Keith Middleton reviews Trumpeter''s "B1 Centauro" in 1/35th scale.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Thanks for this review Shaun.

I have heard the hull and turret are mis-matched in that the short hull version was never fitted to the Italian updated turret (the added armor package). I had also heard the Italian government never exported the updated turret either.

I am hoping the last kit in this series is indeed the long hull with the updated turret.

Do you know, or have you heard about these discrepancy? This is not a deal breaker, but inquiring minds want to know. I have been drooling over this kit ever since I heard of it's release.

Mark,
The thanks need to go to Keith Middleton. All I did was a quick edit.
I am sure he can answer your questions.

Shaun

Team Effort - thanks to both of you then.

Same question addressed to Keith then.

Mark L.

The kit has the correct turret.
What you describe is the turret of the first series.
The turrets of first and second series share the same "short" hull.

Turrets of the second series are also used on the "long" hull, which is called the third series.



Thomas

The slotted device on the end of the gun tube is indeed the muzzle brake. The fume extractor (or bore evacuator in US parlance), is the tube immediately in front of the mantlet.

I hope you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that both of those rumors are false.

The MIKREX applique armour panels were added to the series 2 (short hull) Centauro in response to lessons learned during the UN mission in Somalia. The MIKREX armour became a standard fitting on series 3 (long hull) vehicles, and on the VRCC-105 exported to Spain (the bulk of those were manufactured under license in Spain ... although I may be confusing this with the Leopard 2E procurement program).

Another modification carried out on the Italian vehicles was the inclusion of a laser warning receiver system coupled with Galix smoke dischargers. This mod has be retro-fitted to Series 2 vehicles, and I believe it is standard on Series 3 production Cent's. It should be noted that in general any Series 2 vehicle having the Galix system will have had the MIKREX kit installed previously.

Cheers - Dan

So which (Trumpeter) version do I need to buil a vehicle used in Somalia?
Is the kit marked as a spanish version basicaly an italian version with spanish decals?

http://bunker.altervista.org/pasta.html

Thanks in advance.

Marc,

See my post and the links in my answer to your question about the Somalia deployed Centauros on Missing Lynx....

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/thread/1242062270/Trumpeter+Centauro+kit+for+Somalia-

Have a read of the VRC-105 review....there are some minor differences between the Spanish and Italian versions.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/129399