After 3 years gathering dust in a shelf, I'll revive this project... Now is easier to find pics and info than 3 years ago (pics from museum vehicles and low-res wartime pictures though)... Good for me. My goal is to reach this:
As I said in my first post, it is Shot-Cal Dalet, the latest upgrade done to IDF Centurions before they were transformed into APCs. It features a gun with thermal jacket and new sight cover for the TC... Oh yes, and Blazer ERA. Well, I decided to add more detail to the turret, so this is what I did:
According to my info, both Centurion Mk. 3 and Mk.5 versions were used by the IDF, both versions modified to the same standart. There are several differences between the turrets of both variants, first of all (and most important), the roof layout... A pic will explain it all clearly:
To the right: An Mk.3 roof, to the left: An Mk.5 roof. The gunner's periscope is on the roof in the Mk.3, it was moved forward, to the turret shell, in the Mk.5. Another difference is the rear hatch, necessary for unmounting the 20 pdr. gun on the Mk.3, deleted on the Mk5:
Top: Mk.3 rear, Below: Mk.5 rear. AFAIK, there were Sho't-Cal Dalet with both type of turrets, the most significant difference between them are the ERA tiles used on them, 8 for an Mk.3 turret and 7 for a Mk.5 turret, more on this later. As we all know, Tamiya's Centurion depicts an Mk.3 version. Now I'll begin the modifications :)
Oh my goodness! What a terrible kit! Is what I thought when I compared the Tamiya kit with a AFV Club offering, given to me for adding some weld lines (more of this tragedy later)... Tamiya's turret is undersized! It needs to be stretched 2 mm to the rear, and more detail to be added to the turret base. It needs a major reshape, both halves have a very bad fit. I decided to use the AFV Club's turret as a basis for the correct dimensions. This is what I've done:
To the left: AFV Club's turret, to the right: Tamiya's turret. I added some plastic strips to the base, then applied putty. I added the missing 2 mm to the rear using plasticard, then beefed it up with epoxy putty and sanded to shape. New texture was made using Tamiya putty + Testors liquid cement. I had to erase the little hatch at the turret's left side... I'll deal with it later. the roof was modified as well, I added the missing 2 mm, and carefully removed the commanders cupola, so I could rotate it to make the hatch hinge to be backwards, not to the right side. A pic of the original turret, taken from Eduard's site:
This is my modified turret:
I made some modifications to the turret mantlet. I'll post the pics later, with more pics of my modified turret. I started working on a new commander's hatch, more on this in another update. Something happened to the hull I was modifying... I'll explain it all in the next update... Stay tuned. Thanks for looking. Best regards.
José.