Here's my first WIP posting for this group build. The Centaur was one of the least successful of WWII, it's basically a Cromwell tank, but fitted with a duff Leyland Motors engine (rather than the Rolls Royce Meteor unit fitted to the Cromwell). Unfortunately the Leyland engine tended to vibrate itself to bits at high revs, had a lower performance and a smaller range, consequently the Centaurs were only used for training purposes. Eventually the Mk IV version, fitted with 95mm Tank Howitzer, entered combat, and were assigned to The Royal Marines Armoured Support Group, to support the Normandy landings. Their role was to stay onboard the landing craft, and knock out key enemy targets on the coast. In order to do this a spotter with binoculars on the beach helped to aim the gun by using markings on the turret of the tank. The Groups were ordered to stay on the beaches, but the Marines ignored their orders, and drove inland picking out suitable targets.

The Tamiya kit consists of seven sprues moulded in dark green, one sprue of tranparent parts, vinyl tracks and small sheet of decals giving the builder the choice of markings for to different Armoured Support Groups. I've attached pictures of the box art and the kit parts before I've done any work.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Like Neil says should be good! Have you built many tanks George? A bit of a different challenge to the motorbikes, which you do so well. I'm building the Tiger 2, which is the first mudcrawler I've built in years and the change is quite refreshing. Enjoy the Centaur.

Good choice George. Look forward to your installments. Shouldn't need to use much Alclad II or setting solution on this one.

Progress so far; I've assembled the kit, and have attached photographs of the four main components before starting the painting. We have the turret (sorry about this one being mainly out of focus, I'll post another picture once it has received its coat of primer), the superstructure, the chassis (I'm not sure if that's the correct term!) and the wheels and sprockets. It went together with no problems at all, built as per the instructions. There are a few details to add after the painting, not to mention the crew included in the kit, namely the commander and loader. Thanks for looking.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

George, all those wheels! Nice to see that people are building kits that are not there normal genre.
Doing a fine job as well.
Will keep watch on this.
Simon.

Hi Neil, thanks for the reminder. I've attached three pictures of the Centaur in 'photographic grey', actually it's Tamiya's grey primer. I've not cemented the upper body to the chassis yet, but she's complete apart from the tracks, crew and a few small details. I'll try a little preshading (something I've not tried before), then start with the final colour, Khaki Brown No 2 (Tamiya say that their Dark Earth is a good match). A quote from the instruction sheet: 'In 1944 the British changed the colour of tanks from Khaki Brown to Olive Drab No 15. Most tanks were re-painted prior to Normandy, with the exception of the Royal Marine Armoured Support Regiment'.

I'm following Moto GP and F1. Honda seem to be doing well so far, but I'm pleased that Ducati have improved their form. It's the Chinese F1 GP this weekend in Shanghai, but there is very little interest in it here, in fact, most people don't even know it's on!

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Coming together nicely, George. I used to love F1 back in the Hill/Schuemacker days, but lost interest ,when Schu became dominant and ruined it, love Moto G.P. though ,proper racing.
N.

Thanks for looking, Gregor, it's a Tamiya kit, so there are no real difficulties in building it, it will be the painting and weathering that will be difficult for me.