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The kit i will be building for this SIG build is the 1/35 Tamiya Challenger 2 desertised version, i have also done an in box review.
THE TANK
Vickers who manufacture the challenger tank had continued to develop the challenger 2 and in August 1990 9 protoypes were built. Althoughboth tanks look very similar in appearence internally the challenger 2 is an entierly new tank, it's features far surpass that of the challenger 1 with improved second generation Chobham armourwhich is capable of withstanding armour pierceing and shape charge rounds.
The fire control system has been updated with the latest digital technology, including a panoramic commanders sight with built in laser range finder and a thermal gunners sight. The 120mm L30 rifled main gun provides improved muzzzle velocity and accuracy, hich enables the vehicle to fire armoured piercing rounds, HESH, smokeand depleted uranium rounds, in mid 2005 this gun was upgraded to the Reinmetall 120mm smooth bore L55. Secial modifications were made to tanks serving in a dessert enviornment by adding reactive front armour composite armour on the sides a special cover to reduce exhaust heat, canvas skirts to reduce dust digestion. A coaxially mounted 7.62 boeing company chain gun and an externally mounted GPMG L37A machine gun.
THE KIT
The kit iam reviewing is Tamiys 1/35 Challenger 2 desertised kit no 274. In the box we get five sprues of dark yellow plastic, seperate top and bottom hulls, clear styrene parts, flexible vinyl tracks, decals, a white length of twine, nuts and bolts, polycaps, a length of copper wire and two sheets of flat styrene sheet 1 clear and 1 white. The 16 page instruction booklet is layed out in 29 easy to follow clearly printed illustrations, these pages show three diagrams for three seperate tanks. All the parts are free from flash and little or no clean up is needed, all detail is nice and crisp with ejector pin marks kept to a minimum and hidden.
The road wheels, return rollers, idler wheels and sprockets have all been re-worked to produce nice crisp clean detail which is better than the original kit, glueable flexible vinyl tracks are nicely detailed and accurate with no need to replace them with aftermarket parts. The rear hull panel is completely new and crisply moulded showing lots of detail both on the moulded and the add on parts. The fuel drums and their supportsare well detailed as are the jerry can racks, wire reel and troop telephone bits. Tail lights are very nicelydone using clear lenses and a finely moulded guard cage.
The side skirts and the Chobham armour blocks have all the bolt and weld mark detail and detail is accurately portrayed with very realistic sculpted canvas skirts. The main turret is made up of five parts with the side and rear walls moulded seperately for good detail, you get clear parts for some of the periscopes and lenses but the commanderspersicopesneed to be cut from thr clear flat styrene sheet using the template on the instructions. The hatches arenicely detailed both on thie interior and exterior, the GPMG machine gun is beautifully detailed and its mount is designed so that the gun remains moveable in elevation after assembly. The main gun is attached to the turret using polycaps and the main barrel is made from four parts with a seperate muzzle, two long barrel halves and a small round insert for the fume extractor with beuatifully moulded on detail.
All in all this is a beautifully moulded kit which when built is bigger than your average 1/35 piece. I would highly recomend this kit and being that it is from Tamiya you end up with an impressively detailed kit due to the quality and fit of all the parts. As stated it is a big kit when built larger than the king tiger in length, so if you havent got this one already it is definately one to keep in your stash at home you wont be disapointed.
Scott :emo6:
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THE TANK
Vickers who manufacture the challenger tank had continued to develop the challenger 2 and in August 1990 9 protoypes were built. Althoughboth tanks look very similar in appearence internally the challenger 2 is an entierly new tank, it's features far surpass that of the challenger 1 with improved second generation Chobham armourwhich is capable of withstanding armour pierceing and shape charge rounds.
The fire control system has been updated with the latest digital technology, including a panoramic commanders sight with built in laser range finder and a thermal gunners sight. The 120mm L30 rifled main gun provides improved muzzzle velocity and accuracy, hich enables the vehicle to fire armoured piercing rounds, HESH, smokeand depleted uranium rounds, in mid 2005 this gun was upgraded to the Reinmetall 120mm smooth bore L55. Secial modifications were made to tanks serving in a dessert enviornment by adding reactive front armour composite armour on the sides a special cover to reduce exhaust heat, canvas skirts to reduce dust digestion. A coaxially mounted 7.62 boeing company chain gun and an externally mounted GPMG L37A machine gun.
THE KIT
The kit iam reviewing is Tamiys 1/35 Challenger 2 desertised kit no 274. In the box we get five sprues of dark yellow plastic, seperate top and bottom hulls, clear styrene parts, flexible vinyl tracks, decals, a white length of twine, nuts and bolts, polycaps, a length of copper wire and two sheets of flat styrene sheet 1 clear and 1 white. The 16 page instruction booklet is layed out in 29 easy to follow clearly printed illustrations, these pages show three diagrams for three seperate tanks. All the parts are free from flash and little or no clean up is needed, all detail is nice and crisp with ejector pin marks kept to a minimum and hidden.
The road wheels, return rollers, idler wheels and sprockets have all been re-worked to produce nice crisp clean detail which is better than the original kit, glueable flexible vinyl tracks are nicely detailed and accurate with no need to replace them with aftermarket parts. The rear hull panel is completely new and crisply moulded showing lots of detail both on the moulded and the add on parts. The fuel drums and their supportsare well detailed as are the jerry can racks, wire reel and troop telephone bits. Tail lights are very nicelydone using clear lenses and a finely moulded guard cage.
The side skirts and the Chobham armour blocks have all the bolt and weld mark detail and detail is accurately portrayed with very realistic sculpted canvas skirts. The main turret is made up of five parts with the side and rear walls moulded seperately for good detail, you get clear parts for some of the periscopes and lenses but the commanderspersicopesneed to be cut from thr clear flat styrene sheet using the template on the instructions. The hatches arenicely detailed both on thie interior and exterior, the GPMG machine gun is beautifully detailed and its mount is designed so that the gun remains moveable in elevation after assembly. The main gun is attached to the turret using polycaps and the main barrel is made from four parts with a seperate muzzle, two long barrel halves and a small round insert for the fume extractor with beuatifully moulded on detail.
All in all this is a beautifully moulded kit which when built is bigger than your average 1/35 piece. I would highly recomend this kit and being that it is from Tamiya you end up with an impressively detailed kit due to the quality and fit of all the parts. As stated it is a big kit when built larger than the king tiger in length, so if you havent got this one already it is definately one to keep in your stash at home you wont be disapointed.
Scott :emo6:
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