Making An Israeli Centurion Circa 1973

I don't know squat about this tank, but received one as part of a trade (reissued Tamiya 1/35 one). I bought the Fruil Tracks for it. They were very expensive but look like they will be very nice on the tank (Centurion is still unbuilt). Rob Gronovius Visit my motor pool in the

I take it you are refering to the Airfix 1/76 Centurion Mk.8 and the Tamiya

The two main areas to modify are the gun barrel and the engine deck (and possibly the rear). Both Mk.III and Mk.8 had 20 pounder guns, while the Israeli Centurions had all been up-gunned to 105mm by 1973. Centurions used a gasoline engine, while Israeli Centurions were modified to fit the diesel engines as used in late M48 and M60 tanks. I know the engine deck is different, not sure about the rear panel. The Mk.8 had an extended rear hull. Israeli Centurions were mostly Mk.5 (short hull). I'm not sure what the diesel mod did to the hull length.

There's probably some resin mod kit you can get to convert the 1/35 Centurion.

Gary,

You have several options for making a 1/35 scale version of a 1973 Israeli Centurion. First, you can buy the full Coree resin kit that gives you and Upgraded Centurion out of the box (or so I have read). Squadron would be your best source on the kit. Second, you can use the Tamiya Centurion Mark III kit and buy the AEF resin conversion. I went that route and spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to come up with a decent model. I did not replace the tracks, but the Fruli set would be a good idea. Finally, you could build an unmodified Centurion Mark 6, 7, or 8 out of the Tamiya kit, which would require mainly the replacement of the 20-pounder gun with the 105-mm L7 gun and the addition of some turret details. Again, I would recommend replacing the tracks.

HTH,

A. J. Daverede IPMS 33505

I wasn't the original poster. I'd love to do an Israeli Centurion someday, but by the time I get around to it, I'm hoping someone (Dragon or Tamiya) will come out with one you can build straight out of the box. It's rather amazing that some of the AFVs I've wanted to do have come out in kits. I think I'd rather have Dragon do it as Tamiya tends to make just one version of whatever they make (unless it's german). Dragon tends to make several versions. It would be great to be able to make a Centurion for Korea and Vietnam, as well as more modern versions.

As for myself, I'm still at the novice level (I've been buying kits for 30+ years) of building. My rate of progress is best described as glacial. I've been "working" on the Tamiya 1/35 37mm PAK35/36 for over a year now. No, I'm not super-detailing it, just trying to build it well straight out of the box.

When in full rant mode, one of my biggest complaints is that nobody does a good Cent anywhere, period.

The Tamiya kit is really not very good, as like many of the kits from its era (1972) it suffers from motoritis and as such has a severely compromised hull and track.

The Fruil tracks go a "fur peace" in fixing the rotten first-generation vinyl tracks, but the rest of the kit -- even with a resin conversion -- is only eyewash and not correct.

PLEASE SOMEBODY do up a decent Centurion -- there are enough variants to do at least six good kits of the beast (Cent III/V in Korea and Cold War Germany, Cent X with upgrades, Cent 13, Cent AVRE, and two Israeli versions -- one with the 1967 configuration and one in the 1973 one with the AVDS-1790 engine.)

ARGH! And people wonder why I howl when I see another Tiger kit come out instead of this -- arguably one of the longest serving and most widely distributed tanks in history!

Cookie Sewell AMPS

the coree kit is as of 1982-89//

I hope you forwarded this to Academy tamiys DML and any other company you can think of.;-)

As it turns out, you can get away with just upgrading the armament to 105mm. Not all Israeli Centurions had been upgraded to diesel power by 1973. There are pictures of Meteor engined versions serving in the '73 war.

Was that was the one written by Vasko Barbic. ??

See also February 2001 issue of Military Modelcraft International for article on converting Tamiya Centurion to IDF Centurion. Article title, "On the purple line".

Regards JP

I think Adakian said it best-just go with the unmodified Tamiya kit if you don't want to fool with resin conversions. The engine upgrade program did not begin until 1970, so by 1973 it was still not completed. Many still had the gasoline engine at that time. The only thing you'll have to do to the engine deck is purchase some inertial air filters by Cannon and Co. Don't remember which locomotive they go to, but get the ones that go the full length of the rear hatches. The Israelis had added extra louvres to the engine deck, and these look perfect. There's more good news: The smoke discharger mounts are awful on the kit, and a pain to replicate with flat wire. I know-I've done it four times. But in 1973, most of the pics I have show the Cent with no smoke dischargers at all. At most, just fill in the slots where they were suppoed to go, and add little squares of .015 strip at each side of where the mounts would have gone. That's all that remains after the mounts had been cut off with a torch. Obviously you need a new 105 gun, and other than that, just the usual replacement of cast on details and such. If you have good references, you may want to add some large bolts on the idler wheel mounts. Corree's kit CAN be built into '73 version, by the way Just leave off all of the junk, and stay with the original commander's hatch. Then email me and I'll buy the leftover parts from you. :) Having said all of that, you can just wait util next month, to see what Trumpeter's new Centurion will look like. Or for a dimensionally accurate MK 5, Accurate Armour already makes one that isn't too expensive. If you want to see what can be done with Tamiya's old kit, you can look here:

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