. Fire from the two .30-cals and the single 12.7mm were also effective. Centurions also took part in the largest battle the Australians fought in Vietnam, at the Battle of Fire Support Bases Coral and Balmoral from 12 May to 6 June 1968. The Centurions again supported the infantry by attacking enemy troops and bunker complex and also became a mobile bunker for defence. In May 1968, a third troop, which included tankdozers, was formed and by September of the same year, 'C' Squadron was up to its full strength of four troops, each with four Centurions. By the end of the Australian involvement in Vietnam, 'B' Squadron of the 3rd Cavalry regiment and the 'B' and 'C' Squadrons of the 1st Armoured Regiment has made their tour of duty. A total of 58 Centurions were deployed, 42 of them suffered battle damage (6 beyond repair) and two crewmen killed.
The Kit
For years 1/35 scale modellers have to do with the long-in-the-tooth Tamiya kit of the Centurion. In 2006, AFV Club of Taiwan responded to the call for a new-mould Centurion by first releasing the Asutralian version of the tank, which was used in Vietnam. The kit consists of 410 parts in olive drab plastic, 18 in clear plastic, metal main gun and co-axial MG barrels, vinyl tyres and tracks, metal springs, vinyl polycaps, a length of steel cable, a small mesh and a small PE fret. Also included (in the initial batch of the kit) is a resin commander's figure (hence the 'Special Parts' claim on the box top). The standard of moulding is excellent with crisp details. I haven't dry-fit the parts but based on previous AFV Club kits I have built, it should be a positive experience. The only major problem I read about this kit is the fit of the fume extractor, as it cannot slip through the muzzle. AFV Club did add a small errata sheet (suggesting the modeller to enlarge the opening) but I believe this in turn would make the extractor hanging loose around the barrel. Also, there is no accessory whatsoever included. Decals provide markings for five Centurions:
1. 31B, 'C' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regt, Vietnam 1968
2. 4C, 'Uc-Dai-Loi Or Bust', 'C' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regt, Vietnam 1971
4. 1C, 'A' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regt, Vietnam 1970
5. 3C, 'Pussy Eater', 'C' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regt, Vietnam 1971
There is a decal with another vulgar nickname ('Clitoris Pubis') but was nowhere noted in the instruction sheet.
My Centurion is a second-hand kit and included in the price are Eduard's PE set and AFV Club's mantlet cover.
Construction
The kit's construction started with the suspension units. All six were made workable by the use of springs while four of them (front and rear pairs) can also have their suspension arms made workable by using a heated head of a nail to flatten the excess plastic on the joints. I left off the wheels first although the instructions have you assemble and place them on the suspension at this time and jumped straight to the lower hull assembly. After shaving off unwanted details (as instructed), the final drive cover were cemented to the hull. Extra details from the Eduard PE set were added to the bottom of the hull even though they were not visible to the casual observer. The idler mounts were cemented to the hull and thanks to the Perth Military Modelling Website, bolt details for the idler mounts (which were on the sprue but not mentioned in the instructions) were added. While Eduard provided PE exhaust deflector, I decided to use the kit one instead. The mountings for the return rollers were cemented to the hull but like the road wheels, the rollers were left off at this time.
Moving on to the upper hull, AFV Club have the usually single-mould part broken down into seven. I started at the rear (as recommended) by cementing the engine panel and intake grill first and worked forward. I also skipped some interior parts as they won't be really visible to the casual observer. The inside face of the upper hull panels were however littered with ejector towers. While I usually left them alone, they interfered with assembly and need to be trimmed away. The engine grill panel was made of two parts, allowing greater amount of detail. The instructions have you drill two holes on the driver's panel but as no indentations were made on that part as guide, I skipped the procedure. Going back to the rear of the hull, I added all the grab handles and due to easier handling, I opted for the kit ones. The auxiliary fuel tank was assembled but I found the fit wasn't very good (or perhaps it was just me). Certain parts were substituted with PE although again the grab handle remain kit part B29. Returning to the front hull again, the driver's hatch was cemented to its place. Certain clunky features were shaved off and replaced with Eduard PE. AFV Club provided a couple of PE pieces for the hatches but I substituted them with the more refined Eduard pieces.
Square-shaped blobs on the fenders ( I guess they are the mountings for the side skirts) were removed and replaced with PE. The storage bins were assembled and before attaching them to the fenders, I pondered whether to replace the plastic latches and grab handles with PE substitutes. Not wanting to prolong the build (I'm actually a slow builder nowadays), I left them as they were as and only using some small PE parts and replacing the rear mudguards. Before attaching the fenders to the hull, I added Eduard PE boot scrapers. I found it a bit clumsy to assemble, mainly because of the close proximity of the scraping surfaces. As the fender placement grooves on the hull sides looked rather shallow, I inserted blobs of plasticine underneath the fenders, removing them once the glue has cured. Having said that, the right-hand side fender was warped, causing gaps which could not be completely covered. The exhausts were then assembled. As I was going to use the PE parts, the moulded-on heat shield on the muffler was cut and and sanded off while the heat shield for the exhaust pipe was completely replaced with the PE substitute. I should have taped the PE parts on the originals before bending them as they ended up being crooked a bit.
Next, I turned my attention to the turret. The basic turret consists of five parts: bottom, roof, two sides and the mantlet. Fit wasn't that good with seam lines between the roof and the turret walls with the worst-fitting areas on the back of the turret. The instructions also erroneously marked mantlet I14 to be used; but the illustration showed mantlet I9. Quickly checking the box art and photos on the internet, the actual mantlet to be used is I9 and I acted accordingly. The mantlet was secured to the turret using vinyl keepers. However the sockets on the turret sides were too small. I therefore removed the vinyl keepers and simply installed the mantlet without them. Of course they are loose inside the socket but I believe the fitment of the mantlet cover would eliminate this problem. The storage boxes were assembled but owing to the same reason as the hull storage bins, they remain as they were. The smoke grenade launchers were assembled but I only use the PE tube cover detail and a grab handle on the side (the rest of the PE parts were discarded). Most of the fittings on the turret were then cemented into place or replaced with PE substitutes.
Before dealing with the barrel, I put the separately available gun mantlet cover into place. It did not fit properly but being vinyl, a bit of a stretch allowed it to have a better fit. The cover however does not include an opening for the IR spotlight mount. I tried cutting a hole on the left hand side of the cover but it was still hard to maneuver the mount into place. In the end, I cut along the joint between the top and the front face of the cover, insert the spotlight mount and superglue the cut. And as expected, the cover effectively 'freezes' the mantlet in place. To fit the fume extractor on the barrel, I sawed the barrel at the location of the fume extractor, inserted the latter and re-attach the barrel together. The barrel was then superglued to the turret. Returning to the back of the turret, the stowage rack was assembled. It was quite fiddly and the less than perfect fit between the segments complicate the assembly a bit. Once the cement has dried fully, the metal mesh from the Eduard PE set was used instead of the nylon one from the kit.
The IR searchlight was the last component added to the model before painting. While many photos show RAAC Centurions without them in place (usually stowed on the turret rack), I decided to mount it on the mantlet (apparently the Aussie tankers re-mount the light with the approach of the night). I can fashion a cover a la the IR searchlight cover on my
M48 Patton, but I decided to test my skill in making the reflecting surface of the light. To simulate the reflecting surfaces, I used aluminium kitchen foil. Unfortunately the one used by my wife has patterns on it so I had to burnish them first. They were attached to the relevant parts using white glue and the excess foil was then removed using a sharp blade. The glass face was cleaned up of the moulded-on protrusions and were replaced with Eduard PE parts.
Painting and Decaling
The AFV Club instructions have Olive Drab as the colour although I doubt it was the 'straight' OD for Australian vehicles. An article (for a 1/72 Australian Centurion) in an issue of Model Military International suggests Humbrol French Artillery Green but I don't have this colour. I eventually settled on Chris Wauchop's interpretation of the colour: an equal mix of XF-62 Olive Drab, XF-58 Olive Green and XF-49 Khaki plus a bit of Gunze H312 Green FS34227. The mantlet cover was painted XF-49 Khaki. The base paint was then given a filter wash of brown. The exhausts were given a base of burnt iron and were then were given the hairspray technique treatment. Various browns were painted and before the paint cured fully, a stiff brush was used to scrape off the brown paints in an irregular manner. Afterwards I applied Tamiya Weathering Rust to tie the colours together (for the exhausts that is).
The brown filter somehow gave the model a satin finish so I don't have to coat the model with gloss clear for decalling. As for the marking themselves, I first have to filter out the vulgar ones (hey, there are kids in the house, alright?) and settled for the second option, 'Uc-Dai-Loi Or Bust' as it is more vibrant than the rest. And just like as mentioned in reviews elsewhere, the decals cracked. In this case, thankfully, just one, that is the artwork which broke into four pieces. Recognising the cause, which is not enough soaking time, the rest of the decals were soaked a bit longer than usual and I managed to put them on the model without any problems. And usual, they receive the Mr. Mark Softer treatment. The tank callsign was placed on a piece of styrene sheet which was painted flat black beforehand. Two small holes were punched into the two upper corners. Copper wire was run through them and the plasticard was then hung on the stowage rack.
Finishing
I started off by covering the entire hull and the lower part of the turret with XF-57 Buff. Afterwards, a mixture of African Earth and Iraqi Sand pigments from Mig Productions were mixed together with water and slathered all over the lower hull. The excess was then removed using a stiff brush. The same mixture was then spread over the lower hull 'dry' and I then applied some Mig Productions Pigment Fixer. I should have made a thicker mix for the original wet application as the fixer washed most of them away! Instead of fully assembling them, I just put the inner portion of the road wheels and return rollers onto the suspension Problems here were the tight fit of the poly caps and bad fit of the return roller halves. The idler and sprocket wheels were however fully assembled.The tracks were painted XF-64 Red Brown but I forego the track wash - I just dry-brush silver on the track cleats, apply pigment on the tracks and remove the excess, the tracks were then looped and glued and placed on the model. The idler mount was left unglued during assembly in order to adjust the tension of the tracks so that it will have a proper sit. Once done, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement was run on the joint to 'freeze' the position of the idler.
The rest of the still loose items can now be placed onto the model. The pioneer tools have all the moulded-on clamps removed and replaced with PE. They were painted XF-59 Desert Yellow for the wood portions and XF-63 German Grey, enhanced with pencil graphite, for the metal parts. The rack of ammo boxes were assembled and painted the hull colour while the boxes were painted straight XF-62 Olive Drab. The machine gun on the commander's hatch was assembled according to instructions. However I swapped the ammo box with one from the Academy US Machine Gun Set. I also used the ammo box holding bracket from the Eduard PE set. The fire extinguishers were given a base coat of white and were then painted X-7 Red and Flat Black. The metal braided wire used for the tow cable was positively stiff and needed annealing before it can be handled. Even so, the wire somewhat recovered some stiffness, making it a struggle to attach it to the model (perhaps because I left it for several days?)
A length of vinyl tubing was cut to simulate the electrical cable for the IR searchlight. A selection of items from Academy and Tamiya vehicle accessory sets were placed in the turret stowage basket. They were two jerricans, a food container, two MCI ration boxes and four water cans. Resources from the internet mention that upwards to 10 water cans (for the engine radiator) were usually carried by Centurions in the 'Nam but I could only find two British-style (same pattern as used by the Aussies) and two American ones (also used, according to what I read). While the ration boxes are American, I also read that they were also issued to Australian troops in Vietnam. Guitar strings were used to create the radio aerials (although I couldn't make them straight!). As for the figure, I wasn't sure what colour can be used to replicate the jungle green shirt worn but in the end I decided that lightened XF-81 RAF Dark Green can do the trick (or maybe not).
A great kit with highly detailed parts and (mostly) good fit. But I think the best part of this kit is the subject matter itself. The earlier Tamiya Centurion was focused on the Korean War-era Mark 3 while I guess many modellers would bet that AFV Club would came up with the famous Israeli Sho't version (or basic Israeli Centurion) first. The RAAC release also may help in reminding people that the Vietnam War was not entirely fought by US forces. The kit itself wasn't a Tamiya regarding to ease of construction; there is a bit of over-engineering as certain parts can be moulded together. Lack of an in-box mantlet cover is also disappointing as the item is seen on every photo of RAAC Centurions in Vietnam. Nevertheless it and the rest of AFV Club's Centurion family are very much welcomed!
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