IBG – 72113 – Charioteer Mk.VIIB in Finnish Service

Description:

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a British Charioteer or FV4101 Tank, a post WWII interim develop to up gun existing Cromwell tanks by developing a new two man turret to house the 20 pounder gun, same gun as Centurion Mk 3 tank which production was very slow.

The modified Cromwell entered service around 1952 and up to 442 units were produced. Due the Cromwell suspension limitations, the new turret was lightly armored, and to accommodate the new gun the new turret was big and tall, increasing the heigh profile of the tank. Another problem was the very limited space to house rounds for the gun, even if the hull machine gun position was removed, Charioteer was limited to just 25 rounds, mixed HEAT and APDS (Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot) munitions.

All kind of existing Cromwell tanks were converted, which caused some small design differences in the Charioteer fleet.

Though Charioteer has a limited role in the British Army, the type was also sold to Finland, Austria and Jordania, and some of the Jordanian Charioteer passed to Lebanon and then to the many different factions and Palestinian army, with some examples retained in service up to 90s.

The kit reuses the Cromwell chassis already released by IBG and adds new parts for the turret and the gun, and focuses on the Finnish service, where they lasted in service up to 1972 and then retained for training units up to the 80s. The Mk.VIIB designation belongs to Charioteer who received the upgraded 20 pounder gun, featuring a symmetrical fume extractor in the mid barrel.