Looks like it, but faded enough that IMHO it’s clearly an old number and not associated with the test.
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Looking good! Have you glued those sand shields onto the fenders yet? I find they are a PITA to paint around, and get in the way of fitting the tracks, so I leave them off until the end. It means scraping paint off the mating surfaces (or masking) but that makes life easier. That’s my 2 cents - your mileage may vary!
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Thank you, Tom.
Yes, they are glued in place. Agreed, they are little annoying to paint around but there’s a trick to making the rubber track install painless with them in place.
Wheels are removed, the unsecured end of the track fed up under the fender from sprocket to idler. The new formula rubber band track glued wheels are off with liquid cement. After it’s secured and cured the wheels are placed.
Discovered trick in 2009 on this old dog after adding fenders then discovering the hard way the tracks would be annoying to install the conventional way.
Even the sprockets are on the correct end and zimmerit free on this one! 
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While looking around for Cromwell information I did find this which helped to illiterate the changes.
This is the Tamiya deck
And it should look like
If I understand what the kit should be with the other features.
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Thanks Ryan, I have two remaining Cromwell’s, a Tamiya & an Airfix. Looks like Tamiya missed the boat on the engine deck. Curious to see how Airfix did.
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Looks to be the same as Tamiya.
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Wow! That’s sad! Airfix is in the UK, so the Tank Museum is relatively close.
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As far as I know, the only plastic “mainstream” kit in 1:35 that has the later deck is the SKP kit. But that comes with a load of issues…
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I’ve been working on my own DIVAD contender, and have cracked the hardest part of the turret! To turn the Tamiya Gepard into a Dutch Cheetah (as used in the Raytheon bid) I needed to rebuild the back where the scanning radar lives. The sheet metal was easy enough but the radar arm was a challenge. I made it movable and built it in a separate box so I could do the fiddly stuff off the model, then add it after.
There’s a ton of detailing to add, but it’s getting there!
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Oh, meant to ask - should I paint the turret to match the US-supplied hull, or do it in Dutch Gelboliv so it stands out? Bear in mind these were not chosen for further development so never actually made it to a solid prototype…
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Excellent scratchbuilding Tom! That complex shape looks fantastic.
I think painting the hull in MERDC or Forest Green and the turret in Gelboliv would look very dynamic - but what do the original photos show?
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There aren’t any. There’s a grainy shot of a scale model mock-up, and that shot in Hunnicutt of a turret claiming it was being mated to a hull (that isn’t in the pic), but otherwise all I have is the description of it being the Cheetah turret. So I’m free as far as painting goes. Of course if it had been chosen for further development into a testable prototype I assume they’d spray it all in US OD - the dark stuff of the 60s/70s. But I’m deffo leaning towards Gelboliv! And the idea of MERDC on the hull (as a recycled “donor”) has a lot of attraction too…
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Very nice job 
If it helps, here is a bunch of photos I took of the radar on the prototype in the National Military Museum at Soesterberg:
No way to see the top of the turret, unfortunately.
PRTL turret The vehicle was only officially named Cheetah with an upgrade ca. the 2000s (I forget when off the top of my head). The reason is that foreign press kept calling it Cheetah, so the Dutch Army eventually threw in the towel and began using the name too.
(And the reason for the press using that name is because the first vehicle shown to the press was from C Company of some unit, and so had a name starting with C. But the reporters etc. appear to have assumed it was a vehicle specifically painted up for the occasion, so the name on the turret must have been the Army’s name for the type … No, it’s called Pantser Rups Tegen Luchtdoelen — PRTL, pronounced [ˈpry.təl], “PRUH-tl”.)
As for the colour, IMHO it would have been repainted for US tests, so the hull and turret would be the same colour(s), whichever you pick for that.
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I must agree with Jakko regarding colour schemes; just remember that Armies - any Army - do not like “untidiness”. I find it extremely unlikely that any vehicle would be permitted to see service, even if only trials, in a mix n’ match scheme.
An overall colour such as Olive Drab, may well seem dull, but it will bring a gleam to the eye of any senior officer observing trials(!)
PS: I just know that someone will now proffer a pic showing a sand turret of something or other on a green/black hull.
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Jakko, how dare you show me prototype pics AFTER I did all the early in-service scratchwork! 
These do look interesting, but I think I’ll carry on with the assumption that the PRTL turret they were offering was the tested in-service one. 
Not sayin’ I won’t be tempted to do this prototype eventually…
And Brian, if the Army paints it green because it moves, surely the early Chieftain should’ve been white, like all the other immovable rocks around the base?.. Certainly the final development of the M247 Sgt York deserved the same fate…
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Sorry about that — I only remembered tonight that I took those. Specifically because I could see myself doing the kind of work you just did at some point (which hasn’t happened yet, of course ).
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Your scathing comments have added fuel to the fire on yet another “What-If” idea that I’ve been toying with; namely a Brit Leo due to the Chieftain’s automotive problems. When? I have no idea(!)
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