Hiya, Folks,

I am slowly working on the AFV Club Centurion --- so far so good...

Having built the suspension, I have put the road wheels aside... The wheels will probably be coming up soon. Has anyone dealt with getting those infernal rubber tires onto the roadwheels...? I have fiddled with them and unless I am doing something wrong, it appears to be a real goat rope! I gotta wonder if it was really necessary to mold the tire-portions separately...?

Any suggestions for working with the aforementioned rubber tires? I honestly wished that that they had just molded the whole deal in plastic! Don't want to spend another $21.00 on resin replacement roadwheels, either. Truth be told, I hate ANY rubber tires included in any kit as they never seem to sit right (thinking of the Trumpeter LAV-25 and Tamiya Japanese SDF 4x4) on the plastic rims...

Also, just for the heck of it and because it was not included in the kit, I am going to try sculpting a mantlet cover on the kit part before I break down and buy a replacement from Firestorm models...

One last thing: I noticed the mention of a resin commander figure with the kit in the review currently posted on Armorama --- there was no such figure with my kit... Is this a premium addition for Asia or European releases of the kit...?

Thanks for letting me rant, amigos! Despite my complaints, I am enjoying this kit!!

Much Aloha,

Johnny B.

Hi Havoc

The vinyl tyres are a pain, a couple of things I found when working with them is that they are too flexible so need plenty of adhesive to keep them from popping off the rims and secondly if you intend priming them make sure you use an acrylic primer , I used Humbrol primer and the paint remained tacky and refused to dry, so i had to remove the primer and start again with an automotive acrylic based primer.

With regards to the mantlet I too decided to scratch one, here is how i did mine hope it will be of some help

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/81752#679530


Im not sure what the deal was with the figure but the box on mine had "special parts , first edtion only " marked on , so I presume this was a first limited edtion run

Ian

Johnny I don't know if was a premium edition or first release thing but my kit certainly did have a resin commander figure.

Cheers

Similar to Ian, the kit i reviewed was marked as "special parts , first edtion only" so if your box art never stated this, they probably omitted them in susequent releases.

Hi John,
I've had no problem putting the tires on, I just used some CA on each and they sit ok. Mine had the resin commander too. The Centurion is very enjoyable kit, the best part is that every piece fits without any putty or trimming a feature I dont see on most of my models :-)

Cheers
Greg

Thanks a bunch, guys! Yeah, I went the CA glue route for the tires and it worked pretty well --- it is still a little on the fiddly side, but hey, every kit seems to have little (or big) issues...

And thanks for the insight on the resin TC figure --- looks like I got a second run kit without the figure. Oh well!

Had a set of Friuls built up for the Tamiya Cent --- took a quick look and it doesn't look like they fit on the AFV Club sprocket, though, which is a shame. I'll take a closer look when I have more energy --- my ten month old son gets the lion's share of that these days!!

Has anyone tried the AFV Club aftermarket tracks...?

Thanks again, Gents!

Much Aloha,

Johnny B.

Johhny I went the plunge I got the AFV Club tracks to go with my Cent. In a word they are excellent and are heaps better than the vinyl tracks provided in the kit. You can find a good review at
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/afvclub/afv35102.htm

It would have been nice if they had included the indie link tracks with the kit as well as the rubber band ones to give the modeler maximum choice, but you can't have everything.

Cheers
Darren

Johnny, you also could possibly check the AFV workable tracks for yourself, as the four spare links provided in the kit are the same as in the other set 35102.

Cheers
Greg

Friul's tracks should fit the bill, according to this thread on ML :
AFV Club vs Friul

HTH
Frenchy

Hey guys..... I have a set of friuls for my Centurion and they fit the kit's plastic drive sprockets. There's enough 'play' in the friul tracks that they'll work. Also, I've managed to get the rubber tires stuck on pretty well to the road wheels using Ambroid Pro Weld glue, it's seems to stick well. I'm planning to spray the road wheels and then pick out the tires by hand with a paint brush... a bit of a pain seeing as how the separate tires were supposed to be an advantage... oh well, still a really good kit!

cheers
Bob

Thanks a bunch, guys!

You were right --- the Friuls worked with the AFV Club sprocket! Took a little fiddling, but they ended up settling over the teeth. A little sleep goes a long way!!

And who knows, if I ever get my Tamiya Mark V conversion completed, I may spring for the AFV Club tracks for that one.

Now when are we ever goin' ta see that AFV Club Duster...?!?! And it'd be great to see a Vietnam-era vehicle from Dragon or more likely Trumpeter (the latter would be perfect for releasing the PACV...dream on, I know!).

Thanks again, amigos!!

Much Aloha,

Johnny B.