PMMS
Calibre35
Centaur AA Tank with Polsten Guns
1/35 Kit #35029
Review by Terry Ashley

TamiyaThe set is a major conversion designed for the Tamiya Centaur C.S.Mk.IV (kit #35232) as this kit features the perforated wheels and other small alterations for the Centaur.

The resin set consists of 48 cleanly cast light cream resin pieces with a small etched fret and the small instruction sheet.

The quality of the resin parts is excellent as we have come to expect from Calibre35 with only the casting blocks to be removed before use. There were no blemishes of any sort on the parts but some care will be needed when removing the casting blocks on some parts and there is some surgery needed on the Tamiya kit to accept the resin parts.

The major parts are the turret shell, front hull section and rear engine deck with smaller detail parts for the turret and guns and the rear fenders as well as a couple of fender storage boxes.
The new hull front section incorporates the alterations on the glacis with a small hatch included and the fenders which are at a different angle than the standard gun tank fenders and Calibre35 have replaced the whole front of the hull instead of giving smaller individual parts which in the end makes for an easier conversion.

The turret:
This is completely new and consists of a hollow turret shell with separate bottom plate and front armour panel.
On the inside are additional details such as gunner’s seat, turret traverse gear and the Polsten guns and firing handles as well as the linkages that make up the sight mounting that moves with the guns.
The two guns have separate breeches, barrels and small gun shield but the guns had some minor warping that will be easily fixed with some warm water.
The outside of the turret sees nice weld seams on the joins with separate periscopes and searchlight with the periscope covers and light lens coming from the Tamiya kit.

The guns have etched cooling jackets but unfortunately my set had the incorrect etched parts included and I haven’t been unable to get replacements so I can’t comment on the quality or fit to the guns. The instructions also show that there are etched parts for the sight and turret lifting points.

Hull:
There is some serious alterations needed on the Tamiya hull to take the new resin front glacis/fenders and rear engine deck but nothing that should be too much trouble and if you are tackling a resin conversion your skills should be sufficient to deal with this.

Firstly you have to remove the entire section from the Tamiya hull forward of the upper armour panel and this is straight forward but ensure the cut is perfectly square and in line with the cut out on the kit for the front armour panel, this cut will determine the fit of the new resin hull front so use care here.

The large resin hull front (part 43) is cleanly cast with the full width pouring block on the back edge and this needs to be carefully removed to ensure you don’t take too much resin off as this also has a bearing on the fit to the Tamiya hull.

After making the hull cut and removing the excess resin from part 43 I found the fit to the Tamiya hull was excellent with only a small amount of trimming needed on the left fender which was about .5mm too wide, which is so small as to be inconsequential and was fixed with a swipe of the X-Acto blade.

After gluing resin part 43 to the Tamiya hull the next important test is the fit of the upper hull with resin glacis to the lower Tamiya hull especially at the front join.
I am happy to report this join was spot on and in fact was as good as the fit of the original Tamiya parts with absolutely no filling or trimming required and you can’t get better than that with a replacement part.
But again I stress the fit here is very much determined by the accuracy of the surgery you perform on the Tamiya hull and in removing the excess resin on part 43, so take care with those jobs and rest just falls into place.

For the rear engine deck, the instructions indicate to remove the entire engine deck and replace with the new resin deck which differs from the kit deck only in not having the large air intake just behind the turret.

This is not an easy job as there are also side intake posts and the rear exhaust outlet which are attached to the kit deck and you would need to carefully remove these and add back to the resin deck. Also the resin deck in my set was not perfectly square being up to 1mm out of square on one end and trimming to make square would have resulted in the deck not being the same size as the Tamiya deck as well as the details such as hinges being noticeably out of whack.

I therefore decided it was easier to do what Calibre35 did and simply remove the intake detail from the kit deck, fill the hole with plastic card and sand smooth ensuring not to damage the surrounding deck details; this actually required less work than removing the whole deck and re-attaching the side intake and exhaust parts.

The instructions are the usual exploded drawings with the parts called out by number and are very easy to follow and this should help in assembling the conversion set.

Conclusion:
Another well cast and detailed set from Calibre35 that while requiring some work the kit surgery should be easy enough and will result in a nice looking Centaur AA tank.
The quality of the resin parts and the base Tamiya kit also helps with this conversion as you don’t have to worry about the fit of the donor kit and can concentrate on working with the new parts and again the fit of these simplified the whole process.

Highly recommended.

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Calibre35
Construction Pics
Calibre35
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Thanks to Andrew of SouthEast Hobbies for the review sample.


Page Created 7 August 2004

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