Let's Build the 1/72 RAAC Centurion!

The Centurion Battle Tank was a British Tank that was introduced in 1945, around the time of the end of WWII. It was deployed in many post-WWII theatres of war such as the Korean War, and was also deployed in Vietnam where it was operated by the Royal Australian Armoured Corp.

Vespid Models is a model kit manufacturer that specialises in 72nd scale armoured vehicles and when they released a RAAC Centurion in their range, it garnered a large wave of excitement from modellers here in Australia.

BUILD
This kit from Vespid Models literally fell together. All the pieces are designed to slot into each other flawlessly or, as with the small detail parts, sit flush inside small indentations on the side of the hull. The tracks are designed in such a way that they curve perfectly around the idler wheels and moulded to show a slight track sag on the top.  As I needed to paint the tracks separately, I assembled them but left one piece unglued so I could remove them and then easily slide them back on after painting.

As I was building the version with the 3D printed Manlet cover upgrade set included, some modifications to the turret were needed. The front section of the turret was sanded back until all the plastic up to past the rivets was removed. The Mantlet cover is made of a flexible resin, so when the supports were removed, there was little to no clean up required. The cover was attached to the turret using some CA Glue and left to dry.

The kit also features photoetch, a lot of which were way too small to be effective on the model. Many of the shackle points and cable clips were frustratingly small and difficult to work with (even with fine tipped reverse tweezers) so much of these were omitted or the plastic version installed instead. The tow cable was as equally frustrating to work with as the twisted wire included with the kit was very rigid and difficult to bend into the correct shape. The instructions call for two tow cables per side, glued together and then bent around the hull, but as they were glued onto the plastic using CA Glue, they constantly broke off as they were bent. In the end, I settled on using only 1 cable per side which still looked just as good.

With all of the construction now complete, it was time to move over to the spray booth.

PAINTING
To begin with, the model needed to be primed and as there was a decent amount of photoetch and the metal barrel, Etch Primer would be needed to help the paint adhere stronger. Usually, I would just do a coat of Etch Primer but as it is a clear paint, it’s difficult to see where the paint is actually applied. To combat this, I mixed the Etch Primer with Surfacer Black at a 50/50 ratio. Doing this allows me to see where the primer is applied whilst keeping the metal etching properties of the clear Etch Primer. This mix was airbrushed on generously at 15psi until full coverage was achieved.

Moving on to the colour next, I started with Camo Green as a darker base green. As the Centurion was supplied to the Australians via the British, I used the British colour Olive Drab SCC No.15 next to mottle on to give a much lighter shade of olive drab than the Camo Green. Checking against reference photos online (from the Australian War Memorial website in particular), I noticed that the Mantlet cover was a slightly different shade of green to the main colour of the hull and turret. Khaki Green G3 was airbrushed freehand onto the cover to achieve this colour difference, and with that done, I could move onto the tracks.

The tracks were straight forward to paint. Gunmetal was airbrushed over the primed black tracks and then Dark Brown was mixed with some Black and then very lightly dusted over the Gunmetal using the airbrush to make them dirty and used.

The thing with these Aussie Centurions that were based in Vietnam, was that they rusted - a lot! Just about all the reference photos I found of them on the battlefield showed significant rust on the hull and turret. This was due to the humid jungle conditions that they were used in. To create a natural looking rust effect, I used the oil based SMS Weathering Markers. I began with a dark brown first, drawing it on the parts I wanted it to be and then using a paper towel, dabbed off the excess paint, leaving a natural rust colour and pattern. I repeated this with a lighter brown, then a red brown and then finished up with a little dry brushing with some SMS Black.

With all that complete, the final weathering would have to wait until the base was complete so I could tie it all together. 

THE BASE
A block of XPS Foam was cut to a size slightly larger than the model and then framed using some styrene sheet cut to size and glued onto the sides of the foam. The edges were filled in using some UV curing putty and then sanded back with a bevelled edge on the very corners.

I sat the model on top of the foam in the position I wanted it to be in at the end and marked around the tracks with a black marker. I then carved out the foam inside those areas so it would give the sense of the weight of the Centurion travelling through the soft, muddy fields. Once I was happy with the depth and overall look of the track marks, I covered the base with a fine grit sand. The Centurion was put back into place and then wiggled around to sink it into the sand and create a natural mound next to the tracks. To fix it all into place, the sand was sprayed with Isopropyl Alcohol to break up the surface tension of the sand and allow for the watered down PVA Glue that I applied next to soak in and fix the sand together.

After leaving it overnight to allow the PVA to dry and fix the sand into place, I applied various Browns after first priming it all in Surfacer Black. I went with some red toned browns to try and match the red earth that is often seen in the reference photos. 6mm Static Grass was then applied over the base using a static grass applicator and  PVA to fix it in place. The Static Grass was way too green for my liking, so it was airbrushed using Camo Green to darken it and make it look more natural. Extra tufts were added along with a dead tree trunk.

The last thing left to do was to finish the weathering so it matched the base. Using a Dark Earth powder pigment and Pigment Fixer, the tracks, wheels and underside were given a muddy, dirty look as if the tank had driven through a lot of mud to get to where it was. The model was then fixed into place using 5 minute epoxy glue inside the track marks made earlier. After the epoxy had cured fully, I applied Umber Wash to everything. Umber was chosen as it is a reddish brown, a good color to match the red earth colours as seen in the reference photos. The Wash was applied in a way that showed it built up in areas that it would naturally flow to and also streaked down some of the sides using a brush to show that the dust and dirt had washed down the sides in the rain at some stage.

And with that, the Aussie Centurion was finished.

Keep on Modelling!

- Scott