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Royal Marines Centaur 1/35 Tamiya **FINISHED**


bigfoot

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This is my entry for the group build. Yes, I know it doesn’t float or swim but it is operated by the Royal Marines. And it will be fitted with wading stacks so it can get its feet wet. This is going to be part of my long term big project to model a lot of the vehicles/units that were part of the sword beach initial landings on D Day.

 

Markings will be part of ‘W’ troop, 5th independent RM armoured support battery. All of the vehicles of the RMASG supposedly had names, only the command Sherman ‘Warspite’ is known of W troop so this will be an educated guess. The tanks were all named after Royal Navy vessels active during the Second World War of a certain size (destroyer?) and above so I think I’m going to name this one after ‘Wolfhound’, a W-class destroyer.

 

Build will be the venerable Tamiya kit with after market tracks, PE grills and Aber PE wading stacks.

 

g40EKrn.jpg

Edited by bigfoot
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/8/2023 at 1:20 PM, Bertie McBoatface said:

A tank! Another category for the polls. Good to see some armour here.

 

On 1/8/2023 at 2:24 PM, TonyOD said:

 

It's a field of one just at the moment!


I’ll take those odds!

 

On 1/8/2023 at 2:41 PM, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

There was a Valentine DD tank... No! No! A thousand times no!

 

There was indeed, I’m sure you could squeeze one of those in alongside that lovely whaling boat of yours.

 

Well, we’ve slipped anchor here and started the run in. Being a Tamiya kit it falls together, lower hull built up in one session. I need to check on the drive fittings for this one.

 

6eyrbiq.jpg

 

Another session and I did a little bit of metal work. I’m well out of practice with the old soldering iron so not the neatest job on the wading stack and needs a bit of a clean up yet.

 

5hfy0l4.jpg

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4 hours ago, bigfoot said:

This one’s gonna be brown 😁

Yes, that is what my sources said when I built a small scale one a few years back. The original early war Khaki Green 3 base coat on UK vehicles was replaced with the brown S.C.C.2 in around 1941-42, reputedly due to a shortage of the pigments needed to make green paint, but just before D-Day a new colour was specified, S.C.C.15 or UK OD. I guess that as Centaurs were not considered front line equipment and the Marine ones were initially intended to stay on board their landing craft and bombard shore positions (though the Marines had other ideas of course), they were left in S.C.C.2 and not repainted S.C.C.15 like the other British tanks in the invasion force (excluding most Shermans of course which were left in US OD AFAIK).

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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19 hours ago, PeterB said:

Yes, that is what my sources said when I built a small scale one a few years back. The original early war Khaki Green 3 base coat on UK vehicles was replaced with the brown S.C.C.2 in around 1941-42, reputedly due to a shortage of the pigments needed to make green paint, but just before D-Day a new colour was specified, S.C.C.15 or UK OD. I guess that as Centaurs were not considered front line equipment and the Marine ones were initially intended to stay on board their landing craft and bombard shore positions (though the Marines had other ideas of course), they were left in S.C.C.2 and not repainted S.C.C.15 like the other British tanks in the invasion force (excluding most Shermans of course which were left in US OD AFAIK).

 

Pete

Thanks Pete, that’s what I understand too, although I’ve also read that when SCC15 came in, things weren’t necessarily repainted, only newly built things so some stuff that ended up in Normandy was still in SCC2.

 

The other thing I’ve read is that the wading stacks might have been SCC15 green on the SCC2 brown tanks. Although this photo of centaurs on the run in on D Day don’t appear to be different tones between the hull and stacks although how different do the brown and green look on B&W?

 

33Vo8Lx.jpg

 

Im going with the green stacks and brown hull to add some visual interest.

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2 hours ago, bigfoot said:

Thanks Pete, that’s what I understand too, although I’ve also read that when SCC15 came in, things weren’t necessarily repainted, only newly built things so some stuff that ended up in Normandy was still in SCC2.

 

The other thing I’ve read is that the wading stacks might have been SCC15 green on the SCC2 brown tanks. Although this photo of centaurs on the run in on D Day don’t appear to be different tones between the hull and stacks although how different do the brown and green look on B&W?

 

33Vo8Lx.jpg

 

Im going with the green stacks and brown hull to add some visual interest.

Sounds reasonable to me.

 

I seem to remember that some of the older Churchills modified to AVRE and "Hobart's Funnies" may well have been in S.C.C.2 as well.

 

Pete

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4 hours ago, PeterB said:

Sounds reasonable to me.

 

I seem to remember that some of the older Churchills modified to AVRE and "Hobart's Funnies" may well have been in S.C.C.2 as well.

 

Pete

I think that’s what I may have been remembering as well.

 

More work done on it tonight, been working on it a bit piecemeal whilst trying to confirm build details in some areas. Turret mostly built and did a bit more soldering on the wading gear. Much neater job this time around.

 

vRPMYJY.jpg

 

C18ATxx.jpg

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Thanks both.

 

Cracking on with this build now, I love how easily these Tamiya kits fall together.

 

First up was the real hull, PE grills were added to the sides.

 

LkUJq9w.jpg
 

Next, work was done on the front glacis plate. The kit headlight guards attach to the wrong place at the rear; they should attach to the rear of the splash guard instead of the hull. First job was to fill the holes and replace the missing bits of splash guard, then I fabricated the guards from copper wire, flattened the ends and added some punched bolt heads. I also added the wires for the formation lights whilst at it.

 

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I know what details I need for this build so I can get dud lower hull finished off now. Another couple of sessions and the main assembly should be done.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I’ve done a reasonable amount of work over the last couple of weeks in small amounts, finally enough for a worthwhile update.

 

A lot of the work has revolved around reconfiguring the engine deck. Tamiya kits it as a C deck whereas for the configuration of this vehicle it should most likely be a D deck. That meant filling and scribing panel lines, adding new grab handles and locking points (pinched from a Voyager set on one of my stalled Cromwell builds). I also had to fix a mistake of my own making when I stuck the two central engine panels the wrong way around, had to remove them and in doing so repair one of the hinges. I’ve got the upper deck attached to the lower hull and all the wheels built. They’re still removable for painting. 
 

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I’ve also been working on the modelkasten workable tracks, making a small run at the start of each bench session. Still a way to go but they are straightforward to assemble, look good and move nicely.

 

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The build stage is nearly there, tracks to finish, tools to add and then I need to sculpt the waterproofing canvas areas then it’s ready for painting. Hopefully get the last of those bits, bar the tracks, done by end of the weekend. This is how she stands now:

 

GdPd4lB.jpg
 

3mi0Phm.jpg

 

 

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