Military Model Scene

Title: Centurion 1/35 Modeller's Guide Vol2
Author: M.P. Robinson
Publisher: Scorpion
ISBN: N/A

The Later Marks, the natural follow-on from their earlier volume 1, which tackles the earlier Centurion variants. An 88-page soft-cover book from Scorpion Miniature Models Publishing.
Once again we are treated to seeing in detail the first-class scratchbuilt conversions for the classic Centurion tanks, built by modeller Ian Wright, presented to us by Ian Robinson and published by Michael Shackleton of Scorpion Miniatures. Using the AFV Club Centurion kits as the starting point, we see 13 models built, covering the Marks 6 to 13, plus 3 more covering the experimental CMT (Centurion Mantletless Turret), the Centurion Mk 5 Swingfire Demonstrator and closing with the Swedish variant, the Stridsvagen 101R. All of these are presented unpainted, and a series of well captioned, high quality colour photos which clearly show the scratchbuilt conversion parts used for each one. These all form the basis for a series of conversion packs which are now produced by Scorpion Miniatures, which are very good quality resin castings to use with the appropriate AFV Club kits so we too can build these Centurion variants, even if our scratchbuilding skills are nowhere near as good as we see here from Ian Wright. Pages at the back of the book show the 32 detail packs available for the tank from Scorpion, such as turrets, side skirts, wheels, tyres, gun barrels, engine decks and more. There are also very helpful tables showing each Centurion version with the kit used and comments on what mark out the differences for each one.
As well as the excellent model photos used throughout, there are also plenty of reference photos of the real vehicles included all the way through. For the modeller, this is a fantastic reference if you want to recreate these many variants of the Centurion, a tank which had a very successful career and which also found great success on the export market. Very nicely presented, this is a great book for the modeller, as well as anyone interested in the history of this famous post-war tank as it highlights the changes made over its' service life.
Thanks to Scorpion Miniatures for the review copy.

Robin