 |
| Dragon’s new Iraqi war version of the British Challenger 2 includes parts for the distinctive side skirts and appliqué armor. The kits fit and accuracy are good but Greg had to give special attention to the suspension and skirts for a proper fit. |
For those who haven’t heard, there’s been a war going on in Iraq. More on that later.
The UK’s Challenger 2 MBT is, obviously, a development of the Challenger main battle tank. Starting in 1986, Vickers Defense improved the Challenger 1 with the most notable difference being the new turret. The 120mm L30 main gun, along with a co-axial 7.62 chain gun, used the latest in electronic fire control, while upgrades in armor NBC systems were also added. Somewhat of an anachronism in this age of turbine powered MBTs, the Challenger 2 still uses a diesel engine, albeit a 1,200 HP V12 diesel engine. It is a bit slower than the M1 Abrams on the open road. Much of the armor plating is the British invented and still classified Chobham material; this was licensed for use on the Abrams also. To give the British due credit, the tank is their invention anyway...
The first of nearly 400 Challenger 2s were delivered in 1994, a bit late for Gulf War I, but not for use in Kosovo. Not much for a MBT to do there, though. With lessons learned in Gulf War I, a desertized version of the Challenger 2 was developed. It featured improved air cleaners, ablative armor plates, and prominent Berka-like side skirts, whose function I quite haven’t figured out. Instead of the usual dingy black and green European scheme, they’re painted a lovely yellow tan.
Which brings us to the subject of this article. President Bush reckoned it was time for a fight in Iraq again, and British PM Tony Blair squeaked “I’m with you, Mr. Bush.” But I digress with this deep and thoughtful political analysis. The next thing you know, the Royal Scots Dragoon regiment was in Iraq (a country the British made) with their Challengers. As predicted the pickings were easy, as the Iraqi army was using older Russian tanks which weren’t that good brand new. The most intense action came on the night of March 27, 2003, when 14 Iraqi T-55s were destroyed outside of Basra. The British have also learned the danger of friendly fire in modern combat; a Challenger 2 had its turret blown off by an uranium shell fired by allied forces. Chobham armor cannot stop everything. In fact, the British have lost equal numbers to such incidents as compared to Iraqi resistance.
 |
| The Dragon kit features a single piece barrel as well as two single piece fuel drums to aid in construction. Greg’s only modification was replacing the rear view mirror stalks with wire. |
Now that the war/occupation/liberation/conflict has entered into a guerilla style combat situation, the usefulness of an expensive MBT in Iraq is questionable, and what was an Iraqi tanker’s worst nightmare may become Tony Blair’s.
As a side note, Challenger 2s don’t appear to have cool nicknames like “Saddamizer” painted on their barrels as US tanks do. So reserved, those Brits.
Dragon has just released a 1/72 scale kit of the Challenger 2 in Gulf War guise (kit No. 7228). As such, they have added a sprue containing the characteristic side skirts and add on frontal armor to their base Challenger 2 kit. Also included are some nice decals by Cartograf. What’s missing is the fabric covered tow cable/kit that circles the entire front hull (it’s shown on the box top photo), and the front turret ID plates that are often seen on tanks in the Gulf. The box top photo doesn’t show these plates, but then it doesn’t show the shuttered night time ID plates on the turret sides either which are, in fact, included in the kit. On the whole, the model should build into a reasonably accurate representation of a Gulf War II Challenger, but accuracy was never my strong point as armor modelers reading this have probably noticed. The instructions are printed in full color on glossy paper, and are thus perversely hard to read. Traditional line drawings would have been better here, Dragon.
 |
| The bottom of the turret and hull where painted black with Testor’s British Gulf Light Stone on the sides and a lightened mixture sprayed on the upper surfaces. |
The parts are well molded in a light gray and present little problem in construction. Particularly nice are the one piece barrel with open end and the two single part rear fuel drums. The edges of the side skirts and exhausts were a little thick, but they were thinned easily with a number 11 and some sandpaper before construction started. The turret (minus top machine gun) and main hull (steps 4 through 6) were assembled without a fuss. The only modification here was to replace the thickly molded rear view mirror stalks with ones made from wire.
Now these subassemblies and the side skirts were washed with black as a preshade. The bottoms of the turret and hull were also airbrushed black. A mix of Testor’s Glosscote and Testor’s British Gulf Light Stone was then airbrushed on the sides. The Testors color appears to be a good match for the yellow tan of the real item, but due to the scale effect and to replicate the weathering of the harsh Iraqi sun, the top surfaces of the model were airbrushed with a fair amount of white to the previously mentioned mix. I used the box top photo as a guide for mixing; adding black or white to a paint color doesn’t change hue, so it’s actually hard to make the color look “wrong” using this method. The fabric skirts are a lighter and grayer shade; I simply sprayed them with the pale version of the basic paint mix also. After painting the road wheel tires dark gray (don’t worry about being neat - they’re hardly visible on the finished model) I attached them to the hull.
 |
| Greg demonstrates the petite size of the Dragon 1/72 Challenger 2 kit with a common unit of measure. The four antennas were made from stretched sprue. |
Now the fun begins. The treads are thin, detailed, and very flexible, but they wouldn’t fit over the front idler wheels as the hull clearance was too tight. I simply superglued the ends into this front upper gap, shoving them in as far as they would go - that took care of the front tread section. Wrapping the tread around the rear drive sprocket, a second problem was found. The tread would bow inward in the center as it was laid down into the teeth of the sprocket. At first I thought the sprockets were too narrow, so they were carefully widened with a .030” plastic disc between the halves. This did not solve the problem. I was about to glue thin brass rods crosswise in the tread to stiffen them in the sprocket section when I realized this desert version had large skirts around the back of the treads. They would mostly cover up this fault. The lesson here is to find an after market tread set. The rest of the kit tread was cut off and glued in at the rear most return roller. Thank goodness for those big skirts.
Final details included making antennas out of stretched sprue, and installing the well done top machine gun. Two tow cables are supplied in the kit molded in the same awful vinyl as the tread. They’re too short to fit right. I cut off the kit cable ends and used a length of sewing thread rolled up four times to substitute for the kit cable section. This looked a lot more realistic anyway, so thanks for the unintentional motivation Dragon. The kit decals were carefully cut out and applied. They went down well with a bit of Future underneath them. A final spray of Dullcote sealed the model, while a mix of Dullcote with a hint of pale sand color provided the dusty look needed for vehicles in this environment. Vision blocks were picked out with a sharp pencil. If you’re being precise you’d probably want to use dark purple paint here. I left the commander’s hatch open in hopes of finding a commander figure to stick in it. Dragon detailed the inner hatches but did not include figures in the kit. I’m also making a base using an award plaque stolen from the former house of current President Chris Bucholtz (Thanks Chris!).
 |
| A British Challenger 2 MBT in the wild. This Challenger 2 is on the offensive in Iraq. UK military operations in Iraq are being conducted under Operation Telic. |
All in all, this was a quick build (four nights) as the injection parts were fine and fit fairly well, and the kit decals gave no major problems. Obviously, this kit’s downfall is it’s poorly done vinyl treads and tow cables. A good detail set, with new treads, proper exhaust ends, and the fabric covered kit for the hull, could make this model a contest winner. This one, however, is just going to the display shelf.
Greg Plummer has been building plastic models on and off since 1973. His interests include most everything. He has been a member of SVSM since 1998.
