this is the old tamiya CHALLENGER I i started in 1986. it was in surprisingly good shape given all the “thrown in the box” moves in the past 26 years. i cleaned it up, fixed the tracks, painted the tools (i like having a contrasting color even if it isn’t accurate), redoing all the lens, scratchbuilding some grenade launcher tubes that were missing and adding a screen to the front bussle. i weathered with some wash on the drive train and powders overall, added some storage and draped the barrel with a camo net. it is ageneric gravel base wide enough for modern tanks. i cast the rocks and painted them with model rr scene paint. 
Very nice…love every aspect of it!
very nice looking build love the camo net on the barrel do you use gauze or some pre made camo netting for it? wow 86 it would still be another year before i was born thats a long build time lol
Dude that’s cool!
That has to be one of the longest builds i have seen. In fact, that can’t have been much after the Chally came into service. Great job all round.
Really nice. I mean REALLY nice. makes me wanna finish mine. It’s not been since '86 but it’s been on he back shelf for a few years.
hey bish
i’ve got a tamiya M60A2 missile tank (actually the kit is an M60A1E1) that dates from late ‘70s to very early’ '80s, earlier than CHALLENGER. i may have to finish it.
gauze, bandage wrap. i cut it to fit and shredded the edges a bit. painted it with base green and brown and green and black. white glued it on and added masking tape for straps and paaimnted that because real tankers, and i are one, don’t superglue tow cables, track pads, and camo nets to their real tanks.
looking for some thinner flimsier stuff to drab over turrets.
I agree with the other comments. She looks great.
Looks good to me [Y] Although I think it would look better in a West German village setting… [;)] I built that same kit about 20 years ago now and still love the way it looks.
i agree. might be time to build a generic building scene. and a generic dirt hull down base. i will be building a dig in base for some mid east '56 and '67 builds. also planning a golan heights firing ramp in the future.
That is a great looking tank. I love it. Are those sideskirts from the kit? They look really good.
yes side skirts are one piece. it’s built OOB. i added antenna (thin wire), camo net, water cans on turret and other storage,
guess i best get started on my barak bde idf SHOT KAL for group build.
Great restoration project waynec
Very nicely done. I always loved the Challengers, they have really sleek lines, almost kind of remind me of being like the Ferrari of tanks.
They go like a bloody Ferrari as well, especially cross country. Even though Warriors are as fast, we could never keep up with them on rouhg ground. They just glide over everything.
NIce job on this one Wayne, looks great on the base.
Nicely done, Wayne. You can really see the Chieftain heritage in the Challenger 1 can’t you?
Great job Wayne, I too really like the camo on the barrel. [Y]
thanks to everyone for the really nice comments. it is encouraging to know i am developing the skills to take an older, average, inexpensive but well molded kit and turn it into something nice sans $40+US of PE and AMM. i might even finish the ALANGER 1/400 POTEMKIN russain predreadnought one of these days. this may go into contest next week. we have a max 2 models per category to prevent sweeps and i have a number of modern armor (8x8 LAV-III, 8x8 CENTAURO, 8x8 STRYKER) to use.