Meng Chieftain Mk.10 (TS-051) 1:35

[Mike]

Chieftain Mk.10 (TS-051)

British Main Battle Tank

1:35 Meng via Creative Models Ltd

 

 

The Chieftain tank was Britain's first main battle tank to have composite armour added, in the shape of the well-known, but not so well known about Chobham armour. It was a development of the highly successful Centurion tank, and continued the work done by the Centurion in addressing the reputation for apparent under-armoured and under-armed WWII British tanks, shaking it conclusively once it reached service. The result was one of the most impressive tanks of its day, and when it reached trial service in small numbers in 1959 they began ironing out the wrinkles, which resulted in a steady increase in all-up weight as well as capability.

 

As the design progressed beyond initial service with the Mark 2, further upgrades give rise of the Mark 3, then skipped 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 minor upgrades led to the Mark 10, which was the recipient of the Stillbrew up-armour package, which resulted in a much-altered turret profile and improved protection, 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-duration 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, confirming the validity of the British decision to leave the design behind in favour of the more capable Challenger and later Challenger II, which is still under development and is likely to be the final British manned MBT if the pundits are to believed, remaining in service for a long time.

 

The Kit

We waited for a long time for a new tool Chieftain to allow us to put the old Tamiya kit with its confused identity to the back of the stash.  One popped out a few years back, and now we have another one from those talented designers at Meng Model.  This is a brand-new tool from Meng and is in their appropriately name Tyrannosaurus range, because you can’t get much more aggressive and bitey than a Chieftain in full flow.  It arrives in their usual satin-finished sturdy top-opener box, and inside are eleven sprues and three hull and turret parts in pale grey styrene, a small flexible sprue in a very similar colour, 195± individual track links in spruelets of two, a clear sprue with track jigs included, a large Photo-Etch (PE) sheet, six shiny springs, a tree of black poly-caps, decal sheet, instruction booklet, four pages of thick stock printed with history of the Mk.10 in four languages, and a glossy sheet advertising their ongoing competition.  You probably already know I like Meng’s products, and if you have any of their kits, you’ll also know why.

 

The detail is superb, with cast armour texture on the relevant parts of the vehicle, a spectacular cooling-jacket shrouded barrel, and judicious use of slide-moulding on almost every sprue to improve detail without increasing the part count.  You’ll also be pleased to hear that one of the two decal options depicts a Chiefy in Berlin Brigade urban camo, which has to be the most iconic and impressive of the Chieftain’s garbs through its years of service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins sensibly with the task of building an AFV that I find to be the dullest, which is making up the road wheels.  The paired idler and drive sprocket wheels are first, with separate tyres to ease the painting, and a poly-cap hidden between the two discs.  Six pairs of return rollers are also made, then twelve pairs of road wheels are assembled with separate tyres again, and when the pairs are joined, each one has another poly-cap hidden within, allowing removal of the wheels any time you want during construction, and rotation after completion.  The suspension units each have one of the real springs trapped between two scissor-like assemblies, which are then trapped between the halves of the units, allowing the axles to pivot and offer a representation of actual suspension.  There are two types made up for each side, using up all six of the springs, and also acting as mounts for the return rollers.  The completed units are then set to one side while the lower hull is put together.

 

 

 

 

The lower hull is detailed with appliqué panels under the front and rear corners, then towing eyes, final drive housings and the idler axles are fixed in place.  Inside the upper hull a pair of engine deck supports are located on internal U-brackets, then flipped over to fit the twin headlamps with clear lenses and protective cage in styrene, more towing and lifting eyes, the bow-wave deflector, bullet-splash deflector and the driver’s pivoting hatch with appliqué armour panels on each side.  A turret-ring adaptor is fixed inside the aperture, which may hint at a Marksman variant in the future, but it might equally mean nothing.  We shall see. The sides of the engine deck are built up with perforated upstands that have rubber bumpers on top, then the louvered deck is covered with mesh panels and a ton of lift handles around the appropriate edges.  Shaped stowage boxes are added to each side, then the two hull halves are joined together, clipping into place neatly, even without glue on my example.  The rear bulkhead and its towing lugs close up the back, covered up with the complex muffler box for the exhaust system, which has two L-shaped exit pipes with hollow tips.  The fenders are first detailed with stowage boxes and wing mirrors, plus a few PE strips on the front mudguards depicting the attachment strips for the flexible rubber flaps.  There’s one each side of course, and each one gets a tow-cable once installed, plus a pair of reflectors on the back ends.  Another pair of stowage boxes, one with attached first-aid kit are made up and fixed to the gap on the left and right sides of the rear bulkhead, then the hull is flipped over and the suspension units are glued into position, closely followed by their respective road wheels.

 

 

Now for the tracks.  They’re individual links and each one only has one sprue gate, which is nice.  Each link has two ejector pin marks however, but they don’t take much in the way of sanding to remove them, so it’s swings and roundabouts.  I put together a short run for this review, clipped them into the two-part hinged clear jig, dropped the lid and pressed it home with a click, then nipped a set of six track-pins off the sprues and pushed them into the holes in the jig, ramming them firmly home into holes moulded into the links.  The links have a peg moulded into the other end, and as long as you don’t snap any of those off, you should be good to go.  What you end up with is a well detailed flexible track run that will look good on your model.  It might be as well to freeze the links with a little glue once you have the final arrangement just to be sure, but there’s nothing stopping you from leaving them mobile.  The tricky and time-consuming part will be to paint the tracks and each of the 95 track pads on each side.  If you don’t fancy spending all that time on the tracks, you should know that straight after fitting, you install the side skirts over the running gear, rendering almost half of them invisible for the rest of eternity.

 

 

 

The turret is started by gluing together the top and bottom parts around a pivot, then adding the mantlet and coax bags on the front, both of which are made from flexible styrene.  The coax gun has a short muzzle added into the hole in its bag, and speaking of holes you could drill one into the barrel for realism, then the Stillbrew armour package is added to the front of the turret, locking into a recess moulded into the turret upper.  Smoke launchers, vision blocks and laser sighting device are added along with another batch of lifting eyes (tanks are heavy), ammo boxes and the massive searchlight with twin clear lenses and a door glued onto the left side of the turret.  The two lenses are for infrared and ordinary white light beams, and a pair of scrap diagrams show them laid out appropriately for each task.  More sighting gear and hatches are added to the top of the turret along with a winch roll, tool boxes and more grenade launchers on the right side.  The commander’s cupola is a complex arrangement of equipment on a rotating torus mount, including clear vision blocks and an inner hatch with domed door and closure mechanism, plus another smaller searchlight to the side of the inset front vision block.  The completed assembly is then glued to the roof of the turret.  The turret bustle hangs off the back of the turret, which begins with a flat plate that supports the NBC pack, and to the sides are fitted a pair of tubular-framed open stowage baskets with mesh bottoms and upstands, the latter being folded up around a jig part before fitting.  The L7 AA gun, which is based upon the Belgian FN Mag machine gun is clamped between the mount halves, with extra detail parts and a large magazine box on the left side, which also has its own stencil decal.  It is fixed to the roof in front of the commander’s hatch, with the final step involving the L11A5 120 mm rifled main gun that comprises two halves with lots of cooling-jacket detail moulded-in, and a hollow muzzle that shows off the barrel’s rifling nicely and gives a good impression of a completely hollow barrel.

 

 

 

Markings

There are two decal options on the sheet, one of which is the afore mentioned Berlin Brigade Urban scheme, the other in standard British Black/Green camo of the time.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Armoured Squadron, Berlin Infantry Brigade, British Army, West Germany, 1989
• Armoured Unit, British Army, Exercise Fighting Herald, West Germany, 1988

 

 

 

The decals are printed in China, and under magnification are a bit fuzzy, although most of that could be cut off along the straight edges.  The Union Jack is a bit messy, and the tiny badge on one of the front fenders has a simple black centre where there should be a logo.  They should be suitable for purpose however, but I miss the days when Meng used to use Cartograf as a matter of course.

 

Conclusion

What a lovely kit.  I’m British, and it’s a British tank, so I’m probably a little biased.  I’m also a fan of Meng’s output with good reason.  I do wish they’d spent a little more time and a few more pennies on the decals though.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[RichG]

Just wondering if there are any clues in the kit to the possibility of an earlier mark coming from Meng (i.e. a Mk 5)?  

 

Its a shame Meng didn't identify the specific regiments of the tanks they depict as I think knowing the unit adds a little extra depth to the subject. At that date the Berlin Infantry Brigade Chieftain would have been from C Squadron, 14/20th Hussars Regiment based at Smuts Barracks on Wilhelmstraße, in the Spandau district of Berlin. They were the last unit/squadron to be based there, being withdrawn in 1991.  

 

The other is anyone's guess! If it matters I have seen that 11th (UK) Armoured Brigade participated in Exercise Fighting Herald; which could make its Chieftain equipped Armd Regt (5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, Paderborn), a potential candidate.

 

Others may know more.

 

Great review - looking forward to my first build of a Meng kit.

 

Rich

Edited February 16, 2022 by RichG