History

The Chieftan was Britain’s Main Battle Tank from the 1960s to the 1990s. It was a development of the Centurion tank with a more powerful long range gun designed to fight defensively should Communist forces ever attack Western Europe.

The Chieftan was introduced into British service in 1967 and served with the British Army of the Rhine to help defend West Germany against possible Warsaw Pact attack.

A total of 1896 were manufactured of which 900 served with the British Army and the rest were exported.

This model represents a Chieftan Mk.5 on maneuveres at BATUS, the British Army Training Unit Suffield in Alberta Canada where the British Army has conducted large scale armoured training since the late 1970’s

Tamiya 1/35 kit. Guitar wire used for aerials and picture framing wire used for tow cables plus a scale map held by Commander. Elastoplast cloth used to cover smoke dischargers and main gun mantlet. Painted with Model Master enamels, ground oil pastel powder for weathering and staining along with Model Master Buff enamel overspray mixed with Dullcote. Attached to wooden base with a screw. Completed by Wayne in about 2000.

Data

MODEL: Chieftan Mk.5

ROLE: Main Battle Tank

TIME PERIOD: 1967-1990s

ENGINES: one Leyland L60 piston engine of 560kW

WIDTH: 3.5m

LENGTH: 7.5m

GROSS WEIGHT: 55 tons

MAXIMUM SPEED: 43km/h

RANGE: 500km

CREW: 4

ARMAMENT: 120mm L11A5 rifled tank gun, one coaxial 7.62mm machine gun and one cupola mounted 7.26mm machine gun

SCALE: 1/35

KIT:

GALLERIES:

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