FV4101 Charioteer

[Sunray]

I was looking through the lists of a well known 1/300 manufacturer and spied the Charioteer.  Am I correct in saying this is a Cromwell with a 20 pdr mounted in  a special turret?

I see one was used in Lebanon as late as the 1980s.

Seems like an easy conversion from a Cromwell

[fsn]

It was. The turret was new, I think.

[Hertsblue]

Too late for WW2, by a fair margin. Lightly armoured. Used mainly by the TA.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

According to the Osprey on the Cromwell the Lebanese fitted em with the L7 105, atr least 2 vehicles. They got hem from the Jordanians after 67. Jordan had about 140. Also supplied to the Finns.

IanS

[mollinary]

According to the Osprey on the Cromwell the Lebanese fitted em with the L7 105, atr least 2 vehicles. They got hem from the Jordanians after 67. Jordan had about 140. Also supplied to the Finns.

IanS

And the Austrians.

[toxicpixie]

The Cromwell chassis coped with the L7?!

Bloody hell, that's good going for a WW2 era Medium Tank :S

[Sunray]

Which is what I thought, bearing in mind the hassle with the 17 pounder that resulted in the unsightly Challanger, and the under gunned Comet (a modified lower velocity 17 prd .  The up gunned  Cromwell looks ....imposing.  Turret was probably cramped and unwieldy.

I have the Sherman M51 in 1/300 and saw a chance to pit it against the Charioteer in a middle east skirmish.

If Pendraken were to add a new turret we would have one more piece of modern  post war stuff on the table.

There is also an easy conversion with a Stuart M3/5 to a highly effective Brazilian AFV Bernardini X1A2 that could give a Scorpion a run for its money.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

The Cromwell chassis coped with the L7?!

Bloody hell, that's good going for a WW2 era Medium Tank :S

Well Stingray is the same size, or smaller......(NO WASP JOKES PLEASE), but the 105's were Lebanese conversions, which were u/s by the time experts from Bovvy got to see them. However the weapon is designed to fit a turret with the 20pdr, re-gunning cents was a case of un-bolting the weapon and bolting a new one in. The major job was changing the ammo racks, so it's theoretically possible. Bet firing was interesting though.

[toxicpixie]

That's what I was wondering - the actual *mounting* should be easy enough (assuming the turret is deep enough?), as the L7 was a "no fuss conversion" from any 20pdr mount... but pulling the trigger must put a lot of strain on a tank chassis/turret ring originally intended for a relatively low powered 75mm... that's thirty year sold, to boot 

Stingray/MGFS or whatever it's called this appropriations period maybe about the same size and weight, but is a new build and has sixty years of technological and metallurgical progress behind it...

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I suspect the effect would look very similar to a Sherridan firing 152mm shells, a 3-4ft leap into the air and a humongous dust cloud.

IanS