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A.41 Centurion prototype. Operation Sentry. May-July 1945. Development of the A.41 'Heavy Cruiser Tank' began in October 1943, (it would not be known as ‘Centurion’ until later). There was a need for a vehicle that would be at least equal to the German Panther tank with a weight of 45ton, a 650 horsepower engine, well sloped frontal armour, and it was to carry the new and powerful 17 pounder gun. Early trials proved very promising and an order was placed for 20 pre-production vehicles. The first of these was finished in April 1945. It was decided that six of these prototype tanks would be sent to the front in Europe for evaluation by combat units. The plan for this evaluation was called ‘Operation Sentry’. With the war ending in May the tanks arrived too late to see any actual combat but the trials continued until mid July. More information about Operation Sentry and the early development of the Centurion can be found on the Tanks Encyclopedia website Here. The AFV kit can be built as either one of the pre-production prototype tanks or as a Mk.1 Centurion however for an accurate representation of the prototype tank the wheels and tracks need replacing. The tracks on the early Centurions were narrower at 20 inches wide and AFV only supply the standard width tracks in this kit and those are the rubber band type. Fortunately Accurate Armour kindly sold me some resin 20'' tracks from their A41 conversion set. The early Centurions ran on what were basically Comet wheels which had one less reinforcing ring and a smaller outer ring. I used some resin Comet wheels from Brach model in Italy. I still needed to make some alterations to them though as the Comet hubs are wrong, so I had to cut the AFV ones from the wheels and fit them to the Brach ones. The kit doesn't provide a mantlet cover but it would make sense for an operational vehicle to have one so I fashioned one from Milliput. This is one of the parts of my model that I am least happy with. It just looks to thick and heavy compared to the one or two images I could find of the original. In hindsight I should have used some tissue over the putty. The model was painted with MRP SCC.15 Olive Drab and the and all of the markings were spray painted using stencils. The weathering was done with various pigments and oils. These tanks covered hundreds of miles during Operation Sentry and a lot of that was off road so I figured they would have gotten pretty grubby along the way. It was however early Summer so probably more dust than mud. Hopefully that is the look I have achieved. I did do a work in progress for this build and this can be read HERE This kit was a real joy to build and a pain to photograph, the colour balance was hard to get right probably due to the dusty tones on the green paint. It actually looks better in the display cabinet than it does in the photos.... Honest 🤞 Please feel free to point out anything I have missed or maybe could have done better. Anyway it's a nice feeling to get another one completed and now I can look forwards to the M3/M4 Medium Tank group build. Wayne

Hi guys. This is AFV Club's Centurion Mk.5/1 RAAC Vietnam Version. It was painted with Tamiya acrylics and weathered with oils and pigments. After market items included - vinyl mantlet cover (AFV Club), tracks (AFV Club), turret basket stowage (Firestorm), decals (Mouse House) and water jerries (Mouse House). Scratch-built items included - search light cover (tissue paper & white glue), aerials (styrene rod) and tool box tie down straps (lead foil). Thanks for looking. Cheers, Greg

I've had this in the stash for a while, and felt it was time to get it built. Not that hard to do really, despite the number of small pieces that are included. Painted in one of Mike Starmer's mixes for SCC15. The dirt on the tyres has come out much brighter in the photos than in reality. Must get round to doing a base for it. Tim

Started for several months, I have come to finish it.

I got this as a part started kit last month and along with my penchant for weird wheeled SPs, I reckon it would go nice with the DANA. Some bits were missing, but it made for an interesting diversion and it does look weird. W