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1:35 Tamiya Challenger Mk3; Construction
Topic Started: May 25 2012, 09:21 PM (2,743 Views)
benskipper
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LCDR Ben 'NITRO' Skipper
Okay the standard Tamiya Challenger Mk3 is not too shabby a kit at all, as many will testify, but with a little tweeking this gem can really shine. What follows is the unabridged build diary from start to finish.

material used:

Eduard Photoetch set for the Challenger Mk 3
CMK Bolts and nut heads @ 1mm, 0.65mm & 0.5mm
Plasticard of varying thickness
Wire of various guages
Various chain from 2mm - 4mm spacing
Echelon Decals sourced from Accurate Armour

She'll be finished as a Kings Royal Hussars vehicle as used in Op Agricola 1 in 1999. Those of us there may well remember these things tearing up the Dragodan (now called Arbëria as Dragodan is a Serbian Name) racing snatch landies and VW Golfs up the hill towards Film City, ahh happy days!

Turret

INFO - Chobham armour is a ceramic metallic honeycombed mix of composite materials. By virtue of its make-up in terms of manufacture and materials used it cannot be curved in any way hence the slab sided nature of the Challenger family of MBT's.

To start a little bit of filler is needed around the turret edges...

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Extra storage on port side of turret, both items were left over from a previous build...

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...smoke launcher mounts weld bead added by use fo strtched spure softened with liquid poly and shaped with jewellers flat head screw driver, as were turret lifting points either side of barrel...

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...plan view of the turret. Basket on rear of rear stowage bin is for water carriers (a local variation - these, like extra stowage bins, were often removed post deployment). did toy with changing the rear stowage basket top from forward openning Mk1 type to a rearward openning Mk3 type, but after speaking with someone in the know the early Mk3's retained the old Mk1 basket.

The white styrene strips are reinforcement points which were added as part of an upgrade programme started in early 1991, but not fully completed until mid 1992...

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Next the large recess for the road warning light was filled in with some old sprue. these were often omitted by crews as challys, unlike the Cheiftain were 12 tonnes heavier and so restricted to which roads they could travel along, especially in the BAOR TOAR...

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At this point I added the rear access hatch bolts, both top and bottom...

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...next the water filler cover cap restraining chain, in practice this was either a thick flexible plastic strip, or a plastic chain. It's a little too long, but I'm not going to loose any sleep over that...

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...and finally the frontal turret Chobham reinforcing strips were shaped...

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...I added heat stretch sprue and placed it in the rough posiitons against the styrene strip ready for sanding and trimming up. The next step is to look at the top of the turret and crack on with that.

INFO - On the Challeneger 1 turret there's raised lettering just above the the gun mantle, which is repeated on the Challenger 2 series. This is the individual FV number (which in later turrets was moved to the hatch behind the operator/loader hatch). the number also reperesented the turret and barrel type. The last 2 figures were deleated in later turrets esp after Op Granby where barrels were changed. You can leave these on, or in some cases these letters/numbers were ground off completely (Scots Dragoon Guards and 2 Royal Tank Regt vehicles are examples of this practice)

The stretched spure reinforceing areas have been sanded flush with the main plastic acrd areas, so once painted they 'mould in'. I removed all of the various moulded on hatch handles and hanging lopps and replaced these with various diameter wire.

Top Tip - sandwich tie wraps are idea for hanging loops, I use 0.5mm wire for this, which Tesco's supply with their basics sandwich bags, you get 50, so 1 lot alone should last several models. For the hatch handles I use 0.75mm wire, this is recycled paking twists from electircal goods, normally keeping the power lead nice and neat.

This is the rear hatch behind the commnaders hatch, I removed the moulded square side bars and replaced with stretched spure to reflect the true to life circular one, the handle is as described...

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...the rear ammo loading hatch behind the operator/loaders hatch has had the same guage wire inserted for the handles (0.75mm). Note the sprue filler is now sanded down and welding line replaced...

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...the offside of the turret front now complete with smake discharge units in place and wire load loops. These are 0.50mm wire and have been uniformly spaced across the turret by inserting a 1mm metal slide between the turret and the loop during gluing...

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..the nearside turret front with camnet basket. The black lines along the top are stretched spure shapeded into weld lines. The baskets mesh are from the Eduard kit, and offer a good, more realistic alternative to the Tamiya nylon mesh...

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The nearside turret side, rear of turret and rear turret top.

The don 10 reel carrier is now made, and I detailed the bin lid so it's a little more accurate and added the track tensioning tools to the turret roof as well as the antenna housings.

The Don 10 reel carrier handle was copied from an extention reel I have at home, and actually rotates as well, though completely useless and perhaps going a little too far it's a nice little touch. In place with the reworked storage bin cover in place in the background, the hinge bolts are merely stretched sprue glued into a 0.45mm hole drilled into the angled pieces side...

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...now the back is complete with all the relevant hinging in place and cover handles in place, again 0.75mm wire. The plastic track tension tools have been replaced by brass rod, with the shaped plastic ends of the tamiya parts removed and glued on the 90 degree rod which goes from the socket to the long bar. The long bar is open at one end and slots in the bent bar's long end to provide extra leverage when adjusting the front idler wheel. This is done by attaching the large socket to a corresponding bolt on the inner hull side and then having several blokes bounce up and down on the 2 rods to tighten the track. These bars are soon bent and don't last terribly long. The smaller hatch in the lid of the main rear stowage hatch is for throwing smaller items such as damps boots, clothing etc in whilst avoiding the aggro of lifting the heavy lid, which is often fouled by cam netting and webbing...

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INFO - The tools were placed on the roof as the additional hull front armour covers the original poistions in front of the driver. Note the socket is secured by a large vertical rod to prevent forward movement in transit.

The next stage is the commanders cupola and the last of the PE for the turret. the commander main perisope is a single casting so a little filler is required...

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... the remote command wire for the cupola mounted gimpy firing mechanism is in place and the loose strand is the power wire for the small white light searchlight. This will be mounted, like the main gun, after painting...

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...and the final pieces of reinforcing for the TOGS sight now in place...

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...next the turret recived it's fire extinguisher...

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...and the reinforcing strip near the TOG sight housing was trimmed up...

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...next the chain for the rear tools on the turret was replaced with a finer version and the antenna added, the best antenna's are from the very handy sandwich bag ties...

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Gun Barrel

The gun barrel - I neglected to photo this in full, so apologies. To construct glue it in stages with liquid poly from the barrel FRONT. Unfortunately no matter what you do you will get a seam line which requires a bit of work with a knife, and a small amount of filler around the recouperator, but aside from this the barrel is spot on. I had looked at getting an AA resin barrel (L11), but glad I took some time and effort on this.

The gun is moulded so that a NASTY seam line runs vertically through the thermal sleeve reinforcer, but some time with 1000 grit wet 'n' dry sorts that out nicely...

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Hull

Tamiya give the MK3 a Mk 1 hull - the difference is the step on the front lower glacis plate and the small voids either side of the driver hatch.

Front Galsis plate insert with welding restored...

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INFO - The hull with the glacis plate straightened and voids covered brings the Chally 1 to Mk 2 Standard externally

The top of the hull has already been treated to Eduard PE grills and fuel tank covers. I also removed the moulded on anchor points and replaced these with wire. The air cond unit has had its grills covered also in fine mesh. the black tubes are for the fuel tank overflows...

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For the rest of the hull I added is the top rollers, skirt hangers and rear bulkhead as a lot of stuff could get damaged by my ham fistedness during building. If you're planning on using the Eduard PE set the tool placement points on the Starboard rear of hull need to be filled in prior to popping on the PE goodies.

Hull rear

The hull is almost complete now and she's starting to really take shape. The pics are pretty much self explanatory. At this point I must say that all this detailing is me being a bit of a spotter. The kit is fantasic as an OOB build any additions are me trying to capture the type of vehicle I managed to get my only 252 via FMT3 on! So without further ado...

I've blacked off large gap above the the rear drive with some strategically placed plasticard, and added the missing piece of hull which hangs over the tracks. This actually gives the upper hull greater rigidity and if anything I would recommend doing with on similar armour builds as it makes the world of difference...

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...next shot shows the rear of the hull and whats been done so far. This piece fits well but the guide lugs which slot into the side of the lower hull will need some filler to keep them hidden...

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INFO - The chain can be attached to the towing brace to remove large obsticles in the way of vehicluar movement such as fallen trees, vehicles and other detritis of war, or statues of Saddam hussain in one instance. This is not a standard fitting, often theatre reflective.

The gun cradle is, in reality, a mass of welds, so these are added, along with a retaining strap for the rear mount water can...

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...the next bit to get some detail are the spare fuel drum carrier mounting plates. Tamiya have done a great job on these, to be honest, unless your not mounting the drums, and even then with a little work these will come up nicely. I added some CMK 1mm bolt heads as these plates are bolted as opposed to welded onto the rear hull plate...

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...the wire running into the rear light cluster is replicating the power trunking, with a quater circle juntion box on the end. The black lines that are visable are the welds for the various hooks, and fittings.

As I intend to mount the drums I gave these a bit of attention. Firstly I added a 1mm bras rod to run along the bottom of the carrier. The profile of the carrier is a little too angular, so this was sanded down. Next I added a bar for the strop tether points with a couple of thin copper wire loops through which some masking tape was threaded to simulate the strops. the moulded on strops were removed with a rotary tool and sanded to give a decent finish.

TOP TIP - if you do this and the plastic is scored by the sanding paper then brush on some lquid poly and this will smooth the area over..

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..again the top and bottom of the drums had some stretch sprue glued around the side to simulate the strengthening bands...

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The rear mounted med box is fitted and has PE latches fitted.

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Top tip the bottom is hollow so I glued it onto thin plasticard before mounting on the nearside rear light cluster.

The rear mudglaps were way to thick, so again these were replaced and the rivets made from stretched sprue and inserted into 0.4mm holes...

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...next the spare track on the nearside was glued into place, whilst the offside was left off and the PE hangers put in place...

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...the welds for the rear hull plate were then added...

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...the spare fuel drums are now mounted and the molded on strops replaced with masking tape. The wider sections on the strop spread the load of the strops to prevent damage to the drum...

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...the tools are now in place on the rear hull. The pick handle is from the spares box, whilst the drawbar is a skipper special item made from 1mm copper and flattened accordingly...

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Side Armour

I decided against doing the whole gap thing between the appliqué armour (part of the Mk 3 brief) and hullsides to be honest at this scale the gap would be paper thin and settled for the 'hint' so to speak. I also made up with the main details of the side skirting. Tamiya have done a fantastic job representing this, and with little effort it can be enhanced even more so.

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The front of the skirting received the hanger plate just before the external fire extinguisher activator handle. I also added a couple of bolt heads to the top of the steel rope housing. I removed the Tamiya plastic rope and replaced with some hand made copper wire twisted to shape...

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...The rear also received some bolt head, and the rear most plate of the skirting hand bent wire attachment points added...

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Front Lower Hull Detail

The front received the headlights, which have been hollowed out and the power wire to the drivers wiper system has been added...

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...note the plates which fit over the previously mentioned voids, these are lozenged in shape and welded into place...

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Well that's it finished construction wise. The front has been 'skippered' with the addition of some home-made light shields, power leads etc as well a couple of Eduard PE parts, the resin extinguishers are from AA and their fantastic quality, as per the norm, they set this off a little...

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...the idler wheel adjusting nut was removed and a 2mm self pressed version made up. This is simple to do, just find an allen bolt with the desired size hex, then heat some spruce and when soft push it in, leave for 10 seconds and hey presto a nut!

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The driver hatch has recieved the handles and opening latch...

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...the main gun has recieved it's PE and a bit of masking tape...

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Top tip - if your adding strapping to PE do it, if possible whilst the PE is still on the fret, makes life easier in the long run.

Road Wheels

The wheel set are completed with some minor wear and tear, not all have been butchered, but it's worth while rubbing around the facing edge of the tyre to smooth them off...

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...now the model sans front armour, which will like the gun, turret, tow bar and gimpy be painted separately...

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Paint Shop

I use Halfords Grey Primer as it hides a multitude of sins . Next I had a bash at the pre-shade lark...an hour later and it was done. I used Citadel Chaos Black thinned to milk like consistancy to avoid cacking up the needle, something Citadel paint is very good at if its not thinned, and it did the job extremely well...

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..next job was to paint the armour inserts on the hull front, these, for some reason remained desert yellow (Tamiya XF59 is the best colour match here), on earlier armour the desert yellow had a bit more yellow to it, though that said some Buff coloured vehicles were about on Op Granby, so I reckon it was luck of the POL stores draw when it came to respray.

Anyhow I used very LITTLE air and very LITTLE paint on these, and took my time, as opposed to my usual go at it like a fiddlers elbow approach. You know what what it worked! These two pieces took 10 minutes, so gawd only knows how long the rest will take?

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To really make painting really interesting the remaining areas are green, so roll out the low tack masking stuff...

After preshading I applied a coast of Tamiya XF61 dark green as a base coat, as it was rather too dark I mixed it with some XF59 desert yellow to produce a nice light green. after 3 hours with a fine airbursh this is what she looked like...

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...next was the camo streaks. these were XF69 Nato Black. Note the lack of camo on the applique armour, this was normally taken out of stores and either painted green or left sand...

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...next off the whole body is to sealed in a semi gloss varnish to protect the paint work.

The final pics before weathering is added to her. ...the barrel jacket is a mix of a range of vallejo colours ,airbrushed on. I watered these down with deionised water by 15% and then sealed it with a satin finish followed by a 50/50 mix of humbrol matt thinner and white spirit...

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The scratched paintwork is merely Tamiya XF59 which has been applied by dipping the edge of plasticard in the paint and pressing it against the side, the other scratches have been applied using that black packing foam you often get with delicate stuff..

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...the chains are painted black and then given a few washes of raw umber before having the outer areas rubbed with a HB pencil...

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...all of the periscopes were rendered using a mirrored card from the local art shop. the red tinge is the anti flash/laser coating that is applied to prevent the crew being blinded by said light sources, the wipers are all from the Eduard PE Kit. all ammio boxes are an olive brown, which is standard colouring for uk ammo boxing expect for high calibre rounds, which tend to be dark green...

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...finally the tracks. These are the kit issued sets. First off they were sprayed matt black then the inner surfaces were sprayed Rover Aluminium, these was over sprayed with JSDF Brown and a final rinse of matt black heavily thinned. The whole lot was then sealed with matt varnish.

To attach these I removed the front idler and threaded the track through the drive sprocket and around the side armour supports. The ends were sealed with a low temp soldering iron and pressed flat with a finger. Then the front idler was replaced and the end road wheels pushed into place to give the track tension followed by the remaining 4 wheels.

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Completed build

Challenger 1 Mk3

Thanks for Reading
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bluebottle
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:cool
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benyboy
benyboy - the Little fairy
wow :cool
.... and thats why my Chieftain went back in the box after an hour :D
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beowulf
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Lt. Paul 'Red Dog' Rose
very very nice indeed :wub:
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Daz Greenwood
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The voices told me to do it!
Simply stunning!
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