Introduction

Currently, the only available 1/35th scale plastic Centurion is Tamiya’s Mark III, which was originally issued in 1971 (the Academy Centurion is a reworked copy). The bazooka plates are very badly portrayed on the kit, clipped to the trackguards by fittings that look nothing like the originals.

Contents

Two medium-sized PE frets, largely taken up by the bazooka plates themselves, which are suitably thin. Remaining etched parts consist of fittings and a few components to improve the front end of the trackguards. There are two pages of colour-coded instructions in the usual Eduard style

Description

Assembly is simple, involving the removal of the clips on the trackguards and their replacement with more accurate PE components. There is a little bending required, mostly of the small loops attached to the bazooka plates; luckily the Mark III has far fewer loops than later marks of the Centurion. Missing from the set are the rectangular plates mounted on the ends of the braces at the lower hull sides (see link). This will mean a simple bit of scratchbuilding if the model is to be shown with missing bazooka plates, though it would have been easy enough to include in the PE set.

The references cited in the instructions are minimal (an issue of Panzer magazine) and there is no mention of web-based resources which is a shame. I found walkarounds on Prime Portal (see review of 35845), Tanxheaven and Howitzer.dk which are easily accessible and helpful.

in conclusion

This set will substantially improve the appearance of the Tamiya Centurion, removing some of its most toy-like features for little effort. Recommended.

My Thanks to Eduard for the review sample.