More Challenger II Op. Telic info needed

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

I’ve just received my Trumpeter Challenger II Op. Telic in 1/35. A friend of mine gave me spare decals from the excellent Bison Decals set ref. BD-35008.1… It has four versions, one of them already used by my friend, and now I have three versions to choose. I’ve chosen the 3rd option, a Challenger II from the Queen’s Royal Hussars, Iraq 2004. This version is a little rare, it’s not painted overall British armor light stone like the other, but painted a color like armor sand, with some panels in British armor light stone and some parts in the original OD. Here are the questions: Is it really armor sand?.. My friend painted his tank in British armor light stone, with thermal sleeve in original OD, and used armor sand for the canvas skirts. In the instructions sheet calls for “sandcoloured canvas” to be used… What color must I use for the canvas skirts?.. Maybe khaki or the same armor sand?.. Is there any photos of tanks like this (I mean the one I’ve chosen)?.. The instruction sheet calls for don’t using the IFF-Panels and ID-Panels, and I want to use them, as this is my first kit with such devices and it looks cool with them… Any advice should be appreciated. Most regards.

José

2

Can’t help you with any of the colours.

What I can tell you, however, is that if you do wish to use CIP’s, the ones included with the Trumpeter kit are awful. There are open gaps between the “slats” which shouldn’t be there, so the CIP’s have an “open venetian blind” look to them. you would be better off replacing them with units from another kit or scratchbuilding your own. Curiously enough, the Challenger II PE set by LionRoar replicate the kit CIP’s rather than correcting them.

3

Get the Voyager PE set, it works well enough and has the corrected CIPs. I painted my skirts with a base coat of Israeli sand grey (model Master colours) washed it with Raw Umber and then mixed a 50 50 mix of Light skin tint and the sand grey to get a khaki colour, then highlighted with straight light skin tint. Here’s a pic, hope it helps!