AFV Club 1/35 Centurion Mk. 5 Tank

The Centurion Tank, introduced in 1945, was the primary British main battle tank of the post-World War II period. It was a successful tank design, with upgrades, for many decades. The chassis was also adapted for several other roles. Development of the tank began in 1943 and the manufacture of the Centurion began in January 1945, six prototypes arrived in Belgium less than a month after the war in Europe ended in May 1945. It first entered combat with the British Army in the Korean War in 1950, in support of the UN forces.

The Centurion later served in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, where it fought against US-supplied M47 Patton and M48 Patton tanks and they served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in Vietnam.

Israel used Centurions in the 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and during the 1978 and 1982 invasions of Lebanon. Centurions modified as armored personnel carriers were used in Gaza, the West Bank, and the Lebanese border.

The Royal Jordanian Land Force used Centurions, first in 1970 to fend off a Syrian incursion within its borders during the Black September events and later in the Golan Heights in 1973.  South Africa used its Centurions in Angola.

AFV Club 1/35 Centurion Mk. 5 Tank

And here is a model kit subject that I’ve been meaning to work on for a while. Coincidentally, it was the show below that made me look more into the Centurion Tank and its history. It was the nature of the subject that brought me for the first time to work on an AFV Club model.The kit AF 35106 features an entire sprue with the proper parts to add a ‘dozer‘ to the tank. Something that is quite evident has been omitted here. There are 27 steps to put this model kit together from which steps 25, 26, and 27 are dedicated to the dozer assembly alone.Steps 1 and 2 are all about the suspension assembly including the metal springs and linkage. Make sure to work carefully in this area, you don’t want glue where it doesn’t go or your suspension will be stuck.Pins need to be melted in order to seal them without glue. So have a cheap soldering gun handy and if you don’t have one, get one. There are plenty of uses for a soldering gun on our workbench.The prongs on the hull are thick for the poly caps, so don’t expect a Tamiya fit here. Actually, If I knew, I would have left the wheels without the poly caps. The suspension works very neatly. The tracks are made of soft rubber which tends to sag a little bit.

There is not much if any to see the suspension in action, but if you plan on building a diorama, the soft tracks and suspension will add great dynamism to the scene.

The downside on the tracks, the connector prongs are very thin and flimsy making it a very weak spot. I did used CA glue and to secure it more, I carefully melted the prongs and some area of the track using my soldering gun. The tracks detail is very good, but my next Shot Kal or Vietnam Centurion will have AFV’s workable link tracks. AFV Club provides a few track links (AFV 35102) to be used as ‘spares’ on the model, they are simply awesome.

This is one heck of a model kit from a company that hasn’t been on the game for too long.  The overall fit is better than I expected. However, some parts are plagued by protruding prongs (see pictures below) from their injection process. They will not be on the visible side of the finished model, (thank goodness) but they are there and they are annoying.

The way the mold was designed, leaves a lot of raised protruding runners almost all over the sprues. This in many cases, leaves little room for the sprue cutters to do their job. At least without damaging or stress marking some parts. Not good, especially with tiny parts for which I instead used my Exacto knife.

Painting and Weathering the Centurion:

Ha! Looking for the color of the Centurion Tank? Welcome to the club! Seems like there is not a concrete answer on this one. Some colors ranged from weathered OD Green, Deep Green, and most pictures and a little info pointed to a mix of colors that resemble the famous Bronze/Green from some WW-II aircraft interior. The truth is that the color of the Centurion tank, -at least the widely used green-, is very hard to see.

Most of these tanks had operated in very dusty environments and a shade of green for it is as debatable as an OD green from WW-II. So IMHO, I don’t think you’ll go wrong with any shade of green.

I don’t generally prime my models, but since it was molded in dark green styrene and it was to be painted in dark green, I decided to add a coat of  Tamiya XF-20 Medium Gray as a base. Because I know that I was going to give this model some mid to heavy weathering, I decided to use Tamiya XF-65 Field Gray which is a greenish-gray color for the base color.

After painting the whole model, I did add a few drops of  Tamiya XF-2 Flat White to what was left in my airbrush cup and sprayed randomly a fine mist with my Aztek A470 airbrush. The paint was then sealed with Acryl Flat Clear Coat and I proceeded to add the decals. By the way, the decals are of very good quality.

Unlike aircraft model kits, I don’t gloss coat armor models prior to adding the decals. Instead, I make a puddle of decal solution on the flat paint and add the decals where they go. It gives me time to make adjustments if necessary and they won’t silver when dry. After the decals are dry, I just cover them with another coat of Model Master Acryl Flat Coat to protect them from the enamel washes.

Once everything was in place, A Dark Wash from Mig Productions was given to the model. Then it was followed by a fine mist of AK Interactive US Modern Vehicles #122 Sand color on the side panels. Vallejo Pigments were used to further dust the hull and tracks. Other sections were accentuated with Tamiya Weathering Master Set E. Rain streaks on the side panels were made with AK Interactive Rain marks for NATO Tanks AK 074.

Chains on the front came from the beads section at the craft store and antennas are made from K&S .016 wire. The barrel included with the tank was substituted by a 105mm from the Barrel Depot and it was kindly sponsored by Red Frog Hobbies.com.