Canadian Centurion tank

[Old Naval Guard]

Hello, Ive been trying to find a Centurion tank 1/35 Scale. I am looking to make it as a tank in the Cdn army circa 1965, 4 brigade in Germany, during the Cold War. Does any one know what a tank like that would look like in terms of unit insignia, National Flag postion. I posted a pic of the Centurion. Don't know if its Canadian, but looks the part Cheers thanks in advance Old Naval Guard


(Moderator edit to correct misspelling of "Canadian" in thread title.)

 

[Old Sweat]

The armoured regiment in 4 CIBG at the start of 1965 was the Fort Garry Horse. I am pretty sure it was replaced as a normal rotation by Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians.) In 1965 the Centurions were being upgraded with a suite that included IR searchlight, ranging machine gun and extra armour. I think they already had the extra fuel bustle at the rear of the hull. (One of the projects I had at 4 CIBG HQ was the upgrade of the 75 or so Centurions to about Mk 15 status. As I had trouble spelling tank, I did a lot of study, which is why I can recall a bit of it.)

The tanks were painted in a dark camo pattern with, oddly, the radio antennas painted in a black and white barber pole design. They did not use the Canadian flag as an identifier, but instead used a red square with a gold maple leaf in it. The other identifier was a square with a top right - bottom left divider with yellow and red (I think. Give me a break as it was 45 years ago) as the two colours with a 2 superimposed on it. This identified it as the brigade armoured regiment. I can't recall details of the CFR number and the bridge classification, other than that the latter was a circle with the classification in it.

 

[Old Naval Guard]

Thanks Old Sweat, just out of curiosity, They never used the Cdn Red Ensgin on the tanks as they did the maple leaf flag?/ The red patch with the gold maple leaf is of WW2 orgins is it  not ? Thanks and cheers Old Naval Guard

 

[Old Sweat]

I do not recall seeing the Red Ensign on any vehicle. The red square probably was meant to identify the First Canadian Division; certainly we all wore the old red pactch on our sleeves back then. While the army had dropped the division and replaced it with independent brigade groups in the late fifties, there was a plan to reconstitute the division cicra 1965. Integration took care of that.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Early 70's was all camo. No reds or yellows. Flags, identifiers and bridge classes would be black on green or green on black. Bridge class, IIRC, was 52 or 54 inside a circle. I'm going to have to dig out my pictures to try find out styles and locations. (I spent all my time inside one, not outide ) The outsides were painted standard two green and black camo with the insides painted a dull aluminum silver colour. 105 mm with fume extractor on the barrel , 100 gallon knock off fuel tank on the back and a basket around the whole rear of the turret. CFR's were painted on the front top left and right of the first (forward) track skirt in the style of (I can never forget it) 51-81355. At various times, depending on availability, we had either the full steel war track, or the track with three rubber pads per link. We stopped using white on the antennae and if they were painted it would have been with green or black. Sometimes they were, sometimes they weren't. Call signs ie: 12A were painted centrally on the middle sideskirt

 

[GINge!]

I think we were still using Mk 6 Cents in 1965? There is a decent kit of the Mk 6 here, which actually includes the parts to make it a later Mk 11 if you want.

http://store.spruebrothers.com/135-afv-club-centurion-mk-52-6-nato-105mm-gun-35122-p7248.aspx

Interestingly about the FGH was they used a cam scheme that was relatively short lived. There's an interpretation of it in Pet (at least there was a few year back). Totally recommend tracking down this magazine, or, for $1UK, you can download the pdf:
http://shop.afvmodeller.com/customer/product.php?productid=17175&cat=&page=1

lastly, lots of help on this web page:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/169232/

 

[larry Strong]

This should help some I hope.


http://www.armouredacorn.com/

 

[Old Naval Guard]

Hi ONG here . I wish to make a M113 companion to my Centurion tanks. Can anyone describe how a Canadian Army M113 would have looked in 4Brigade circa 1966-67. Any pics would be useful. I have a pic,but its CF. Thanks in advance Old Naval Guard

 

[George Wallace]

This should help some I hope.


http://www.armouredacorn.com/

Old Naval Guard

Do you just post or do you read any of what is given you?  This link gives you pictures of M113's, M109's, M577's, Leopards and Centurians.

 

[Old Naval Guard]

Mea culpa, I only just looked at the gallery sorry about that and thanks very much. Old Naval Guard

 

[Old Sweat]

In 1966 the decision was made to paint the 4 CIBG M113A1s in disruptive pattern. I believe the proposal came from 2 RCR. There was a fair amount to chatter and discussion re pattern, but eventually it got done. This was another project I got, probably because I was industrious and not quite stupid enough to screw everything up. A trial was done with various patterns and colour combinations. The one selected was picked because it fitted best into the North German terrain and fauna.

It was at about that same time that the Second World War style tac signs were changed to the current one based on military symbols and call signs.