Berlin Brigade Chieftain

Hi all gentlemen, ok, here I just had fun, the scene is set in Berlin, English sector (obviously) the early 80s period, the kit is the old Tamiya mk5 (actually a mk3 so please don’t care about the tank version) but I had the desire to make a Chieftain with the famous Berlin Brigade camo. The set, the street really exists, I took as a reference a photo that showed a Centurion in the 60s I think, so I said to myself: “if there was a Centurion at the time then in the early 80s there could be a Chieftain”, I checked the road with google maps to understand how it had changed over the years and then I imagined how an urban development would change it, leaving the tram tracks now disappear, but perhaps still present at the time, in short, a sort of “what if” but not too much. I wanted to set it in winter (I love winter), I liked the idea of ​​making a cold day, I also checked the weather in those years to be sure it had actually snowed, and yes, it did snow. The figure on the sidewalk, a student, is a modified German infantryman with a warrior head to whom I created the thick hair typical of the boys at that time, I checked the photos of the time, and the Eskimo was recreated with epoxy putty .
For the rest I leave the pleasure or the displeasure to you by watching the pics

this is a refences photo

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Crackin’ good. :+1: :+1:

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Fantastic, great work all round. What did you use for the crew figures? Everything looks great to me. The tank, figures and street are top notch, thanks for sharing. Any more build pics and info on colours used for the camo” etc would be greatly appreciated.

Excellent!

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Outstanding all around. Brilliantly executed.

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That is a nicely put together piece. The Berlin Brigade camo is outstanding- I particularly like the way you have weathered it to blend in with the street- the dark, winter tones really work well. The figures are nicely done too, particularly the student wrapped up warm against the cold.

I have to say I’m a sucker for small, urban bases like this and the one you’ve done here is just the right size to let the tank shine but also to show off those well painted and weathered cobbles.

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Outstanding diorama. That Berlin Brigade camouflage really is unique. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a tank painted like that. Everything is very well done.

Jim

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Well done. It does look cold…

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I love it. For colorfulness, I think the British Berlin Brigade camo is like the MASSTER scheme. Something out of the ordinary and not so drab. Yet quite effective in its intended area of operations.

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Thanks to all for the appreciation, ok let’s start from the beginning, the vehicle as it was for the M1 Abrams (that I still have to finish but I will do it soon), it was an old kit assembled when I was young, so I recovered it, disassembled it (the glue was so crystallized that the pieces remained together by gravity :grin:) cleaned and then reassembled as if it were almost a new kit. Regarding the colors, when I did it I didn’t have the specific set and so I created them with what I had at home, a mix of light gray and light blue for the base, white gray from a Vallejo german set color and mix of brown tone, once dryed I did a drybrush with oils on the base color with Mig 502 german gray highligt, and on white with Mig Faded U.N. white, while on the brown I used an acrylic brown from Agama, after which I proceeded with a selective washing with oils and True-Earth products, while for the mud and dirt in general I used the liquid pigments of the lifecolor and for the various streaking I used oils with light passages, on the engine compartment I made abundant passages of liquid pigment for the dust / mud (it is known that the snow is very dirty), and Grease and oil of true-earth for the oil patches, all to simulate engine failures, very frequent with Leyland engine in that period. The few decals present were costumized by downloading the logos I needed from the web. The Marksmann radio box, on the other hand, was added later, no I had noticed its presence, I built it with plasticard and to insert it without damaging the color made I used epoxy dyed with pigments to recreate right color on the weld that also acting as a glue to fix it to the turret, even the gun has undergone a slight improvement, in the lower part I added the heat protection with a foil of epoxy, effective when the gun is fixed at 6 o’clock, and recreated the cloth that covers the slot at the junction of the fee with the turret, absent in the kit.
my refences pics for the tank
BerlinCheiftan3

and the cause for the dirty engine deck
imageproxy

The figures, all from commercial sets and slightly modified, apart from the student to whom I recreated all clothing and hair with epoxy, the tank crews are two panzergrenadiers from the Tristar 004 set, to whom I recreated the cap and filled the belt, replacing the arms to get a posture more suited to my needs, painted in acrylic and finished with oil, I redid the communications switcher in plasticard with the addition of the strap to hang around the neck, what else is missing? if you have any other questions, feel free to ask

my references for the crew wear

the tank crew

I haven’t pics of the unpainted crew, sorry

Eskimo, I also wore it at that time, and it didn’t keep warm at all but it was a symbol here in Europe at that time


uh, forgot the cigarettes, I had done a research on the web to understand which were the most smoked cigarettes by the British at the time, nothing really in-depth but the result was this, true or false it was, so I printed the decals and added to the package on the side to the TC
emabassy_filter1

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That packet of cigarettes is a fantastic little touch- very nicely done!

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Really excellent job all around; especially the Chieftain ( which is still my favorite camo scheme I think) and crew. I did a Berlin Brigade Chieftain several years ago with an Accurate Armor conversion and thoroughly enjoyed it. The base is excellent too. Beautiful work !

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During my tour in Berlin, you could find a lot of John Player Specials at the NAAFI store. They sold them in a large round box containing twice (or more) the usual quantity of cigarettes.

Olivier

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Surely you are right, now I remember that brand of cigarettes too, mine was a superficial search and maybe a pack of JPS cigarettes would have been more appropriate

Not more appropriate, just another option. :wink:

Olivier

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That’s great Lucio, thanks for sharing your process. I think any of the usual suspects for cigarettes would have been fine, but the embassy brand does strike me as particularly fitting for a tank in a foreign capital!

Once again, fantastic!

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It’s very impressive

What is the size of the base?

Hi Clark, thanks and the size of the base is in cm 33L 26W (in 12.9L 10.2W)

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Lucio, what a fantastic build you have done here. Really sorry I missed it first time round … genuinely do not know why I didn’t see it or comment on it as I always pickup on anything 80s and onwards for BAOR or Berlin Infantry Brigade…

The Chieftain looks stunning for the old Mk5… Lovely paint and finish…
The street Dio is perfect, and I am sure a Chieftain would of sat there at some point … Great scene and equally great build :+1:

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Thank you :blush::pray:

OK, question for Chieftain experts, what tank is this?

Article was from a newspaper in the Mid-late 80s when I was in Germany. Any information on the tank, unit, etc. would be appreciated.
Ken