Swede Swede Tank

Historical Background

In the mid-1950s, the Swedish Army was operating Centurion tanks as its standard MBT. In order to find a replacement, the Kungliga Armérförvaltningens Tygavdelning (Royal Swedish Army Materiel Administration) put out a contract tender for a next generation tank design. A consortium of Landsverk, Volvo and Bofors responded by suggesting that an earlier domestic tank design, the KRV be revived. The KRV was however deemed too expensive to its alternatives - Alternative A was a 50-ton design, with high protection but mediocre mobility from either the British or the Americans and Alternative T (Tysk-Fransk / German-French), a 30-ton design with good mobility but low protection. In 1956, Sven Berge of the Materiel Administration proposed Alternative S (Swedish) as a home-grown alternative.

Alternative S was inspired by post-World War 2 and Koran War battle reports revealing that the risk of a tank being hit by enemy fire was strongly related to height, with more than half of the losses due to the penetration on the turret. Therefore Berge decided that the new design should be as low as possible. Therefore Berge designed Alternative S without a turret, with the gun fully fixed to the hull. To solve the aiming problem arising because of the elimination of turret, a fully automated transmission and a hydropneumatic suspension were provided which allowed the tank to be precisely turned and tilted under the driver's (who is also the gunner) control. The system however can only be used when the tank is stationary but it was not seen as a disadvantage. The gun was a Bofors L74 105mm gun, derived from the Royal ordnance L7 and was equipped with an autoloader.

The S-Tank was powered by two engines: a 240-hp Rolls-Royce K60 diesel for cruising and maneuvering the tank for aiming. For additional power when travelling at higher speed or negotiating difficult terrain, a turbine engine (originally a Boeing GT502, but being underpowered, was replaced by a Caterpillar 553 turbine after the 70th vehicle). The design was fully amphibious  and could swim after a 25-minute preparation. The frontal armour was relatively thick (up to 100mm) but the acute angle meant that the thickness equivalent was much greater. The crew was originally envisaged to be just two persons (commander and gunner/driver) but after considering the tasks issued to tank crews such as maintenance, bivouacking, track-changing and reloading in the field, the number was increased to three. The third person was assigned as the radioman and also as the rear driver as the tank is designed to be driven backwards at the same speed as in forward movement.

The tank proposals (Alternative A, Alternative T and Alternative S) was presented to the Swedish Riksdag during the tabling of the 1958 Defence Plan. Although Alternative S was the most expensive, the defence committee recommended it after considering its symbolic value (a domestic tank for a neutral country) and the spin-off effects on the Swedish defence industry. The formal decision was made on 4 February 1958 and a follow-on contract for two production prototypes were granted and was completed in 1961. Alternative S was accepted into production, with minor changes as the Stridsvagn ('battle wagon') 103 (The '103' meant that this was the third design utilising gun of more than 100mm in calibre). Despite its design, the Strv 103 (or more popularly known as 'S-Tank'), were expected to launch offensive counter-attacks on expected enemy beachheads and landing zones. The S-Tank have never been used in combat.

As the weight of the production tanks increased compared to pre-production vehicles, upgrades were in order. The original 300-hp rated Boeing turbine was replaced with a 490-hp Caterpillar turbine. The first 80 vehicles were retroactively designated 103A while the up-engined vehicles were designated 103B. Adjustments to the hydropneumatic suspension system increased the elevation range from -10 through +12 degrees, to -11 through +16 degrees. A 1986 upgrade programme to all vehicles created the 103C. The C variant featured improved fire-control system, provision for dozer blades on all vehicles (previously, only one dozer tank per platoon), anewer Detroit Diesel engine and additional fuel packs along the side to function as applique armour. Full production of the S-Tank started in 1967 and ended in 1971 with 290 delivered The Strv 103 ended service in 1997 in favour of Strv 122 (Leopard 2).

The Kit

Despite entering service in the late 1960s, the S-Tank has not been kitted by anyone in 1/35 scale (although several kit manufacturers have them in 1/48 including Tamiya). In 2002, Trumpeter released two kits of the S-Tank, the first is this kit and the other is the 'C' version. The S-Tank kits were among the first of the then-'new Trumpeter' kits from the company. The 230 parts were spread among three sprues and a lower and upper hull - all moulded in olive green plastic (there were no clear parts for the relevant components). Also included are a pair of vinyl tracks, a set of poly caps and the usual decal and instruction sheets. The level of detail is reasonable enough even without PE parts. The real downside is that a number of parts suffer from sink marks and ejection pin marks. The dozer blade can be posed in the open position. The small decal sheet provide markings for one vehicle.

Construction

Before I forgot, a number parts have prominent mold parting lines which need to be cleaned up and the task was done to the best of my abilities. Although the instructions have you assemble the wheels first, I started by attaching the various small details onto the lower hull. The adjustable suspension on the real tank can be represented in scale by removing the placement tabs on the suspension arms but that was something I won't do anyway and they were left as they were. The rear hull plate was then put in place but the wheels were set aside at the moment. The return roller mounts were however cemented to the lower hull sans its wheels at this time. A number of placement tabs (for the external fuel tanks of the 'C' variant' were removed and the lower hull was then set aside to make way for the upper hull. As per my usual practice, the lower hull was painted first, the wheels (which also has been painted) and the (also painted) tracks were placed on the model before tackling the upper hull.

Work on the upper hull started by drilling holes at the prescribed places and here Trumpeter clearly marked which ones are for the B (and also the 'C') variant. The lights needed filling as nearly all of them suffered from sink marks. Place the two B33 parts (dozer blade struts) on the hull if you want to have the dozer blade in the stowed position (the real S-Tank has manually-deployed blade). To ease painting, the extra track-links and the pioneer tools were left off at this time. The gun service hatch, while OK has a bit more gap than usual but something I can live with. To ensure that the latches for the driver's hatch is aligned with the hull, the former was cemented only after the hatch has been cemented to the hull. The commander's cupola was treated as a mini-assembly before being cemented to the hull but I decided to leave the machine gun assembly at this time. The headlights need to be fitted properly into its slots or the guards would be a very tight fit later on (guess how I found that out)

The upper and lower hull assembly, sans a number of detail parts were then cemented together prior to painting.

Painting and Decalling

Trumpeter suggested RLM 02 Grau as the colour for the S-Tank. While it sounded weird as the colour is named 'grey', the various photos seem to show that RLM 02 is almost spot-on due to its green tint. I have two RLM 02 in my stash; one XF-22 RLM Grey from Tamiya and 60 from Mr Color. The latter was rejected out of hand as it was too light while the former almost matches the colours seen in the photographs. The tracks were painted a base of XF-69 NATO Black and given a few layers of AK Interactive Track Wash. The tracks however proved rather resilient to paint despite being washed with mild soap solution. The spare tracks were also painted in the same manner while all the vision blocks and optics were painted with several layers of Clear Blue. The pioneer tools' handles were painted Olive Drab and Steel. The commander's MG was painted Flat Black, wafter which graphite powder from a pencil was used to 'metalise' the piece.

Finishing

I kicked off by putting the tracks into place, with the ends being hidden behind the front mud guard. The MG was then added to the commander's cupola. The various on-vehicle equipment were then placed at their respective places. Although the instructions show three shovels are put into place, there is actually space for just two. There was still time to make adjustments but in the end I decided not to use the exhaust extensions although many photos show many S-Tanks with them. The model then received the usual wash. This was followed by the application of Tamiya Weathering Master around the lower parts of the model to represent dust. WWP 'Brown Mud' was then applied to represent dried mud while a combination of MiG Productions 'Russian Earth' pigment and AK Interactive Fresh Mud wash was used to create, well, new mud. Since I'm bad at stretching sprues and that I have run out of guitar strings, no antennas were placed on the model. 

Conclusion

Trumpeter's S-Tank is the only model of this peculiar MBT, especially in 1/35 (or perhaps, in any scale). Just for that reason, Trumpeter should be congratulated. Detail-wise, it is not up to Trumpeter's own current standards but it was good enough for your average modeller. The build is also basically problem-free with only the front (and rear) of the hull needing some puttying. The hydropneumatic suspension of the real tank also allows interesting display possibilty of the model, should one is adventurous!