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Centurion Modellers Guide - The Early Marks

by Ian Wright and M.P. Robinson

Reviewed by Peter Brown

Summary

Title:	SMM Publishing Centurion Modellers Guide The Early Marks by Ian Wright and M.P. Robinson
ISBN:	9798577669120
Media and Contents:	100 A4 pages, soft cover
Price:	UK price £21.50 plus postage
Review Type:	First Read
Advantages:	Great guide to producing 1/35th kits of early Centurion tanks.
Disadvantages:
Recommendation:	Should be very useful.

FirstRead

Some rate the Centurion series as the best British tank ever. It may have arrived too late for WW2 but went on to form the backbone of the British and several other armies during the Cold War. Centurions saw action in Korea, the Middle East, the Indo-Pakistan conflicts and Vietnam. Over its service it was continually improved and up-gunned from the 17pdr through the 20pdr and finally the 105mm as well as being used as the basis for many specialist AFVs.

This book is based on the 1/35th models of Australian modeller Ian Wright with background details from Canadian Merlin Robinson. It features large-sized colour photos showing the model builds themselves with photos of the original vehicles and drawings from original Handbooks. Together these form a great source of information for anyone wanting to produce their own models.

All are based on available kits, mostly the AFV Club series along with the Platz “Girls und Panzer” release of the earliest type and the old Tamiya offering from 1971. Many extra details were scratch built but conversion sets saving a lot of this work can be had from Scorpion Miniature Models or Accurate Armour. Details of these are included in the text with the builds and in a useful summary. As with all modelling books, other kits became available too late to be included and more will probably follow.

The models covered are:

A41 Heavy Cruiser Tank, the original prototype/trials version using the Platz kit.
Mk 1 also using the Platz kit.
Mk 2 using the AFV Club kit.
Two Mk 3 based on the Tamiya kit with a lot of improvements.
Mk 5 from the AFV Club kit.
FV4004 Conway Tank Destroyer the AFV Club kit with a scratch built turret

Also included are three solutions to extend the tank’s range-

A Mk 3 upgunned from a Mk 2 and a new-build Mk 3 with two types of scratch built Workshops-produced auxiliary fuel tanks on AFV Club kits.
A Mk 5 with Dutch fittings and the Mono-Wheel Trailer fitted using an AFV Club kit with an MR Models aftermarket trailer.
An Australian Mk 5/1 tank in Vietnam with the armoured bolt-on tank using the AFV Club kit.

While the attention is on the outside of the tanks with details such as the towing hook and variations in roadwheels, some photos and drawings show the Meteor engine, gearbox and radiator. All the builds are unpainted which shows the work done on the models.

Thumbnail panels:

Summing up, some great work by a talented modeller clearly presented for us to see and use. I am sure many models will be created based on what is here and that later Marks will get their own book in due course.

Highly Recommended

Text and Images by Peter Brown
Page Created 5 May, 2021
Page Last Updated 5 May, 2023