British Challenger II Tank
1/35th Scale
Kit No.07360
First Look Review by Peter Prown

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Comparing the parts with the revamped Trumpeter 00323 Op Telic and 00345 KFOR Kosovo kits, this looks to have the updates in the basic tank parts but does not contain any of the extra armour or dozer blade sprues.

So we have a "basic" Challenger 2, apart from the new box and an instruction sheet which uses similar illustrations to the original Trumpeter ones but with a different order of construction and part numbering in another style, the main difference is in the decal sheet.

This contains enough items for one vehicle, it is not identified but with the 7th Armoured Brigade’s Red Jerboa emblem, Scottish saltire and KFOR lettering it appears to show a vehicle of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards serving in Bosnia in 2000. The vehicle registration number shown in box top and painting instructions is 62KK36 and the call sign is 31 in C Squadron, I cannot be sure if that is an accurate representation. The decal sheet does have "spare" numbers for the registration so others could be modelled.

Whatever, vehicles in Bosnia carried the extra armour package which is not included in the kit so out of the box it is missing all that and also has the same shortcomings of the original kits. Any update set for the Trumpeter kits will also fit this version as well.

Overall, well, not much new and as the kit retails in the UK for slightly more than the Trumpeter originals which have either a larger decal sheet, extra armour or dozer blade, this version may well not have much to offer the serious modeller apart from being available from regular Airfix stockists.

Page created 31 January 2004