Berlin urban camo

[Mark Heaps]

I have noticed a lot of threads from people saying they are going for the Berlin urban camo scheme rather than the standard NATO green & black. Your model so paint it as you wish but personally it does not appeal to me. Whilst very effective in the built up city, it would stand out like a sore thumb in a countryside environment. Also in 1987/88 we only had 1 sqn ( 14 tanks ) in Berlin. The other 3 Sqns of the regiment were in Münster where I was attached to them. Our tanks in Münster were a higher mark of Chieftain than the ones in Berlin and ours were replaced with Challenger 1. Later on the Berlin Sqn got Stillbrew with TOGS Chieftains when units that had them had also upgraded to Challenger 1 and they could be released. It was never expected that Berlin could be held against the Soviet shock armies. The units there were intended as a token delaying action.

[Richard Goodwin]

Thanks for your insights Mark but from everything I've read about Berlin Chieftains, I have to disagree with you unless of course you can show me a picture of a Mk11 Chieftain in Berlin Camo? As far as I am aware, Berlin Chieftains were at Mk10 only (Stillbrew), they didn't progress to Mk11s because the Berlin Brigade was sacrificial and the technology behind TOGS was highly sensitive. As for the pattern, I will be painting mine eventually in the Berlin Scheme since its a bit more interesting than Green and Black or Sand and Green (just my opinion folks) and is certainly more of a challenge to paint correctly on any model let alone an Armortek version as you know already.

[Mark Heaps]

Richard, you may well be right that Mk11s never got to Berlin due to security concerns about the TOGS. I just presumed that they did at some time when they were the best of the rest left over and available. I was trained as an ECE 85/86 on both the Ranging MG circuit and searchlight. But speaking from experience, the Chieftains in Münster in 87 did not have the RMG but IFCS, and did have the searchlight, the Chieftains in the Berlin Sqn at that time were of an earlier mark and I believe still had the RMG, not yet upgraded to IFCS. The tanks in Münster were replaced late 87, early 88 by Challenger 1 which had TOGS.
Late 88 I had to go back to SEE at Arborfield to do a TOGS course qualifying me to work on and fix the system. On the first day of the course, I & 7 other ECE´s from Challenger equipped units told the instructor that what he was teaching was incorrect and complete garbage. Although not trained & qualified, we had all been fixing the the TOGS system for over 6 months as our squadrons did not have have anyone trained and qualified so therefor knew more from experience than he did. The rest of the course turned in to an information exchange exercise with the Instructor rapidly taking notes in order to update the instructional material.