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RMASG Centaur.


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This is my first "Work in Progress" on BM. I'm going to build Tamiya's Centaur as  one of the earlier versions with the different track guards. The tank I'm going to depict is "Seawolf", and I'm going to use the Accurate Armour resin set and the Arber etched brass set for the track guards. I may also use AA's Porpoise ammo sled, but I haven't decided yet.

I'm going to depict it as passing over uneven ground/mud so I cut off the three middle stops for the suspension arms before attaching the outer hull plates. Using Fruilmodel tracks will help here as they give a natural sag.

On the rear hull plate I've added some Aber etched brass and also the inspection plate for the control rods which Tamiya missed off.

I'm now going to go quietly insane as I assemble the 250 individual Fruilmodel track links. Back in  couple of days! 

 

 

Centaur%20box..jpgAccurate%20Armour%20parts..jpgFruilmodel%20tracks%20and%20Arber%20etchLower%20hull%20and%20swing%20arms..jpgLower%20hull%20assembled..jpgRear%20hull..jpg

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Hello!

Interesting and easy solution with the suspension. I think I will do the same at this point of building and it gives you more clearance for the underground. I will follow this project. Regards, Udo.

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18 hours ago, Etienne said:

Hello,

 

very interesting, I'll follow this project !!

 

E

 

16 hours ago, 06/24 said:

:popcorn:

 

15 hours ago, Jabo31 said:

Hello!

Interesting and easy solution with the suspension. I think I will do the same at this point of building and it gives you more clearance for the underground. I will follow this project. Regards, Udo.

Thanks for looking. I've done it before with Italeri's Crusader and it works very well, especially if you use a track like Fruilmodel.

 

John. 

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Nice project and good start. I'm a big fan of British armour so I'll be watching this with interest as I want to pick it up at some point.

 

Have you planned what colour you're going to paint this with, in the often controversial brown?

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Thanks for your comments and your interest. Yes, I will be finishing it in SCC2 brown. I know that some of the Centaurs that went ashore on D-Day were supposed to have been repainted in SCC15, but "Seawolf" was one of the earlier models and doesn't seem to have been rebuilt in any way (which is when it would have been repainted), so therefore I believe that SCC2 would be the correct colour.

 

John.

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It's taken a while, but the tracks are assembled. When new, Cromwells/Centaurs had 125 links per side and as I've been told on another site, in service as they stretched, links were removed. I started with 120 each side but this proved to be too many so the photos show the tracks with 119. This is still a little on the slack side so once they are going to be fitted finally, one more link will come out.

Fruilmodel state that the box contains 250 links which would have been cutting it fine, but in actual fact there are over 270.

 

 

P1010005.jpgP1010004.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress a bit slow, but I've moved onto the turret. This is basically an assembly job, just leaving out some of the Tamiya parts like the 95mm howitzer and substituting it with the Accurate Armour item. The brass box piece around the loaders hatch has another piece of brass inside it. This represents the part that was used to keep the hatch doors open. This was done so that air could be sucked into the tank as the side intakes for the engine were blanked off as part of the waterproofing.

I've also added some small detail parts from the Eduard sheet around the commanders hatch, and I cut off the rear portion of the main gun and glued it in place because with the hatches open, it would be obvious if it wasn't there.

All for now.

 

John.

 

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1 hour ago, FrancisGL said:

Really nice tracks/suspensión, :popcorn:, cheers mate

 

1 hour ago, Hamden said:

 

Nice work those tracks look superb as does the turret

 

  Roger

 

Thanks both. The tracks do take some time to assemble, but they are in a class of their own (when compared to the kit's).

 

John..

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I got some more work done on the lower hull and tracks. After disassembling the whole lot into it's individual parts and washing in warm soapy water, I sprayed a coat of Halfords grey car primer. Then using Mike Starmers Tamiya mix for SCC2 of XF68, XF3 and XF1 in a ratio of 5:4:1, I sprayed the lower hull and the road wheels , sprockets and idlers. When dry, the running gear was given a wash of Migs Dark Wash and left to dry thoroughly. Each wheel was held on a piece of sprue and kept in a flat position whilst it dried so that it wouldn't all run and collect in one place.

The tracks were then sprayed with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya brown and black and once this had dried, I applied a wet mixture of Migs European Earth and worked it into the individual links. This dries fairly quickly and once it had, I brushed it with an old tooth brush so that the metal came through again.

Before attaching the wheels, I applied some weathering powders to the sides of the lower hull. This was a mixture of Mig weathering powders and some I'd had in a drawer for over thirty years. They were originally purchased when I used to build model railways and were made by a firm called Carrs. They are brilliant. They seem to have a very slight oily texture and this allows them to grip the surface well.

Finally, the wheels, sprockets and idlers were pushed onto their axle stubs, and then I threaded the two lengths of track around the whole assemble and joined them with a piece of brass wire. Later in the build, I will do some more weathering to the hull, tracks and running gear.

 

350a4ba8-764b-426f-bc64-f6610cfa83ae.jpg7e6edfe5-00df-4223-b99a-3f6cb3353b8f.jpg0091e380-1acb-41fa-a512-9cce1c4576d4.jpg1212b751-e0f6-46da-ae17-9e421a12a076.jpg

Time to do some work on the upper hull.

 

John.

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I had the Aber etched brass set for the Centaur/Cromwell fenders or track guards. The set includes all the parts to replace the whole guard from front to back, but I didn't see the necessity to replace all of it so just went with the most important part, the front section as this is what defines an early Centaur/Cromwell. I started by carefully cutting along the lines marked in red with a razor saw. Inevitably, some detail on the glacis was lost ie some bolt and rivet heads, but they could be replaced later.

Aber includes front track guards for both the early and later model, so once the relevant parts were removed from the fret and folded to shape, I soldered the inner vertical pieces in place. I cleaned the cut edges of the hull with a large flat file and then super glued the brass guards in place. The joint between brass and plastic track guard was a bit weak, so I reinforced it with some scrap card.

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

John.

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