HI all
Can anyone point me in the direction of some Colour plates for the 103c, as the Trumpeter instruction sheet shows only black/black 'blob' drawings of the camo.
Other than Prime Portal, are there any drawings for the RPG 'fence' found on some of these tanks, or were they only experimental?
Thanks in advance
Jon
UK EMMC member

The fence was not experimental and drawings can be purchased from the Swedish Armour Historical Association http://sphf.se/
Check under "Försäljning"
I don't know of any good source for the painting instructions but when looking at the instructions from Trumpeter I don't think they are that bad.
If you use the instructions along with some images fråm the web there should not be too much problems.
I have a walk around on my site
http://www.the-swede.com http://put.url.here

/Thord

Why was this tank retired? Was there a change in doctrine, were they unreliable - not worth upgrading, or was sweden looking to buy tanks just like everybody else had?

Thanks Thord:
The links were very informative & the book link means it is available in the UK

Mikeo: from what I've read, they weren't experimental, but photos of the RPG fence were restricted!
The Strv had 3 major upgrades, prototype 'slick', b & c! so perhaps they were end of cycle
There was a single D, a 120mm prototype as well, someone more knowledgable will surely correct me here

Been doing a little research:

Hannants.co.uk: EBIG3525 @ UKP £16.35

STRV.103 S-TANK (designed to be used with the Trumpeter kits)
This BIG ED set includes all these Eduard sets
ED34043 Strv.103B S-Tank gun barrel
ED35538 Strv.103 S-Tank
ED35544 Strv.103 S-Tank additional set
EDXT062 Strv.103 S-Tank wheel mask

the ED35544 Strv.103 S-Tank additional set contains parts for the RPG Fence!

Off to the Telford show then!

Now all I need is the colour camo, such as the Canadian C3 pattern shown elsewhere here
Jon

It was getting old and out dated and it was not possible to upgun it without major rework.
The choise for Sweden was then the Strv 122, Leopard 2A5 improved.

/Thord

There were other issues with it too, like suspension problems. In my opinion, it was a flawed design from the beginning. The major issue is that the gun is fixed to the hull with only minimal side traverse capabilities. This means that in order to quickly re-orient and acquire a new target that is outside the small traverse arc, you have to move the whole vehicle as opposed to traversing a turret. It is a great design for fixed defensive positions where the enemy can only come at you from one direction. However, that rarely happens. The standard tactic to defeat a fixed defense is to get around its flank and strike from the side, taking on one position at a time and rolling up the line. It is a horrible design for offensive operations, again the target acquisition issue. The same design was inneffective in the German tank destroyers of WWII such as the Hetzer, Jagdpanzer, etc., yes they look cool, but they were in effective all the same (except as fixed, defensive, heavy pillboxes). This is the reason the allies never had a fixed gun tank destroyer. It is a cool looking design and makes a good looking and interesting model though.

The gun in the strv 103 was fixed with NO traverse at all.
All aiming sideways had to be done with the whole vehicle.
Same with elevation, you had to adjust the suspention for that.
However, since the vehicle was built that way, the traverse and elevating system worked really well.
If you put the strv 103 in a time line you can see that when it entered service tanks could not really fire and hit on the move with great accuracy.
The strv 103 can also run att full speed and turn and engage a target at 3 or 9 o'clock faster than a tank with turret.
With the long barrel it also had a very accurate gun and it was really easy to hit your targets.
However, it had it's fair share of problems but it was not as bad as some are saying.
It was ahead of it's time when it came but time caught up with it to quickly.

/Thord