AFV Club 1/35 Centurion Mk6

[BadCop]

Hi there everyone, I've decided to do a full build, as step by step as I can do, article about building AFV Club's great kit of what I think to be the greatest Tank of the post War period, the Venerable Centurion. I'm going to be building it as a British Army Mk6, armed with the 105mm L7 Cannon.

Anyway, first up, I'll show you all what I've got to work with before I stuff it up with various cutting, hacking, gluing and painting.

The obligatory box shot

and here are some quick pictures of what you get in the box

And I will, masochistically and very probably over ambitiously, try to use the Voyager PE set for this build.

It contains this massive amount of PE that I look forward to scrabbling around on my hands and knees trying to find the smaller parts that will inevitably and silently fall to the floor or glue to the bottom of my hand.

In addition to this I will also be using the individual track link set that AFV club make for the Cent, as well as the vinyl mantlet cover to replicate the canvas cover that is seen in just about every picture of the tank.

Wish me luck everyone, and feel free to comment and make suggestions as the build progresses.

[daz greenwood]

Ooooooooooooooooooooo a Cent.

Very nice.

And I agree on the greatest Tank of the Post-War period.

Cheers Daz

[PHREAK]

Ooooooooooooooooooooo a Cent.

Very nice.

And I agree on the greatest Tank of the Post-War period.

Cheers Daz

I wholeheartedly agree with my learned friend.

I'll be watching with interest here

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Hi there Trent,

Did not know you hung out here as well? Will be keeping an eye on this one I have the Aus version and will be interested to see how it goes.

[AnonymousDFB1]

My other favourite tank.

Watching this one with great interest

[Stormbringer]

I have here the AFV Club Aussie Centurion. While it's a nice kit there are a couple of things (IMHO) to watch out for.

(1) The rubber tyres didn't like enamel paint, for some reason it wouldn't dry properly and was still sticky weeks later

(2) the metal tow cable supplied (Don't know if it's in this kit) was so stiff as to be unuseable

(3) I wasn't happy with the rubber band tracks and went with the AFV Club indy links

I don't know how much of the above will apply to this kit but it may be of help to you.

Pete

[T-Tango]

I will be watching this with very great interest mate, good luck.

[Dave]

Looking forward to this build BC!

With regards to the tracks if you don't get on with the AFV Club offerings, give WWII Productions resin tracks a thought:

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/revi...2prod35036.html

I tried the AFV Club tracks but wasn't too happy with the end result. Maybe it was me, the tracks were pretty stiff and wonky.

I then bought a set of WWII Productions tracks directly from Bill and found them much easier to work with. I've taken a picture to give a comparison between the two sets (AFV Club's are the brown ones):

I've heard about the tyre problems, I've been thinking about giving these resin replacements a try:

http://www.firestormmodels.com/store/images/pi_13266.jpeg

HTH.

[BadCop]

Thanks for the interest everyone. I'll try to post a little bit every day and make a full step by step build article as I go.

Ray,

I have been known to lurk around here from time.

Pete,

I have read about problems with the rubber rims of the road tyres. It's strange the way that they have included part of the rims with the rubber tyre - It would have seemed logical to have moulded that with the rim, and that would have solved a painting problem as well. I have also read a build article where they have fitted rather loosely as well. I have seen Firestorms resin replacement set as Dave has pointed out, but I will only consider them if they end up as problematic as some have said.

The kit seems to have included a piece of string for the tow cable rather than the stiff wire you seem to have gotten. It's a moot point in any case as I will (hopefully) be using the copper wire in the Voyager set anyway. One thing I have found useful when I have used kit wire tow cables that are somewhat stiff is to heat them up in a candle flame before using them. This has seemed to take some of the springiness out of them and make them more flexible in a few cases.

I have the AFV club tracks on their way from Luckymodel as I'm definitely not a fan of the rubber band track either.

Dave,

Those WW2 Productions tracks really do look the part! It's a little too late for this build though as I've already got a set of AFV club tracks on the way, I may try the WW2 Prod tracks on one of the other 3 models of Centurions i have in the stash in a later build.

Anyway, onto details of the build so far.

The first step has you constructing the six suspension units that attach to the sides of the hull.

There are 4 that consist of these parts:

and two without the cams on the outside that consist of these parts. AFV club have you melting the small pins on the cams to hold them in place.

Once assembled they look like this, with the suspension arms fully workable, for an easy pose on a base with uneven terrain.

Looking at this pic, I can see some knock out pin marks on the suspension arms that I haven't done a great job of cleaning up. Nothing much to worry about though, as it will all be completely obscured by the road wheels once they are fitted.

Interesting little side note about something I read about the Centurions Suspension set up - When using this tank in Vietnam, The Australian Army didn't use the Side Skirts to protect against RPG hits as they clogged up with mud and vegetation too often Consequently the suspension unit more often than not took the hits and resulting damage. Repairing the tank was a relatively simple task of flying in a whole new suspension unit by chopper that could replace the damaged unit in the field.

[BARV]

But what was not said was the hulls were weakened to extent that some cracked and 1 seemingly even droppped the whole assembly ...on the move .........it not a nice thought to have a weakened hull :shithappens: ....its a B@@@@@ to change a wheel station in the field

aye

BARV

ps----white glue works on the tyres --mine been on and at 4 shows ...never moved--also paint with the same @40-60 and dry 24 hrs before paint .........works for me

Edited May 7, 2008 by BARV

[Antoine]

Very nice.

I'll follow this topic closely, as I plan a sho't and a sho't kal in the future.

Indeed one of the best tanks of the last century.

[Stormbringer]

I'll be watching this build closely too as I plan to do it myself at some stage. I was reading a build article in one modelling publication on the Aussie Cent where the writer said he'd annealed the tow cables 4 times and still couldn't get them to work. Also while the WWII track are very nice I find the price to be a bit prohibitive. I was looking at a set for a tiger 1 and they were 1.5 times the price of the kit.

Pete

[BadCop]

BARV - interesting little addition to my anecdote about the suspension system.

Anyway, I've now finished all six suspension units. AFV club have you, using a hot object, melt the end of pins that hold the moveable arms on the side of 4 of them. It comes off a little messy. but it's all hidden between the hull and suspension, so all's good.

Also, I've done a little experimenting on attaching the rubber rim to the road wheels. The fit is a little loose, but I tried running some Tamiya Extra Thin cement into the join, and it seems to have bonded the rim nicely, and it took a bit of rough handing to get it to separate. I'm not sure exactly how it has done this as the vinyl showed no reaction to plastic glue solvent, but as long as it works I'm happy to use it.

I have also heard somewhere that thin liquid glues have been used to successfully bond thin aftermarket Resin Zimmerit sheets to plastic, maybe it's the same mechanism at work here?

[daz greenwood]

I like this.

Looking good so far!

[BadCop]

Only a tiny bit more work done in between night shifts - I've assembled the final Drives. As you can see in these pictures it has a nice cast texture to the plastic, but there is a slight sinkage in the middle of the pieces, nothing too bad, but noticeable upon close examination.

Anyway off to bed - More progress soon.

[muddyboots]

This looks really good, I'll make a point of following it

It brings back memories of skinned knuckles when your hand flew off the gear stick, and broken teeth from the inside rim of the drivers hatch when you got the gear change wrong

Oh, happy days

Ian

[daz greenwood]

Looking real good mate.

I'm watching this with interest.

[BadCop]

Alright, first go at the PE extras now, assembling the rear hitching point mount spring.

First part involves assembling a stack of flat bars together, and joining them via two short lengths of plastic Rod through two holes in the middle. I used a candle flame to dome the end of the rod and get it to hold together nicely.

To finish it off I added some fine PE brackets, and more lengths of rod to represent various bolts securing it all in place. Here it is compared to the kit part.

I'm quite proud of myself as I only managed to glue one of the brackets to my finger!

The next stage of PE will be a little more challenging, as it involves making a hinge out of wire and some interleaving tabs. After that the larger part will need to be curved and some fillets will need to be attached.

I think I'll leave this interesting bit of assembly for a little later.

[daz greenwood]

Looking good so far Trent.

[T-Tango]

Really coming on well now Trent, I particularly like that P/E leaf spring and brackets, it's so much better looking than the plastic offering in the kit, well done mate.

[BadCop]

Thanks everyone. It's nice to get a little encouragement with this PE stuff. It's very challenging and the first time I'll be using more than one or two PE parts in a build.

So first step in making the hinge is getting everything stuck down, so I can't misalign. With the help of a little Tamiya Tape I got this -

Next step is to lay the wire in the middle and tape it down.

I then started bending the tabs around it. I, somewhat clumsily, used a combination of toothpicks and a sewing needle.

After using a knife blade to try and tuck the loose ends of the tabs underneath, I got this.

I'll be the first to admit it looks a little rough, but for a first go, I'm happy.

[T-Tango]

Better than I could do Trent, I hate P/E unless it's flat panels, like the grilles on my KT, but get a coat of paint on that thar hinge mate and it will look brill.

[daz greenwood]

For a first attempt Trent thats bloody good mate.

[Dave]

Well done BC!! I think the expression is "the patience of a saint"

[Stormbringer]

I'm impressed. You have far more patience than I do. Keep up the good work.

Pete