Reviews : Tamiya British Chieftain Mk5 Tank

I've been working on this kit in small doses for a quite a long time. With a few very minor exceptions, such as the not quite exact fit and the amount of flash on some parts that I don't remember Tamiya having in the past, this has been a very enjoyable kit to build. UNTIL....however, I got to the main armament. And although this seems to be an industry standard, I can't help but wonder why the manufacturers of armor models don't do one-piece molds for the main gun on tanks. With this kit, the somewhat iffy fit and line-up on the 2 halves of the gun make for a lot of time-consuming filling and sanding. I feel that a 1-piece main gun would eliminate these problems, and it doesn't seem that there is anything gained by doing it in halves. Still and all, despite this annoying issue, the kit is overall a decent build that is going to turn out a nice looking finished product. As for the gun issue? I'm considering using some lichen or model railroad tree material to drape over the cannon, a la some pictures of modern German armor that I have seen. Enjoy the build!

Very good kit with sufficient details to get an excellent display model. The kit was designed to be motorized, so all the wheels will turn on their axes and the hubs are removable. In fact the upper and lower hulls are held together via pressed pins and can be pulled apart as they are not cemented. All the crew hatches work. The tank crew is well molded and expressive. My only adds to the basic kit are 1) bored muzzle hole to the commander's machine gun, 2) Added a clear glass to the gunner's viewing port, 3) fabricated a working hinge to enable opening and closing the door to the IR illuminator, 4) made 2 tow cables from twisted wires (the kit ones looked terrible) 5) build lamp lenses with UV cured clear polymer cement. My biggest grip about the kit it is the effort needed to get rid of the mold seams. Filing and sanding them away is a pain given the small and irregular sized pieces. Guess you can ignore them, but I felt they detract from the finished product. Overall a very pleasant build with a pleasing result.

This is an older tamiya kit and so has the holes from when they mounted motors that have to be putties. I did notice a few places where there were small gaps between the pieces where I couldn't quite get them to bond even after several attempts but they are hard to notice with the hatches down. I did have to sculpt my own mantlet cover for the gun but that wasn't terribly hard. In the end it's a fun and easy to build kit and at around 20.00 great quality at a great value as is the case with most tamiya products. Sure it has it's shortcomings that are typical of older tamiya kits but it accomplishes what it's supposed to which is represent the chieftain.

I mostly build military armor and Tamiya kits are my favorite . Although this is one there older kits it is still a nice build with minimal flash and pieces that fit together well. The track is the one piece variety which I prefer over the individual piece track that take forever to assemble . Like another reviewer wrote the barrel for main gun needed to be finnesed ( glue it, clamp it, file down the seams, and 2 coats paint ) and it will look good . All in all this was a really fun model to build, very reasonably priced, and a great addition to my cooection.

Sure, there's a lot of trash talk about the Chieftain's power pack, but forget that, this is a tank that looks like a tank. Tamiya's version is the earlier one before the elimination of the side searchlight and addition of Stillbrew armor, but it's a great kit. Fits well together with plenty of options. The long barrel hangs out far ahead of the tank and I especially like the figures. The guy resting, cross armed on the hatch is basically saying Yup, we're bloody bad arse... Highly recommend for a collection.

Another Tamiya nice-priced kit and easily considered an easy build. Personalized paint scheme but somehow results didn't stand out. Goes together well with some very minor difficulty, never a fan of crafting my own antenna's. Still I WILL return to this kit as the perfect subject for learning 'aging' and adding realistic effects like dirt/mud and other traces of authenticity.

I thought a British Chieftain would make a nice addition to the model tank collection. I can't wait to build it soon I always liked Tamiya model kits not very hard if not at all easy to build never a flaw I've ever ran into always went together really well.

This was a great build for me. Everything went together well, though the instructions were hard to interpret at times. I did have trouble with the tracks but solved my problem with help from a friend. Great value and enjoyable.

All parts fit very well - no surprises with this kit. Very happy with the outcome and would recommend thid model to all skill levels. May build this one again!

Tamyia models are Excellent !! No flash..beautiful clear and informative direction sheets..crisp clear parts..just..beautiful details !! just plain old great.

For my first modern tank build, the Chieftain was easy to assemble and is user friendly. The part that I like the most is the 120 mm barrel shroud.

This comes from the make your antenna from a heated sprue era. It's still a good kit, and a fun build.

A fun build. Slight barrel warp... kinda typical for an old tool kit. But it was inexpensive and fun to do

great price and glad to put with my collection. not lots of parts but enough to make intrested.

Excellent kit as usual from Tamiya. Pieces fit snugly, accurate detail and clear instructions.

This kit was not only fun to assemble and paint, but also user friendly and very detailed.

Tamiya knocked this kit out of the park. Straight-forward directions, a walk in the park.

Enjoyed building this tank, pieces fit and it came out nice. Lots of room to add extras.

excellent model from Tamiya once again...no issues, all parts fit great.

Clean and fun to build. Painted in camo came out nice.