Takom Chieftain MBT Mk.10 and Mk.11 kits (2 in one) 1:72 Takom

[Julien]

Chieftain MBT Mk.10 and Mk.11 kits (2 in one)
1:72 Takom

 

The Chieftain tank will always be to this reviewer the one of the symbols of Britain's Army in the cold war ad in particular BAOR, seeing the tanks in and around Hohne where my Dad was based. It was a development of the highly successful Centurion tank, and continued the work done by the Centurion in addressing the apparent under-armoured and under-armed reputation of WWII British tanks. The result was one of the most impressive tanks of its day, and when it reached trials service in small numbers in 1959 they began ironing out the wrinkles, which resulted in a steady increase in all-up weight. As the design progressed beyond initial service with the Mark 2, further upgrades giving rise of the Mark 3, then skipping Mark 4 to reach the final production variant, the Mark 5, which carried NBC gear in the form of an over-pressure system, and a more powerful engine. Further small upgrades led to the Mark 10, which was the recipient of the Stillbrew up-armour package, which resulted in a much altered turret profile, particularly at the front. The Mark 11 was the last minor upgrade with the Thermal Observation and Gunnery System (TOGS) replacing the searchlight. Any further versions were cancelled in favour of the Challenger series of MBTs, which came on stream in the early 80s. The tank saw action in the Middle East only however, in the service of Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Iran, who used it extensively in their long-winded war with Iraq. Kuwait's stocks of Chieftains were almost exhausted due to attrition during the Iraqi invasion in 1990, where they fared badly against more modern tanks for various reasons. 

The Kit
There have been rumours of new Chieftain models in 1/72 amongst the small scale armour modellers following Takom's 1/35 scale kits. First Takom produced a Mark 5 in a double boxing with an FV432, now they have produced this double boxing of the two later marks of Chieftain. The quality of the moulding of this diminutive model are excellent with a good use of PE for scale thickness of the side plates, along with link and length track to replace the rubber band type often seen in this scale. The two tanks in this boxing are essentially the same but care must be taken on the small differences outside of the different turrets which are not explained very well in the instructions.  While we mention the instructions they are a bit small, I know the kit is 1.72 but that does not mean the instructions have to be Takom!

 

 

Construction starts with the lower hull, this is a bottom plate which contains the front, with separate sides and rear plates. Once this is together the bogies which carry the road heels are made up and added to the lower hull. There are three bogies each side each with 2 pairs of main wheels and a mount for the return rollers on top. Mounts for the drive sprockets go on the back, and for the idler wheels at the front. The tracks are then made up using the attached jigs. The drive and idler wheels go on and the track runs around the wheels and along the top. These parts are then added to the lower hull with the bottom run of track only going on after they are fitted. The lower hull is now complete. and the single large upper hull part can be added. The different parts for the rear o the tank are then made up before they can go on. Moving to the upper hull now various fittings such as headlight surrounds, tool boxes. hatches, tow cables, grills etc can be fitted. To each side the PE track cover plates go on. Next up the two turrets are assembled. These are very much the same except for the right hand side where the Mk11 has the TOGS system fitted. 

 

 

 

 

 

Markings
As the tanks dont carry much in the way of markings Takom have squeezed a few options onto the small sheet. All markings look to be in register with no issues, from the box you can build;

 

Mk.10 - A Sqn 1st Royal Tank Regiment  "22" BATUS Training area Canada 1991

Mk.10 - "32" Hard target Warcop Range 

Mk.10  - C Sqn 14/20 King's Royal Hussars, Berlin 1988-91 in Berlin Camo

Mk.10 - Zombie Tanks, Abrams Impersonator from The TV Series Walking Dead (Yes go back and look that was a Cheify!) - Some mods needed to make this look like an M1

Mk.11 - Unknown unit "10" BATUS Training area Canada

Mk.11 - A Sqn 1st Royal Tank Regiment, Hildesheim Germany 1992.

Mk.11 - 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards "21" BATUS Training area Canada

Mk.11 - "31" Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

Conclusion
These are quite detailed kits with many parts which build up to very nice models of this cold war warrior, Highly recommended. 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of
UK Distributors for


Kagero's Photosniper on the Chieftain was useful in researching this review, and you can find our review from some time ago here.