Hi.

Here's pix of my recently finished my Challenger 2 11B, CO's tank, B Squadron, Royal Scots Dragoons. It is a conversion of the Tamiya desertised kit into a "plain-vanilla" Challenger 2 (because I was sick of seeing up-armoured, desertised Challenger 2s hehehe)












I've done finishing a build article on this project with in-prog and more finished pix, but I have yet to submit it to Armorama (having trouble with the submit feature section - find it strange). Can anyone help me submit the article to Armorama? I clicked on the support button for submitting such, but I get an Error 404 page.

Nice work
How did you do the mud ?
Dust+ PVA glue and acrylic paint ?
the top of the turret did you do any special treatment of this surface?

cheers
seb

Thanks. The mud is garden soil mixed with water and white glue, applied using a toothbrush. Excess was brushed away when the mud was somewhat dry. The hull and turret surfaces were given anti-slip coating, using Mr Surfacer 500, applied by brush, stippled.

For the Anti slip
do you really nead to used Mr Surfacer or the quality of Tamiya is so bad ?
concerning the colour it seems really yellow to me picture problem or not ?
Concerning the mud, at the rear i did not notice any mud, is it normal ?

Cheers
Seb

Nice model!

Seb,

He has used the MR surfacer to replicate the non slip coating on the horizontal surfaces.

On the real tank the paint has very coarse grit in it to stop the crew slipping when it is wet.

MR surfacer is one of several ways of reproducing it in miniature.

regards

Joe

Joe
i just read on a French magazine a report for this tank from Tamiya and the anti slip coating is really nice.
Therefore my question is: do you really need to correct it with Mr Surfacer ??
TIA
Cheers
Seb

Seb,

There is no anti slip on the Tamiya kit. I used cast-a-coat on mine, which is sat on the work bench at the moment.

The kit itself is excellent, by far the best quality chally in plastic, but the anti slip is a serious ommision as it is very noticable on the real AFV.

Regards

Joe

Joe
thank for the comments
cheers
seb

The anti-slip texture is moulded on the Tamiya but it is barely noticable ( compared to the finish on the real thing which has a very course finish)
plus a after a coat or two of paint it dissapears on the kit


Ian

Nice to see some folks converting their Challies!

I really like the work you did on the fuel drums, especially the latches - is that a PE part, or modified from the kit?

One small point - your are right, 11B is the CO, but he is in HQ Sqn, not B Sqn.

Seb: There is mud at the rear, it's not that too apparent. I wanted to keep the mud at a "bare minimum" really (in fact, I overdid it again apparently hehehe). As for the yellow, maybe it's your monitor or the effect of the green paint with soil and white light. In person, the build is actually quite dark. No flash was used when taking these pix however.

I dunno what Tamiya C2 kit you are seeing guys but the one I build has NO anti-slip coating whatsoever. It's as smooth as paper. No marks or any indications show that the anti-slip coating is molded on. I think you're confusing it to another kit or Tamiya has a new C2 which has a very very very shallow anti-slip coating which I haven't seen at the stores at all.

Stormfront: Thanks. The latches and straps are all scratchbuilt using aluminum and styrene stock (latches) and sandpaper (straps), the aluminum having been drilled, cut, filed, and bent to shape:



I cleaned up the fuel drums of their molded-on straps and latches. Here's a comparison shot of the scratchbuilt straps and latches:





As for the unit, I see... I noticed that Maj. Chris Brannigan (the guy who TC's 11B) is mentioned as CO of B Squadron, Scots DG in the following sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/07/war07.xml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2878349.stm
http://www.drumbeat.mlaterz.net/March%202003/Allies%20besiege%20Basra%20032303a.htm

Concord's Chally 2 book says the same thing (11B is of B Squadron, Scots DG). Then again, they all could be wrong. (not the first time that happened)

Since I dunno how to submit an article, here's some more pix of the build:



























Aftermarket parts used are the indy tracks (Armour Track Models) and the Tamiya PE engine mesh fret.

Cracking model!

There is a difference between the CO (Commanding Officer, usually a Lt. Colonel, commands the regiment) and the OC (Officer Commanding, usually a Major, commands the Squadron). Hope this might help. Go by their rank, not their title.

Thanks Murdo. I see, so it's HQ not B squadron then... correct? Getting confused.... hehehe :-)

Just out of curiosity, would you find either CO or OC in a Chally? Would they not be in a FV432 or Warrior command vehicle?

It's a long time since I left the Army.

Dunno Murdo. I just based my info on Concord's Challenger 2 book and those online. All I see is CO-this, and CO-that.

I think COs have their own tanks, but at a certain level (maybe regiment or even higher), COs fight from a command vehicle. Not in the army (nor any army at that) so I really dunno.

Nice in-progress shots, I like to see how folks scratchbuild their own details.

As for the Sqn nomenclature, 11B is definitely the CO, and the fact that the c/s is superimposed over a diamond indicates it's HQ Sqn.

Hope this info is of use:

Triangle (upright or inverted) = A Sqn
Square = B sqn
Circle = C Sqn
Rectangle or bottom half of circle = D Sqn
Diamond = HQ

The c/s used are as fols:
11B = Commanding Officer (LCol)
22B = Regt 2 i/c (Maj)
0B = Officer Commanding (Maj. In the articles, this is the Major's position, though they refer to him as a Squadron Leader)
10 = Troop Leader 1st Tp (Lt or 2nd Lt)
20 = TL 2 Tp
30 = TL 3 Tp
40 = TL 4 Tp
11 & 12 = Gun tanks 1st Tp
21 & 22 = ' ' 2 Tp
31 & 32 = ' ' 3 Tp
41 & 42 = ' ' 4 Tp

So, you can see there are 3 tanks in a Troop, 4 Troops in a Sqn, and 4 Sqn's in a Regt. I'm not sure if HQ Sqn has the same tank troop org as A-D Sqn.

oh yeah, I meant to ask, how were those tracks?

Stormfront: Thanks very much with that info! I'll save it and keep it as reference.

The tracks are excellent. Lots of parts and small ones at that but they assemble well without problems. For the first track, it took me on-and-of nearly a whole day to do. For the second track, just a few hours since I had by then experience to do it. I experienced broken tracks but the set has lots of extras - enough to keep several indies left in case the track gets broken. They are also workable (but not now in my build due to the mud) and depict 100% (IMO) the function of a track. Best part is that you could depict accurate sagging or the track doesn't curve towards the inside of the hull unlike vinyl tracks that are too tight. Pricey though (P999.00 over here - at the current exchange rate of US$1.00=P54.00). Has resin idlers and sprockets for use in the Trumpeter kit (the set actually says that the Trump C2 is the recommended kit, but I had no problems using it with the Tamiya kit).

Here's review of the tracks from Perth Modelling:

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/at_tk-13.htm

Beautiful work on your C2, I love the fuel barrel straps and latches. I would have gone a little lighter on the mud, but hey, to each their own.


Ian, the Tamiya kit doesn't have the anti-slip molded on, and neither do any of the three Trumpeter C2's that I have sitting here in front of me.

Cheers,
Mike

I don't know alot about this vehicle so I can't make any comments on the accuracy.

However i really like what you have done with this model. Its nice to see a Chally painted green without those canvas skirts which I find make the tank look ugly. I guess I just like to see the road wheels. :-)

Nice work!

Jeff

Thanks Mike, Jeff.

GIBeregovoy
Thanks for posting more pics
Really impressive work on the strap for the barrel and on the details
By the way did you put Mr Surfacer on the vertical side part of the turret ??
I didn't found on the web a clear pics from the vertical part but i'm not an expert on British MBT, maybe some people will answer this question.
nice work you have
cheers
seb

Seb,

Most challys do have the anti slip on the forward half of the turret sides. it is usually hard to see in photos unless they are taken up close.

regards

Joe

Dear Joe
I'm agree with you but they don't have on the side part of the turret ?

Check the photo below please:


TIA

Seb

Here's a comparison shot posted by Bob Griffin in www.tanxheaven.com



It's relatively faint in the above photo but one can make out the antislip portion and the one that doesn't.

The picture for the other side is more apparent:




EDIT

Here are two more pix where the anti-slip portion of the left side of the turret is more apparent:





For the last photo, note the darker, rough forward portion and the smooth rear portion. Stuart Galbraith of TankNet told me that one purpose of the anti-slip on the vertical sides is to dull the paint which sometimes is glossy.