Sorry if this has been asked before .... I searched but could not find anything...

I am building the AFV Club 1967 Shot Centurion, and will be following up with the 1973 Shot Kal. What were the interior colors for these tanks? I may want both the hull and turret hatches open, but I have no idea what color to paint the inside of the hatches, or the small amount of visible interior (in case the hull/turret interiors were different colors than the inside of the hatches). It doesn't need to be exact, just a close approximation of accurate would help. Thanks so much in advance for any info I can get!

The standard interior color for British tanks like the Centurion was silver. This allowed light to bounce around the interior and made it brighter inside. I am assuming the Israelis did not repaint them. If they did, they probably repainted them white, like US tank interior.

Here is a cut-away Centurion to see the interior color.



The interiors of the hatches would be the same color as the exterior of the hull so they would blend in and not stick out like a sore thumb when opened.

This may help...or not



I guess the dark color of the round hatch could be the original British Deep Bronze green...

H.P.

For the Shot Kal,the driver's, fighting, and engine compartment were repainted white. I don't know if they also repainted the turret interior. My reference is "Centurion Tanks of the IDF, vol3 : Shot Kal Alef" by Dr. Robert Manasherob.

This picture is from 1968. The hatch interior color is definietly different from the exterior and it looks silver to me, but I might be wrong...

The hatch interior in the above pic looks like British Deep Bronze Green to me.

What about the vehicle's primer coat before the Israelis painted on the desert tan color?

Well, if we assume that the inside of the hatch is painted in British Deep Bronze Green, than the whole tank must've been painted in that color underneath the Desert Tan.

All,
Thanks very much for the great responses. I appreciate the info. I think I'll probably just go with silver for the hatch insides and turret interior and maybe white for the hull interiors. Like I wrote before, close works for me!

I would go with the hatch interiors either IDF sand or British Bronze Green. The hatch interiors were never silver. You can see below the green hatch interior on these Brit versions.

Gino,

Thanks for those even better photos. I suppose it's better to use a color that can absolutely be proven to have been a color that the hatches were at some point in their lives.

Curt,
Keep this in mind, The Sho't Cal was a total rebuild and more than likely received the white interior paint. The Sho't Meteor was primarily a hull upgrade of the original Centurions that the Israelis received from British sources. The interior of the hatches would be DBG for the Meteor or sand for the Sho't Cal. But it is your model, so your choice.

John

Hi Guys
I agree with hatch interiors being the same colour as the exterior.
I'm currently assembling a 1/16th Cent the Chris Ludwig kit, but have a question re the gap between the turret stowage boxes & turret - http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/daryl_nightingale/centurion_mk_5/index.php?Page=4 - it looks to be quite large - 1-2 inches maybe? Was this evident on every Cent?

Mal

"Every"? - Maybe not, hard to prove a negative.
"Almost all" - yes.

It's a function of trying to math a simple sheet metal shape to the complex sand cast turret. There's almost always going to be gaps and places where they don't fit.

Paul

Hi Paul
My mistake, should have said 'most'.
Thanks for the response, I've addressed it by glueing 1.5mm X 2.00mm spacers on the backs of the stowage boxes, The 1.5mm in 1/16th translates to 24mm real life, so probably close enough.

Mal

Pics of my build so far - http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-tanks-369/11621397-centurion-tank-1-16-a-8.html - Post #179 is most relevant.

If you want a size comparison with the 1/35th Cent turret, look at Post #175 on the precceding page.

Mal

Wow, what a HUGE tank your 1/16 Centurion will be!

Hi Kurt
Yep it is a little on the large size, even for 1/16th.
The interesting part is the lack of detailed instructions, there is a manual of build photo's, but.....

Mal

Thought this might be of interest - http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3931&sid=2f2c1369ef82e23811bb99ccdb89fc28&start=735 -
It’s Stephen White’s 1/6th Armortek Centurion build, which I’ve been following for the past 4 yrs odd.

If you were wondering about the costs of the different scales – the 1/16th Resin Centurion turret is $80 Euro, the 3D printed version is about $270 Euro, the 1/6th cast Aluminium turret $450 pounds – Armortek sold one earlier this week.

Mal

Hello back, Malcolm,

I've seen some of the Armortek tanks before, and they are SPECTACULAR! For while there, a year or so back, I was giving some serious consideration to getting one. My wife, who generally doesn't have much to say about my hobbies, one way or the other, was actually acting like she thought we should do it. I was thinking that if I got something that outrageously expensive and such a huge commitment, in terms of time and money, I'd definitely want the specific tank that I would really love. I'd probably be boring and just get a Tiger I or Tiger II or Panther. I don't know if Armortek does modern tanks, but if they did a Merkava or even a Leopard, maybe I'd do that!

Hey Guys,

My two cents, in my army service i was in a Puma which is the engineers version of the centurion, it was white on the inside, very very dirty white.

If you want to search in Hebrew try this:
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A6%D7%A0%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9F

Cheers,
Bryan

Nagmashots, Nagmachons, Nakpadons, Pumas are all heavily modified Sho't conversions and have white interior (as all modern IDF AFV's).

I guess I have decided, with respect to my 1967 and 1973 Shots, to do the interiors in flat white, and the inside of the hatches in the exterior color. There won't, unfortunately, be much of anything to see on the interiors. Wish there was a way to fix that, on the 1973 that I will be building as Avigdor Kahalani's tank, at least for the turret. I am in no way a scratch builder, and I'm guessing scratch building is the only way to get any interior turret detail in a 1/35 scale Shot Kal. Unless anyone knows of any detailing available for a Shot Kal.

Since the main armament of the "Sho't Cal" (which stands for ContinentAL (diesel) powered Sho't") was upgraded to a 105mm cannon, I think it's safe to assume that the whole turret was refurbished and received a white interior. The original "Meteor" (petrol) powered "Sho'ts" might have retained their original silver interior (probably in the turret only), but most likely the whole interior was white.

By the way, during the "Six Days War" ('67) all "Sho'ts" were "Meteor" powered. The diesel powered "Sho't Cal" didn't enter service until May '70, even though part of features of the "Sho't Cal" (such as the 105mm cannon, deleted searchlight, upgraded smoke launchers, different headlights) already appeared on late "Meteors".