AFV Modeller - Issue 23 - 3 - Vickers Challenger II MBT.pdf - AFV Modeller - bonsaiPL

VICKERS CHALLENGER II MBT

The Chinese Interpretation of the British Challenger, spiced up with Scottish Refinements

T he British Challenger II Main Battle Tank is a very

which received its baptism of fire in the first Gulf War. Even so,

only 5% of the components are interchangeable with Challenger I.

The most important changes are the climate controlled crew

compartment (surely appreciated by the crews operating in desert

conditions), an improved fire control system, upgrading to

Dorchester Level II side and frontal armour and a complete

redesign of the turret.

interesting vehicle to many modellers, being the UK's

number one fighting machine it is prominent in the

media due to its participation in various hot spots

around the world.

The Challenger II is the first British tank since World War II to be

designed and built by only one company-Vickers Defence

Systems, whose plants in Barnbow, Leeds and Scotswood,

Newcastle assemble the vehicles. It was developed from its

predecessor, Challenger I with the famous Chobham armour,

The Challenger II has a crew of 4 and weighs 62.5 tons. It is

capable of a top speed of 56 km/h on road and has a range of

250-450 km; depending on the terrain it travels in.

by Albert Tureczek

The armament of Challenger II is most impressive. The

main weapon is the Royal Ordnance L30 120 mm gun

with an effective range of 9km. It can fire most

conventional modern 120 mm tank ammunition,

including the controversial DU (Depleted Uranium)

round.

Additional armament is a coaxial Hughes 30mm chain

gun, very similar to the one on the Apache helicopter,

and a MG L37 7.62mm machine gun with 4000 rounds

mounted on the commander's cupola. The Challenger is

the heaviest and best-protected tank in the NATO

Arsenal and has gained its reputation through many

peacekeeping missions in war torn former Yugoslavia

and lately in Operation Telic, the UK component of

Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The base for my model is the Trumpeter kit. This kit is by

far the cheapest version on the market so I wanted to

see just how good this low price offering really is. Surfing

the net I found that the Scottish company Accurate

Armour had put quite some effort into updating the

Trumpeter kit-I could not resist the temptation and

obtained two sets. One regular update set for a British

KFOR tank and one for the Pearson Combat dozer

blade. Fittingly armed for the purpose and filled with

enthusiasm, I set out to build a trustworthy replica of this

mighty machine.

Available Kits

There are 3 kits on the market which are

interesting for Challenger 2 builders, one

being Tamiya's new kit of an Operation Telic

Challenger 2 which is a very good kit. In

my opinion the best available Challenger 2

is the full resin kit from Accurate Armour

which is really a heavy weight-also with its

price tag-almost ten times the price of the

Trumpeter kit.

Update

The update sets I used are from Accurate

Armour. The first one is set A 053 with the

thin edged side skirts and a new main gun

and set A 032, which contains a resin

Pearson Engineering Combat Dozer Blade.

The figures are also from the AA range. I

like the human angle in my modelling and

these figures served the purpose just right.

Finally I used lenses for the headlights from

MV Lenses, LS 21 3,5mm Diameter

Construction

The construction went smoothly and really

poses no problem to the average modeller.

I started with the running gear and hull.

The road wheels are all separately hinged,

which poses interesting possibilities for

diorama projects.

foil strips to simulate the empty mounting

point for the drum. This greatly enhances

realism on the model. Next stage is the

closing of the hull, which is no problem

either. The Trumpeter parts overall fit is

very good and really surprised me. I would

have expected more trouble from a cheap

kit like Trumpeter's.

Next on the program is the turret. I had to

correct the angle of the thermal image box

mounted on top of the gun. This should be

sloped on the sides, whereas Trumpeters

are straight all the way up. The one-piece

120 mm gun from the AA set is also an

improvement on the kit gun, which is not

bad, but has to be glued together from

several parts. The AA brass side skirts are

really the major improvement on the kit,

which provides both sides in too thick one-

piece castings. The 5 brass parts on each

side are all single mounted and very

delicate and they really look good on the

model. I liked the Challenger with the

Dozer blade and I fitted an AA Pearson

Dozer on mine. Again here the Trumpeter

blade is not bad, but AA`s is better.

Painting and Weathering

The vinyl tracks are great and I decided to

use them on my model even though there

are aftermarket single link tracks available.

I chose one of the versions provided by

Trumpeter-call sign Three Two, B

Squadron, Royal Scots Dragoons, 7th

Armoured Brigade of the first UK Armoured

Division, stationed in Fallingbostel,

Germany. In January 2000 this unit loaded

their Challenger MBTs on train wagons and

deployed to Kosovo as part of NATO`s

Peacekeeping Force.

I primed my Challenger with Testors Primer

grey and chose after this Humbrol H155

and H33 for the European camouflage

pattern. I stuck with the building

instructions as to how the pattern should

form because this matched pretty well with

most of my research material. I decided on

soft sprayed demarcations between the

The rear wall of the Challenger II is busy,

filled with detail and really the focal point of

the model. The AA set provides a lot of

items for this, especially the big fuel drums

carried on each side which are cast as

single pieces and do not have to be glued

together. The advantage of this is obvious.

In my research material I found a lot of

Challengers only have one of the two

drums attached . I thought this looked

pretty cool and decided that this was

exactly the way my Challenger should be

displayed. I cut off the clamps from the

spare barrel and mounted them on metal

AFV Modeller - Issue 23 - 3 - Vickers Challenger II MBT.pdf

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