Nice work, clean masking, how did you do it?

I like it!

Ditto on the vision blocks, how did you do them?

The Thermal cover on the barrel was canvas-type material, so aught not to be glossy, tone it down a little?

Also the main gun requires an internal mantlet cover, from around the barrel up to the metal strip with bolts on it around the turret opening.

I used plasticene to fill the gap, & painting the 'canvas' with PVA, but this had the effect of fixing the elevation.

The Co-axial MG to the left of the barrel is slaved to the barrel elevation, btw.

Nice paint job. The mere thought at masking for modern digital camo just makes me shudder.

Nice work! Love the crazy camo. Just wondering is this a modern Chieftan or Cold War?

waynec, thanks for looking and the suggestions

Jon, the masking was done with Tamiya tape; took some time.

The vision blocks are done by covering with thin metalic foil .

If you look at the first picture, showing the parade there is no mantlet cover and the box art shows none either, hope this answers those points, thank you for looking

Blitzwing, thank  you looking looking in, the masking is not too difficult or I would not have been able to do it; I left a few pieces off to make life easier and replaced after painting...cheers....Kenny

Gamera, this is cold war era; thank you for your kind remarks...cheers....Kenny

to add to jon's comment and to not be a know-it-all ass the COAX stands for co-axial which means it is aligned (or slaved if you will) to the main gun and boresighted with the main gun and main gun sightsso it points \at the same spot the main gun does.

i will try the foil the next time i have solid vision blocks. all of my recent wheels have clear blocks so i paint the lens with clear green and use various clear colors on headlights, running lights, etc. if solid i paint first with silver and overpaint with clear.

Sweet really cool looking Chieftain.

Terry.

waynec, thanks for the input; does this mean the coax gun is used as a sighting gun?.

Terry, very nice of you to say so....cheers....Kenny

WOW GREAT PAINT JOB. SPACEPACKER

Clay

Very nice paint job What colors did you use for the urban camo? I have always liked that scheme but never had the stones to try to do it. Yours does indeed look parade ready. I can only suggest for critique to add a radio antenna on the mount and perhaps a dust cover in the open mantlet.

On most modern tanks, the gunner has a switch he can flip to change the reticle in his sights based on the type of ammo he is firing (HEP, HEAT, AP, APERS and Coax). so the coax isn't used for ranging. Having said that, old school tankers were trained on using the commander's .50 cal machine gun to determine range in case of failure of the primary ranging system of the time (coincidence range finder).

The .50 was boresighted to 1200m (which was the battle sight or the pre-set range of the main gun) so a burst of tracers in the area of the target could help the gunner decide if the target was more or less than that depending on where the rounds landed. As the commander walked the rounds on target, he could tell the gunner the range to the target by seeing the range his machine gun sights were at when the rounds hit the target.

Every 5th round in a box of .50 cal ammo was a tracer round so a burst was easy to see as it traveled from the tank to the target.

Modern laser range finders made the "follow my tracers" method even more obsolete, but any tankers worth their salt could determine range this way if their sighting and ranging systems were down.

vonryan, thank for your exuberant reply.

stikpusher, the colours I used are Flat White, Light flat blue and light flat Brown but on another forum a member; who took part in the actual parade said it was Flat Grey for the blue. I have no room for antenna's, bases. all down to height and width of my cabinet.. good to see you over here as well.

waynec and Rob, thanks for the input on the coaxial gun, for future ref I think as this build is purely for the cammo...cheers....Kenny

Beautiful job on this one Kenny, it's not an easy scheme to tackle and you've nailed it just right IMHO.

hi rob

when where you in and where? they don't have most of that ammo anymore. i think it's mostly APFSDS and HEAT. i never learned the .50 ranging technique though i could have

the gunner also had a backup telescope coaxially aligned with the main gun with a stadia reticle (choke sight) for estimating range and for seeing if the main gun was clear of any obstacles when in hull down position

and if you were in an A2 missile tank it's a hole different game.

"By George, I think you've got it."

   Great paint detail.

I retired a year ago tomorrow (1 July 2011) as a lieutenant colonel at Fort Knox. I enlisted in August 1983. Yes, many of those ammo types no longer exist once we went away from the 105mm to 120mm (HEAT-MP or high explosive anti-tank multipurpose was added to give the 120 some HEP and APERS capability). The MGS uses the 105mm and still has old style ammo available.

Every tank I've served on has a telescopic sight for degraded gunnery. On the M48A5 and M60-series it was called the 105 Delta. On the M1/M1A1/M1A2 it is called the G.A.S. or gunner's auxillary sight. The GAS (pronounced Gee Aye Ess) had a HEP/Sabot reticle and a HEAT reticle. Coax firing used the HEP reticle to insure proper super elevation.

The M48A5, M60A1, M60A3 and M1/M1IP all had the ability to fire HEP and APERS (beehive) rounds as well as HEAT and Sabot. Beehive even had two different fire commands, Beehive and Beehive Timed which told the loader whether to leave it at the 800m setting or to set the time based on the range announced by the TC.

I learned the ranging method while on the M60A3TTS. We trained degraded mode gunnery often and we were quite good at it (i.e. fighting the tank if your LRF or TTS was inop). While in Germany in the late 80s-early 90s, buring up ammo at the local gunnery range or Graf was never an issue. Machine gun ranging wasn't as relevant when I was on the M48A5 because the TC's weapon was an M60D on a flexible mount and anti-aircraft style cirular sight and not a fixed and boresighted cupola like an M60 or M1/M1A1.

The last tank I served on was the M1A2 (non-SEP). I never served on an M60A2 or a straight M60 (aka Slick 60 or M60 A-nothing).

hi rob

my first platoon in gernany had 2 m60s and 4 a1s. we transitioned to a2s in july 74. i later took the mortar platoon and had a csc company at carson before getting out and teaching MILES for 8 years on 3 different NETTs.

I began Army life as a National Guard CEV crewman (12F) after being convinced it was just like being a tanker (not). I switched to an armor battalion with M48A5. I went on active duty and trained as an M1IP tanker but was sent to a unit in Germany with M60A3TTS tanks. We were the last battalion in Germany still equipped with the A3 (except for the Berlin Bde tank company and OPFOR at Hohenfels). We transitioned to M1A1s in 1989 and rolled over to M1A1 Heavies in 1990. I transitioned to the M1A2 as a company commander with 1st Cav at Hood in the mid 90s.

Rob Gronovius

...........old school tankers were trained on using the commander's .50 cal machine gun to determine range in case of failure of the primary ranging system of the time (coincidence range finder).

The .50 was boresighted to 1200m (which was the battle sight or the pre-set range of the main gun) so a burst of tracers in the area of the target could help the gunner decide if the target was more or less than that depending on where the rounds landed. As the commander walked the rounds on target, he could tell the gunner the range to the target by seeing the range his machine gun sights were at when the rounds hit the target.

Rob, 

your post has made me curious as to the anticipated tank engagement ranges for a European terrain vs. desert terrain.

( I'm taking into account engagements within built up areas are expected to be much more confined than a desert terrain ) 

Kenny:

I have never before seen such a paint scheme.

Great job on that tank paint job !!!

Makes me want to buy a kit and duplicate your work.

How did you determine paint color matches and the 5 view pattern for the build?

your post has made me curious as to the anticipated tank engagement ranges for a European terrain vs. desert terrain.

West Germany was redesigned as a series of speed bumps and choke points as Warsaw Pact forces traveled from east to west. The main avenue of approach from East Germany to West Germany in the US area of operations was the infamous Fulda Gap, a giant bowling alley-shaped valley that communist forces would have had to pass through to begin their westward push. Just about every inch of that gap was covered by preset artillery fire and possibly tactical nuke weapons.

Germany's north-south autobahns were raised superhighways that would restrict travel by armor or tactical vehicles except where the overpasses were. And these overpasses were huge concrete structures that were designed to have engineers emplace charges in them so they could be collapsed and thus block east-west travel even further.

We weren't to fight in built up areas. If we survived (unlikely) we were to fall back to the next defensive position. Most engagements would take place from 800-1200m, but our armor could reach out about 2 miles away. Cities and towns would have been bypassed in order to rush to cut allied lines of communication (supply lines).

Rob Gronovius

your post has made me curious as to the anticipated tank engagement ranges for a European terrain vs. desert terrain.

West Germany was redesigned as a series of speed bumps and choke points as Warsaw Pact forces traveled from east to west. The main avenue of approach from East Germany to West Germany in the US area of operations was the infamous Fulda Gap, a giant bowling alley-shaped valley that communist forces would have had to pass through to begin their westward push. Just about every inch of that gap was covered by preset artillery fire and possibly tactical nuke weapons.

Germany's north-south autobahns were raised superhighways that would restrict travel by armor or tactical vehicles except where the overpasses were. And these overpasses were huge concrete structures that were designed to have engineers emplace charges in them so they could be collapsed and thus block east-west travel even further.

We weren't to fight in built up areas. If we survived (unlikely) we were to fall back to the next defensive position. Most engagements would take place from 800-1200m, but our armor could reach out about 2 miles away. Cities and towns would have been bypassed in order to rush to cut allied lines of communication (supply lines).

Bill, thank you once again.

Disastermaster, thank you too...cheers....Kenny

Sprue-ce Goose, for the paint colour matches I used the first pic as my guide which I found on Google, I'm not sure that I know what you mean by 5 view pattern?, but thanks for taking a look and thanks for your nice remarks...cheers....Kenny.

There's a four-view here:

http://www.armouredacorn.com/cambritain.html