CHIEFTAIN

[Stephen White]

Well said Phil, that got the thread going. We had a trooper get one half way across the Channel. Alvis wanted to use him in publicity material but he wasn’t available as he was in jail at the time.

[John Clarke]

Another famous chieftain driver "Right turn Phil"

phil.jpg (57.14 KiB) Viewed 5428 times

Could well be the smallest production run of all?

I doubt the production run would be any smaller than would be required to make business sense. To get chieftain right is going to be as taxing as any other model, if not more, on this occasion many of the user's are still alive.

Trucker's might be pushing for another classic next time drawing in younger modelers.

[Armortek]

In case anyone missed the big banner on the front page of the forum, the Chieftain kit is now sold out (subject to receiving the last couple of deposits).
We will start a waiting list ... just in case .. so if you want to be added to the waiting list then drop us an email at sales@armortek.co.uk.

Congratulations and thanks to all those who ordered the kit - it is officially our fastest selling kit.

Over the next couple of weeks we will start posting more information on the forum as the design and prototyping progresses. We should also be able to firm up on the delivery date by the end of April and plan on having the prototype displayed at Tank Fest this summer - and have it running at our open day in September.

Kian

[Stephen White]

Well done all. A real winner. It’s a very complex AFV and not easy to capture, so as a customer who has long wanted a Chieftain, can I thank Kian for the brave decision to offer it and to both him and Mark for the expertise involved in designing the model?

[Steve Norris]

Just new this would be a quick seller, looking forward to seeing the prototype at Tankfest.
Now a line of Cold War tanks may be a viable option to expand the product line with the Cheiftains success.
Well done Armortek
Regards
Steve

[Adrian Harris]

Well done for selling out so quickly.

It certainly proves that WW2 is not the be all and end all in the 1/6th market.

Here's hoping for a T55, T62 and a Leopard 1 sometime in the future

Adrian.

[Mark Heaps]

I would not expect cold war era soviet tanks to be a particularly good seller. I think the appeal of the Chieftain is that various of us have crewed it or been responsible for its repair / maintenace whilst serving in the British army and were willing to put our money where our mouth is.
Maybe worthwhile for Armortek to send out a questionnaire to those people who have reserved a kit asking why they had done so ? To help them understand their customer base better and maybe influence choice of future models to produce.

[Kevin Hunter]

It's absolutely great that Chieftain has been so well received. Well done Armortek, and thankyou!

Kevin

[John Clarke]

Fantastic result Armortek

"Probably" proof that the Chieftain is the best looking tank ever produced! Using beautifully curved ballistic "visible" resistive armor and massive fire power.

Chieftain and all other AFV's of the time were shaped using the experience from WW2 and later conflicts of the time.

Generating a pleasant engineering visual experience.

And it's the visible aspect that defines the Chieftain.

Today's AFV's are much better protected, having exotic armor attached, better in every way, but have all the charisma of a Cornflakes box.

I grew up with Airfix and Dinky Chieftain models, not knowing that the "cold war protector" was deficient in certain areas. but that did'nt matter to a 10 year old lad.

Future models and sales may very well depend on that thought.

Looking forward to seeing the prototype rushes.

[Stephen White]

Couple of British Army training films from the early seventies showing Chieftain basic tactics in cooperation with infantry:





It all looks so pedestrian now but good footage of the tanks.

[simon_manning]

Always strange looking back as you say stephen, but must have seemed important in the day, good looking tank those chieftains, growing on me, regards simon.

[Mark Heaps]

Interesting videos but I do not recognise the callsign numbering system. They are not the ones used when I was attached to Cavalry regiments, QRIH, 14/20th KH, QDG, RDG. Was it a numbering system used by RTR, or one just used for instructional purposes ?

Mark

[Stephen White]

Mark, I'm tempted to say "get some in..." The call sign system in the films dates from the early 1970s and was used throughout the British Army. It assigned every radio in the unit a unique call sign. So A Squadron was 1, 1 Troop, A Sqn was 11 etc, B Sqn was 2,21 etc. If, as in the film, there were attached units from other arms or services with the same unit call sign, such as two 11s, each would use an arm indicator prefix such as T (or Tango for tanks), I (or India for infantry etc).

This call sign system was vulnerable to intercept analysis and as BAOR became more concerned about the Warsaw Pact ability to put together the Order of Battle from signals intelligence, the system was changed in the early eighties. The new system was based on a matrix in which all types of unit, regardless of role, used the same basic matrix, making interpretation of radio intercepts much harder. Similar roles within a unit, regardless of level of command, used similar call signs, with daily changing call sign indicator prefixes as necessary. 0A was always the commander, whether at squadron, regiment or brigade. Sub units used a matrix from 10 to 44. There were matrices for command, sub units and two for attached support arms. I guess that's the system you remember?

As I did my regimental signals officer course in the seventies, I had to teach that system and then was commanding a squadron during the introduction of the new one. It took a bit of head scratching and many shouts across the turret to my operator along the lines of "what's the f....ng indicator today". I've never had to opportunity to ask a Russian SIGINT officer whether it confused them as much as us.

Stephen

[John Clarke]

Thanks for clearing that up Stephen.

Think I need a cup of tea now, put the BV on!

Just out of interest, Steve Winstone tells me he also supplied bin catches for the Centurion as well as the bollards, would they have been a good match for the Chieftain?

[Stephen White]

Yes John, perfect. Sadly, I think if you mentioned them to Steve, there might be a homicide...... he said they were a pig to make and not to be repeated. Still, never say never? (I don't want to appear smug but I ordered two sets, for the Cent and the other as an act of faith that Kian and the team would one day make a Chieftain. That was four or five years ago).