Scale: 1/35
Type: B1 Centauro AFV late Version
Manufacturer: Trumpeter Kit No. 00387
Extras used: Voyager PE Set PE 35305, ET-Model PE Set E35-006, RB-Production Barrel 35B70, Echelon C356081 Paint Masks & Reflectors, Royal Model No. 444 MBT Tank Crew, ET-Model ER35-001 weighted road wheels, EGYS EGD35007 Decal set Missione Leonte Libano, AFV-Club Anti Laser Coating Foil, ...
Paints and colours used: Stynylrez grey primer, Tamiya XF Paints, Vallejo Model Color, Alclad Aqua Gloss, Gunze H20 Matt, Pigments


Since I was on UN missions (in the 90s when I was a young Sergant) I´m a huge fan of all kind of UN modelling related stuff. In the past I´ve built quite a few of white UN tanks and AFVs in 1/35 and this is my newest addition. The italian B1 Centauro used by UNIFIL UN Forces in Lebanon.

I started the Trumpeter kit back in 2012. During the past four years I lost 3 times my Mojo for this kit and stored it in my shelf of doom. I lost the Mojo because I had way too much aftermarket parts and sets for this kit, and way too much photos and reference material. I got completely lost between all the different instruction sheets (PE-setf from Voyager and ET-Model, RB-Production barrel, weighted Resin wheels from ET-Model, Resin figure from Royal Model, Decals from EGSYS, Foils from Echelon, Anti-Laser coating foil from AFV-Club and so on ...).
But this year, in my new modelling room, motivation was high enough to finally finish the model.


The build:

Most parts fit quite well, the rear turret baskets doesn´t line up nice. Also the barrel dust cover doesn't fit and was reworked with Magic Sculp. The resin wheels from ET-Model are poorely molded with a huge gap who has to be filled. ET only molded one wheel. So you have all eight wheels in the exact same position which can look odd.
Decals from Trumpeter are bad and wrong in size, shape and font. I bought decals from the italian company EGSYS. They were right in general, but were printed on one big decal sheet and not separated. I had to cut out all decals from the shee.
For the big UN letters on the turret sides and on the front I cut vinyl masks with my Shilouette cutter.

Painting:
I primed the kit with Stynylrez grey primer. Basecoat is Tamiya XF-2 white, toned down with Tamiya Buff and thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner (50:50). Sealed after Basecoat with Alclad Aqua Gloss. Washings with thinned Oilcolors. Sealed after washing with Gunze H20 matte clear.
Chipping was done with a Sponge and green Vallejo color. Streakings were painted with reddish oil colors. Dusting was made with my home made, extremely realistic pigment mix "Lebanon summer earth, windless, two p.m., south of chicken-george"
The commander figure from Royal Model was painted with some Vallejo Model Color. Therefore I got a glossy finish on the figure and had to paint the figure with a matt varnish from Andreas.

The base:
The simple base was made from insulating foam, cut to shape with a heat-cutter, sealed with a mixture of Moltofil filler, white glue and sand/stones. I painted the base with differen shades of Tamiya earth colors an the same Pigment mix which I used on the model.

To be honest, most time it was not fun to build this model but finally I´m happy I had the steam to finish it. For future projects I should avoid all the nice aftermarket sets ;-)

Enough rant ... here are some images of the white kill-joy ..

Happy modelling,
Walter

Looks great! It almost makes me want to try building a Centauro of my own.
My only 'complaint' would be that the figure contrasts a quite a bit with the weathered look of the vehicle, but that's nothing big.

Great job Walter.

I got a heck of a deal on a Centauro metal barrel, so I suppose I now need to get the actual Centauro to go with it. This vehicle looks good in UN white, so I'll keep this thread in mind when I eventually build mine.

Great build. Thank you for sharing.

You have done a great built. Nice weathering, base, figure, flag.

Gents thank you all for your nice comments ... very appreciated.

Cheers
Walter

Great build!!

Walter, this is superb. Another home run of a build. Btw, just realize why all your UN models are nicely done...you have had personal experience with them. The family just got bigger

What a beauty! You did a great job on this one, Walter!

Would you happen to have some images of the base being built, as well? It looks really great. Thanks!

Great paint and weathering job Walter!

I have some minor comments though:
first in my taste, there are too many green parts. I'm fine with the MG shields and the interior of the sight housings.



second, the Italian crew members wore blue helmets. They added adhesive tape to their original helmets or had blue plastic shells.





Again it is a GREAT Centauro

Hi Olivier,
thx for your kind feedback. I´m glad you like it.

I painted my Centauro according to this walkaraound image from the real vehicle:


Copyright Image Paolo Faninin @ www.masterminiatures.it

At that time of deployment the Centauros had more parts left in the original green color. In this walk-around you can find more images: http://www.masterminiatures.it/walk/centauro-unifil.php

You can find online many images of standard green helmets in use:
http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/polopoly_fs/1.2930147!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_642/image.jpg
http://www.congedatifolgore.com/it/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/LIBANO-STEELSTORM-2015-51.jpg

but also fabric covers over the green helmet are used:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8235/8518422286_ba06efe429_b.jpg
http://www.difesa.it/sites/Archive1/SiteCollectionImages/02868f6a-2549-40a8-b64c-71e55594caaa/83bfcb45-3503-440d-a784-128ac3111916M_blindo%20centauro%20in%20Libano%20(UNIFIL).jpg

I had to make a decision and painted the helmet green ;-)

Cheers
Walter

@Christian ... thanks for your comment and sorry for the delay ... here are some images from the base build:


First I cut a rough shape of the insulating foam with a heat cutter.


Then I marked the shape on the sidewalls and cut them left with 5mm excess length - this will be filled with MOLTO wood filler.




MOLTO wood filler colored with Tamiya XF-59. Forming the street.




Different sized sand, the old oildrum and small stones are glued on with diluted white glue and some wheel track was put into the wet ground. Also the vehice was put on the wet ground and pushed into the moist ground.




Once dry and hard, the base got an overall black coat.



Then the base was masked to remain black and the way was colored with different Tamiya earth colores followed by a wash of different reddisch oilcolors.



Finally the base was dusted with the same pigments as used on the vehicle and wheels.






Cheers
Walter

Excellent walk-through, Walter! Thank you!

Is that plastic you are using for the side walls? If so, where do you get it from?

Wow Walter, those step by step shots are valuable. I'll be saving them as well to be used for reference at later day

Thanks for the links Walter. I didn't even know the Italians deployed overall green Centauros as well as short hull ones.

Cheers
Olivier

@Armored76 .. Chrisitan, the plastic is 2.5mm polystyrol styrene sheet. I got some free test samples (used for advertisement signs) from a local printing company. I use the backside because it is flat white and cheapo. :-)

@youngtiger1 .. glad you find the little step-by-step usefuel.

@bison126 .. Olivier, during the mission in lebanon all centauros were finally painted white. In the early mission phase there were seen some cool green vehicles with old markings from IFOR and KFOR.