FV4201 Chieftain

[SABOT]

Happy to help where I can. I’ll be investing in the finished product. 👍

I joined as a young Trooper in 1978 and finished my service in 2000 as Senior Instructor RAC Gunnery School. My last task was to write the Gunnery Instructors manual. All that time was spent on Chieftain and Challenger 1 and 2. Good times.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Needs to be an early 1980's to start with. Say 82.

Able Archer rather than Twilight 2000?

[commissarmoody]

Able Archer rather than Twilight 2000?

That would be my guess. Of course in TW2000 you would be breaking all the old SLRs out of storage to arm up the 3rd wave replacements, home guard...etc

[Blackwolf]

Looking forward to this Maybe a Conqueror ...? 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

What mark would be most common?

Needs to be an early 1980's to start with. Say 82.

My 1985 copy of "Ultra Modern Army Lists and Organisations" Volume 1 by Bruce Rea-Taylor  lists Chieftain Mk 9/12. As that has IFC, I assume it has the later barrel and shroud. Night vision is II, so no TOGS.
Though I will point out the upgrade is the "Challenger Mk 2" - which is now referred to as the Challenger 1 (the mk 2 is to differentiate it from the "stretched" Cromwell).

No substitute for real knowledge of course.

[carlos marighela]

Most likely Mk9,10 or possibly 12, the final non Stillbrew iteration. Pretty much everything after Mk5 was a rebuild/ upgrade and the 9s and 10s seem to have been late 1970’s upgrades so probably the latest around the time of Deutschland ‘83.

[SABOT]

Just to say lads that Chieftain did not use II except the Drivers night sight which was carried as a spare and had to be fitted.

 I.R. was used for a limited time in both passive and active arrangements but was poor. The drivers IR headlights and the searchlight and commanders spotlight had I.R. filters .

[Rich H]

so is it worth making the side plates separate or not?  Not seen pics of them without them.  It's a LOT easier if I can make them solid!

[SABOT]

Truthful answer is that they never look right on a model as a complete strip.

Each was bolted on individually and they were prone to damage and loss . I realise  that  this isn’t what you want to hear but if you want it to look  superb and allow some variation as the odd ‘bazooka  plate’ is missing from individual callsigns then I say individual ( but that means having the stay arms fitted as well) . Yeah , I’ve just made it even worse! 😳

[Rich H]

Ok, no probs.  I'd rather get it right.

[SABOT]

Top man. 👍

[Rich H]

It's actually no worse than the Centurion really.  The bazooka plates done need to be thin, only at the edges which means they don't need to be fragile. 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Just to say lads that Chieftain did not use II except the Drivers night sight which was carried as a spare and had to be fitted.

 I.R. was used for a limited time in both passive and active arrangements but was poor. The drivers IR headlights and the searchlight and commanders spotlight had I.R. filters .

As I mentioned...

No substitute for real knowledge of course.

[SABOT]

Top notch lads 👍

[Rich H]

bit of progress