According to the web, the Chieftain ARV was manufactured by Vickers at Elswick and was based on the chassis of the Mk 5 Chieftain MBT. The main double-capstan winch with electrohydraulic controls is provided with 122 m of 28 mm diameter cable. The similar auxiliary winch is hydraulically operated and provided with 260 m of 11 mm diameter cable. Power for both winches is taken from a PTO on the main engine. Mounted at the front of the ARV is a hydraulically operated earth anchor which, when lowered, allows the vehicle to exert a pull of up to 90,000 kg.
The Chieftain ARV has a crew of four and a loaded weight of 56,000 kg. Armament consists of a cupola-mounted 7.62 mm machine gun and smoke grenade dischargers. In total, 257 ARVs were built at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of this figure Iran ordered 73 (of which 41 were delivered) with Jordan taking a further 30 vehicles.
Review
This was a pretty nice resin model by Cromwell, for which the main problem I had was the fact that there were no instructions. I was also missing at least 1 part - but that can be the nature of picking up models second hand. Also like many resin kits the tracks were slightly bent, nothing a lot of very hot water couldn't deal with.
Like all cromwell models, I had to remove excess resin and this caused some problems with the tracks and I lost some track teeth. The earth anchor also has excess resin, some of which I beleive would be next to impossible to remove, that that is for the most part unseen.
I had to create a new drivers hatch from scratch so don't look to closely at that!
Once I'd found a bunch of photos of someones very nice 1/35th equivalent kit online, it was relatively straight forward to work out what went where - and so for there the build and paint job was very easy.
So here is my version of the Chieftain Mk5 ARV:
and here is a comparison shot with a Altaya Chieftain Mk 5
OK - that's it for now
Have fun
Richard
Great work Richard. They make a nice pair.
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