| Introduction: |
AFV Club have released this update set for their own Centurion Mk.5 kits that provides the initial 20Pdr. Type A barrel as used on the Mk.III and early Mk.5 gun tanks.
The first Centurions were armed with the 17pdr (76.2mm) gun before updating to the 20pdr (83.4mm) which came in two types, the Type A with the large muzzle weight and the Type B with mid barrel fume extractor.
| The barrel: |
The barrel comes as a single machined aluminium barrel with the muzzle contours well represented as well as being drilled out with rifling included but this is rather over scale which may be more noticeable from some angles. The barrel is the correct length according to available data as well as the barrel contours matching data and photos nicely.
There is no cleanup required before fitting to the target kit making for a simply update.
The metal barrel is a straight fit to any of the AFV CLub Centurion kit turrets without alterations and also fits the Lionmarc Centurion Mk.III Turret from set #LM33004 without alterations and will finish off this turret conversion nicely.
20Pdr. barrel fitted to AFV Club turret with canvas cover from set #AC35009
20Pdr. barrel fitted to the Lionmarc Centurion Mk.III Turret from set #LM33004
| Conclusion: |
This is the simplest of conversions/updates with the one piece aluminium barrel cleanly machined without any cleanup needed and has nice contours including muzzle rifling.
The barrel will backdate any of the applicable AFV Club kits as well as being just the thing for the Lionmarc Centurion Mk.III Turret.
Highly recommended 7.5/10
See the Centurion Subjects page for other Centurion related reviews.
| References: |
Centurion Ian Allan Ltd. |
 Centurion
Universal Tank 1943-2003 Osprey New Vanguard 68 ISBN 9 781841 763873 |
 The
Centurion Tank by Bill Munro. Published by: The Crowood Press Ltd ISBN 1 86126 701 0 Hardback, 192 pages |
 Centurion
in action Squadron Signal Publications No.2013 Stephen Tunbridge |