Thanks John, happy to oblige as long as it doesn't put people off posting......
The introduction of DPM combat kit and Chieftain pretty much coincided. That said, tank crews were discouraged from wearing combat kit because it quickly became contaminated with oil and diesel. It wasn't until the Challenger era that crews started wearing combat kit and body armour. The standard dress for Chieftain crews was a pair of lightweight green coveralls or black in the case of the Royal Tank Regiment (and one or two rather deluded Royal Signals punters who wrongly thought that their tracked vehicles were "panzers" and equally wrongly thought that entitled them to wear black denims, a privilege of the RTR). The British Army is nothing if not tribal about dress. The coveralls were "dead cheap" but were easily cleaned. They had few pockets and offered absolutely no protection or warmth. We were issued with a plain green Arctic Parka which crews wore dismounted but it was too bulky to wear in the turret. The parka came with a poor quilted liner which could be worn but which was easily ripped. As you can tell, tank crews weren't well served by the clothing people until the late 90s. So for an accurate Chieftain crew, it's a green/black onesy. A prize to the first person to find one in 1/6th.
Headgear was also a problem. When Chieftain entered service, crews wore their regimental beret with radio headsets (Larkspur initially then Clansman). I've been encouraging Dave Dibb to make some Larkspur radio ancillaries. The first time I fired the operational APDS round (which we could really only do in Canada), my beret and headset flew out of the cupola with the pressure change and I was deaf for days. We probably all had hearing loss in later life. We tried to get hold of Amplivox headsets which were issued to people in comfortable HQ, which gave some measure of protection. The beret did nothing to protect heads, in fact the back of the metal cap badge was usually imprinted on your forehead when the tank hit a bump. The danger was recognised with the introduction of the AFV crewman's helmet, which you show above. Top Gun it wasn't. It was excruciatingly uncomfortable but better than concussion. After a few hours, your head felt as if it had been in a vice. The next effort was based on the Clansman Staff User Headset and provided a shell which sat on the top. It was more comfortable but still not good.
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Finally, with both Larkspur and Clansman radios, the commanders wore a breastplate which gave you control over radio monitoring (listening to one radio while talking on another) and a press to talk switch (pressel). Who says men can't multi-task?
Overall, getting a realistic crew for our models will be a challenge. All ideas gratefully received.
) I think this last picture shows a sadly un-loved Chieftain. Of course they'll get beat up on exercises, but I'd expected crews would get "short change" from a commanding officer If equipment was left in this rusty state. Maybe on the way to the wrong end of the range.