Hi guys!

As the title suggests I’m building the new Chieftain from Takom, specifically the MK.11. I’m going to take a little break from the T-80BV and build this. The thread will be a little reviewish since it is a pretty new kit. I can say that the kit is very nice in general; no or little flash, sink marks and ejection marks are smartly placed. The plastic is also very nice to work with and takes to sanding very well. Detail is good and the parts division is sound. I think that they have found a good compromise between a gazillion parts with perfect details and buildability. It is a lot like a Meng kit. So on to the build:

The construction began as suggested with the suspension which consists of 3 different parts:


When assembled they looks like this



The road wheels consist of 5 parts, which may seem a little excessive, but cleanup was not a problem and they do look very nice when assembled. Also note the text on the rubber section of the wheel, very nice!





Lastly some pictures of the suspension and road wheels in place, everything amounted to about 3 hours of work so it comes together rather quickly.



See you soon!

Jakob

Great stuff, Jakob ! I plan to build Takom's Chieftain as well, your "buildview" will come very handy !
After building the "Nagmachon" (which is based on the Sho't Kal, which was based on the Centurion chassis) and looking your pictures, I just realized that Chieftain's running gear was basically the same as the Centurion's.

Israel

takom did rather well with these, tho the Mk10 was my first from them. I found it went together muck like a tamiya, but with better detail. I would highly recommend masterclubs worn tracks. took me about 10hrs over 2 might to work up. the soft cover for the gun mantlet is kinda tricky, as it's grooved wich will fit nicely to G1 I think it was

Do you mean the tracks supplied with the kit ? Are they of the individual non-movable links kind ? Can AFV's "Hush Puppy" (for Centurion) tracks be used instead ?

Yeah the track is the non-movable indy-type so they will require some work I don't know about the hush puppy style tracks, i have never seen them on a Chieftain but I’m no expert either




Yeah i agree very nice fit and for some reason i find the leftovers after the sprues to be very easy to remove too which is great I've been looking at the Masterclub tracks but haven't made up my mind yet.

The soft cover is kinda tricky for me also at the moment as Takom forgot to add it to my kit. Have to email them about that

Jakob

nope, masterclubs workable metal tracks. managed to get the ones with worn pads off evilfleabay. not sure about afv club, but if they're the one's I think they are, with three small rubber pads, they likely never went with a Chieftain

J8kob_F, any chance takom forgot the poly caps? fortunately I had something suitable, tho just slightly smaller, I could use

Yepp, that's what I meant. It's a no go then...Thanks !

I'd stay away from afv club;s Centurion tracks. had a set and they wouldn't stay together, being the clickable type. masterclub might have something, AND cheaper than fruil but of equal or better quality. also, mc uses resin pins mostly, rather than wire. if you DO get a set I'd suggest you drill out all the links, and a VERY small dab of CA on the pin head when partially inserted, then fully insert

Another update

I have continued work on the lower tube and that is completed. I was surprised that the sprockets are so small, almost half the size of the sprockets of the T-80 for example. Here are some pictures of the sprocket and wheels.



Another undercarriage part which has some great detail


I then started work on the upper hull adding the extra armor that I guess protects the turret ring. It involved removing the MK.5 specific detail and then adding the additional parts for the MK.11. As you can see the fit of the armor is pretty great.



Finished up yesterday’s session with adding some parts to the engine deck. I will also add some PE nets before it is completed, I’m sure it will look great.



Cheers

Jakob

It's looking like a great build and the parts seam to fit great.

Robert

Thank you!

The kit is an absolute delight to build, will definitely build more kits from Takom after this one. Is especially excited about their T-55s and Type 69, If the Chieftain is any indication they will be great


Jakob

Thanks for the tip, will keep in mind.

Thanks, Takom's Chieftain will be most likely my next build.

Will be watching this one closely for sure, absolutely love the Chieftain. I know it's early in the build, but do you already have a paint scheme and markings in mind? Have there also been any hiccups in building so far? Been wanting one of these to go next to my old Tamiya Chief that I backdated to a MK 2
-Seth

As a matter of fact I have decided on a paint scheme. I’ve decided to build this chieftain as a whif tank of the Swedish army. The thought being that the army staff, being satisfied with their Centurions but felling that they needed a bigger gun for newer soviet tanks decided on buying the Centurions bigger brother, the Chieftain. So it’s going to be painted in Swedish splinter camo and the plan is to make a white-washed winter camo. I think it will look really cool.

As for the build I have continued work with construction of the rear of the tank. The first step was the muffler box that sits on the back of the Chieftain. It consists of 5 parts which are all beautifully molded with loads of nice detail.


The parts fit almost perfectly with a 2 small gaps due to less than perfect fit. However, more dry fitting or a dab of superglue will take care of the problem.




Next was adding some sort of electronics box, maybe an infantry phone? I don’t know its function. The muffler box has some locating aids molded in (a raised square) but the square on the muffler box is smaller than the corresponding hole in the electronics box so one must take care to line this part up properly before gluing.


The exhaust is also, logically, attached to the muffler box and each consists of 2 parts. These fit rather well but leave a substantial seam that needs to be sanded. After some work however they can be made look good without the need for putty. The inside of the exhaust will be covered in soot and similar so you will most likely not see the seam when painted and weathered.





Here is a view of the finished muffler box (excluding extra track links and some other details):


Next of was adding the muffler box to the rear along with towing hooks and similar.


I began with the towing hooks and discovered another error by Takom which is the size of the towing hooks. They are too small for the holes which they are mounted in. I show the extreme positions.


I decided to mount the towing hooks in the topmost postion of the two, since the model is often viewed from the top this will minimize the risk of someone spotting it. It is however an easy fix with some plastic card but I decided against it this time.



Next came fitting the muffler box where, yet again, the location aids are smaller than the hole of the part giving room for adjustment, or if you’re not careful mounting it in the wrong place. To illustrate this:



Looking at some reference (especially the distance between the underside of the muffler box and the cables) Courtesy of Erik Jan Eskes:


I came up with this placement:


I also found a good way to check that the muffler box is in the right position. Also not the nice weld seam detail on the shackle holders in the zoomed in picture:


I also added the transmission which has some lovely detail on it


I also started preparing the lower hull for mounting the rear that I had just completed. I discovered that the hull had warped some leaving it to wide. I added a little strip of plastic card to rectify this.


Lastly I began cleaning up the indy links for the tracks. They have two small tabs that need to be removed edit: the center tab shouldn't be removed . With an Exacto blade to help you it takes about a second per link. Since there are 194 of them it still takes a while. However most of the links only have the center tab still there so therefore you usually only have to remove one tab per link. However about every tenth link had both tabs still attached.


So that is all for today. Comments and suggestions as always very appreciated.

Cheers!

Jakob

I think that is incorrect. The off center nub needs to be removed but the central one directly in line with the guide tooth is the retaining nut/bolt for the rubber track pad as far as I recall

Of course they are, thanks for the heads up. I haven't removed them yet so lucky me

Jakob

seems I may have been mistaken about the hush puppies on a Chieftain. https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwikmKic69LLAhWjmIMKHVLqCAgQjhwIBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhmvf.co.uk%2Fforumvb%2Fshowthread.php%3F33368-Centurion-1960-s-British-Army&psig=AFQjCNFLszvnkXucypkKvpbpDJCX1p7B_g&ust=1458685159168676&cad=rjt

Trakpin,

Your photograph does show a Centurion not a Chieftain (unless I've missed the point - not unknown!)

Brian

Isn't that a Centurion?

yeah, it is lol. was searching Chieftain pix and google being google, irrelevancy creeped in

Nice work Jakob. I'm buildiing a Mk.10 at the moment and it is kicking and screaming against me all the way! I have to say that I was very excited about this kit but it has left me feeling very deflated with all the poors fitment of parts, horrendous sprue attachments and awful mould seams. You'd expect a lot better from a modern day manufacturer

Gary

Thanks and sorry to hear about the quality! Maybe it’s the MK.10 (but I think they share most parts) or maybe your copy is a Friday car. The MK.11 that I’m building is very nice with parts so far fitting very well and very few problems (those that are detailed above). They have however forgotten to include all parts in mine and Trakpin’s kit so it would seem that they, to some extent, have a quality control issue so it’s possible you got even more unlucky

Cheers

Jakob

iffn the OP hasn't yet found the poly caps for the gun trunion, they're in with the track pads. thought I had lost mine and had to improvise, which actually worked. just found the caps now. had NO idea they were there

Hi!

After a long absence i have an update on the chieftain. As so often life got in the way for a while. I have completed the building portion of the project and have just completed painting it. Instead of building a real tank I decided that this will be a whif build, specifically a tank of the Swedish army.

Backstory: Analysis by the Swedish staff indicated that if a confrontation where to occur between NATO and USSR it was likely that the northern parts of Sweden where to be occupied by soviet forces. Planners concluded that there were two likely attack scenarios, either the capture all of Sweden or a limited occupation where only the northern parts of Sweden where occupied. Both scenarios concluded that all of Finland would be captured. The capture of all of Sweden would be a combination of naval operations to capture the south of Sweden and ground forces invading from the USSR and Finland would capture the northern parts of Sweden. The capture of only the northern part of Sweden would only involve ground forces from the USSR and Finland. The objective was to enable the attack and subsequent capture of the coast of Norway, thus giving USSR control of the Arctic Ocean and enable attacks into the Atlantic Ocean cutting of Europe from the US and Canada.

As a result of this analyses the northern parts of Sweden where heavily fortified. This included artillery forts, tank ditches, all roads and bridges prepared to be blown in the case of an attack, large networks of bunkers, gun emplacements etc. The Strv 103 (S-tank) was also stationed in the northern parts of Sweden.

Fantasy part: In the 1970s with the introduction of the T-72 the military command became increasingly concerned that the tank forces would be outmatch if an attack where to occur. They also saw the need for a more offensive tank design to complement the role of the defensive Strv 103. Due to heightening tensions if was concluded that the development of an indigenous tank would be too time consuming. With the Army’s Centurions being well liked by the Swedish military it was concluded that the British Chieftain would be a good complement. The deal was signed and deliveries began, the tanks being deployed as the Strv 121 at Boden in northern Sweden. To deal with the harsh climate auxiliary heathers were installed in the storage box in the rear of the turret and the tank was painted in the iconic Swedish splinter camo.

Painting: The original swedish splinter camo was light green, dark green, black and brown. The brown was however omitted on later tank designs. I painted my Chieftain in the 3-tone splinter camo. In the winter the tanks where whitewashed with the light green fields being covered. Since I wanted my Chieftain in a winter setting I decided on the green, black, white pattern with the light green showing thru. As you might have guessed the painting involved a lot of masking. The order was: dark green, masking, black, masking, light green and then white over chipping fluid (MIG). After that a layer of gloss, decals and then a satin coat in preparation of weathering. Lastly a couple of pics of the tank before weathering. It is a little dusty since it has been sitting for a while.








Hopefully back with an update on the weathering soon!
Comments and suggestions appreciated!

Jakob