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Chieftain Mk.10 Berlin Brigade


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Happy Birthday Britmodeller! I intend to join the party with the Takom 1/35 Chieftain Mk.10.

 

The Chieftain was the United Kingdom's first Main Battle Tank, which entered service in 1966. It sported a 120mm rifled L11A5 gun and impressive armour. During initial design of the Chieftain NATO specified that all new tanks should have multi fuel engines which could run off of pretty much any combustible liquids. Britain was the only country which followed this guideline, and the Chieftain was equiped with the Leyland L60 multi fuel engine. The concept of the engine was good but it turned out to be extremely unreliable. Despite reliability issues the Cheiftain was arguably the best tank of the Cold War era. 

 

In 1985 the Mk.10 entered service. The main modification of this mark was the introduction of StillBrew armour. This armour package saw the thickness of the armour increase significantly to counter more modern soviet weaponry. The profile of the tank changed due to this making it look a lot more aggressive. In my opinion this was the greatest Mark of the Chieftain and would extend its lifespan into the 1990s.

 

I will be modelling this kit in the Berlin Brigade scheme as per the box art. It consisted of large blocks of white, grey and brown which proved to be very effective in an urban environment. I will be building straight out of the box. As you will see in the photos you get an awful lot of plastic and PE for your money. It seems to be very well moulded and on high quality plastic. First impressions are very good. 

 

Feel free to comment or question along the way, hopefully you will enjoy the build and will joy me for it. It has taken me some time to pluck the courage to start this one so wish me luck!

 

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Edited by DAG058
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The Berlin Scheme is interesting; like the Western Desert dazzle scheme of WWII (Caunter, was it?) each type of vehicle had a specific scheme, in this case so that the Soviets couldn't differentiate between individual vehicles - thus making it almost impossible to count their total.

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Nice!

I've once had the chance to drive one, back in Berlin during winter89/90.

I've got plans to build one too, someday, based on Tamiya's, coupled with Accurates Armour stuff.

 

13 hours ago, DAG058 said:

During initial design of the Chieftain NATO specified that all new tanks should have multi fuel engines which could run off of pretty much any combustible liquids. Britain was the only country which followed this guideline, and the Chieftain was equiped with the Leyland L60 multi fuel engine. The concept of the engine was good but it turned out to be extremely unreliable. Despite reliability issues the Cheiftain was arguably the best tank of the Cold War era. 

Not exactly true, AMX-30 were capable to use diesel as well as gasoline. This capacity was used during cold Germanic winters, where the front tank was filled with gasoline for start and warm-up, and both rear tanks with diesel to continue. All the driver had to do was to select the tank, and then move an handle in either gasoline or diesel position.

 

As for "the best tank of the Cold War", well...

Wonder how it could be the case when the loader has to deal with two-parts shell, like those used by arty....

Nearly double the time needed to load the gun.

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Thank you all for taking the time to view and comment! I have made a start on the kit, photos and first impressions to follow.

 

17 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Im in ... I want a Berlin Mk.10 someday. Looking forward to this especially the painting.

Glad to have you along! The painting is the part I fear the most :lol:.

 

 

12 hours ago, Chillidragon said:

The Berlin Scheme is interesting; like the Western Desert dazzle scheme of WWII (Caunter, was it?) each type of vehicle had a specific scheme, in this case so that the Soviets couldn't differentiate between individual vehicles - thus making it almost impossible to count their total.

Yes Caunter scheme. I reckon it must have inspired the Berlin scheme. I suppose it's a bit like the stripes on a zebra! 

 

 

12 hours ago, CliffB said:

Looks like one to watch :popcorn:

I'm still trying to get my head round the concept of a Chieftan operating in an urban environment though....

Nice to have you join us Cliff, thanks for the support. Berlin is a pretty vast city with huge open areas so it may have work well. More than likely it was purely just for show though, I suspect the Berlin Brigade would have been decimated in short order if a war ever began.

 

 

10 hours ago, Hewy said:

I've got th mk5 boxing of this that i intend to paint in the berlin urban camo, I'm looking forward to this good choice 

The Mk.5 looks like a nice kit also. Eventually I'd like to get one and do it in standard BAOR colours.

 

 

6 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

I’ll freely admit that I know nothing about tanks but was vaguely aware of this rather unique camouflage. It’ll be interesting to see how you paint it!

 

Trevor

Welcome along! I've got a rough idea in my mind for it, hopefully I can pull it off.

 

 

5 hours ago, Colin W said:

All those track bits and the Berlin Camo!

Wow this will some achievement,

 

Colin

I think the tracks could take a while. Especially with each individual track pad needing to be fixed into place. Wish me luck! 

 

 

5 hours ago, Antoine said:

Nice!

I've once had the chance to drive one, back in Berlin during winter89/90.

I've got plans to build one too, someday, based on Tamiya's, coupled with Accurates Armour stuff.

 

Not exactly true, AMX-30 were capable to use diesel as well as gasoline. This capacity was used during cold Germanic winters, where the front tank was filled with gasoline for start and warm-up, and both rear tanks with diesel to continue. All the driver had to do was to select the tank, and then move an handle in either gasoline or diesel position.

 

As for "the best tank of the Cold War", well...

Wonder how it could be the case when the loader has to deal with two-parts shell, like those used by arty....

Nearly double the time needed to load the gun.

The Tamiya kit is a nice template but it will need a bit of work to get it up to a Mk.10. I didn't know that about the AMX-30,thanks for sharing. As for loading, technically the Chieftain was 3-piece! Projectile, Propellant and Primer. The projectile being the round, the propellant being the main charge in a bag and the primer being a vent tube for igniting the bag. The difference in time taken to load 1 and 2(3) piece ammunition is marginal. As to what's better, well that's another argument! 

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I have started! As with most armour kits this one begins with the running gear. There are 12 road wheels to make, each coming in 5 parts so this took a bit of time.

 

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Here are all 12 alongside the final drives and return rollers.

 

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I am impressed with Takoms efforts so far, the detail is very crisp. The plastic is high quality and pretty hard. The only slight negative I have found is that the sprue gates are quite big, that combined with the tough plastic makes for quite hard removal of parts. Maybe invest in a decent set of cutters if your planning on building one of these.

 

Up next will be the suspension bogies.

Edited by DAG058
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39 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Looking forward to seeing this one in progress. I have often looked at this kit online and been impressed by the scheme. :popcorn:

Kind regards,

Stix

 

I am very glad to have you along fir this one Stix. 

 

There hasn't been any progress at the bench this week. Hopefully I will get a bit of time tomorrow evening and Sunday to get stuck in.

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56 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

It's always good once the running gear is out of the way on these AFV builds. :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix 

 

Yes it's been quite time consuming! I have never tried individual track links before either so that will be a test of patience and skill.

 

I managed to grab a quick 10mins at the bench this morning. There was a slight injected mark at the centre of the lower hull which needed sanding. The V-shape is often mistaken as a defence against mines. However it was actually to act like a boats hull and glide through mud.

 

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Bogies and drives on.

 

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Edited by DAG058
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On 21/01/2018 at 12:57, Bullbasket said:

I'll be interested to know of any glitches that you might find with this one, as I've got it in the stash cupboard, along with the urban paint set.

 

John.

What paint set is it you've got for yours John?, 

 

 Dag It looks to be going together well, any fit issues so far to report? 

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35 minutes ago, Hewy said:

What paint set is it you've got for yours John?, 

It's the MIG set no.16. British Berlin. It contains four colours;

A.Mig-050 Matt white.

A.Mig-070 Medium brown.

A.Mig-084 NATO green.

A.Mig-210. Grey blue.

 

John.

 

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8 hours ago, Hewy said:

Dag It looks to be going together well, any fit issues so far to report? 

 

Thanks. No issues at all so far, it seems to be very well engineered. The sprue gates are quite tough so just make sure you have a decent pair of snips. 

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I have dry fitted the road wheels. They are a tight fit so I won't be glueing them for now, this might make painting a bit easier. The return roller and final drives were a different story, they we very loose so I glued them into position. I will need all the wheels on for a guide when I come to building the tracks.

 

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The parts on the upper hull which are highlight red need to be removed. These, in due course, will make way for some big blocks of Stillbrew armour. There are also 4 1.0mm holes to drill which I have also highlighted.

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To remove the bulk of the plastic I used a chisel type blade and careful made a few passes, shaving off a layer at a time. Take great care as a slip can easily damage the model or you. After that I used sanding sticks to clean up the left over. I used a 1.0mm drill-bit to bore out the holes.

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I am pretty satisfied so far, it's been really enjoyable. Up next is the tracks, which paired with the painting is the part which I am most apprehensive about. As mentioned previously I have never built individual tracklink tracks. These ones are not click together ones, they will require gluing. The plan is to make a few sections, using Tamiya extra thin and mold them around the wheels. I won't join all the sections together now though so I can paint them.

 

If anyone has any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated! 

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Well done  on the alterations dag, looking forward to the tracks, I've just built  the bronco set of over 1100 parts for my sherman, (that wasn't fun) these ones look to be easier though, best of luck

Glynn 

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12 hours ago, Hewy said:

Well done  on the alterations dag, looking forward to the tracks, I've just built  the bronco set of over 1100 parts for my sherman, (that wasn't fun) these ones look to be easier though, best of luck

Glynn 

I bet that took some time!

 

I think each set of tracks is made up of 97 links. Each with individual track pads to add. The gluing together should be fine, it’s more the technique of how to get the right shape, and to be able to remove them for painting, that has got me thinking. I hope to make a start tonight.

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2 hours ago, DAG058 said:

I bet that took some time!

 

I think each set of tracks is made up of 97 links. Each with individual track pads to add. The gluing together should be fine, it’s more the technique of how to get the right shape, and to be able to remove them for painting, that has got me thinking. I hope to make a start tonight.

Just over a week, and thats a week of my life I'll never get back, i took the tracks out of my mk5 last night to see if they were as fiddly as the bronco tracks and thy look a lot less work, it may well just creep up th build queue  now, best of luck on the tracks

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