Armortek

A thread to look at the variants of Comet in service.

Although it was in service around the world for twenty years, the Comet was produced in only two variants, the Cruiser Tank A34 Comet Mk 1, Types A and B. The Type B was a post Second World War Two development and was widely exported.

I haven't yet had an opportunity to look at the Bovington archives and the Technical Publications but here are some notes from open sources.

The Type A and B differed in only two respects, exhausts and smoke grenade dischargers.

The earliest Comets had a single exhaust shroud (middle picture), borrowed from its predecessor, the Cromwell. On the left, is the shroud developed during the war with a split in the middle to allow the gun to be crutched over the back decks. The later fishtail exhausts on the right were introduced on the Type B after the war. It looks as though Mark has chosen to represent the latter.



The multi-barrelled smoke grenade dischargers were only found on Type B, as on this South African Comet:



The rest of the variations below were found on both Types A and B. The first noticeable difference was the introduction of a revised front idler to overcome the tendency of the earlier type to clog with mud. Both types of idler can be seen on wartime photos of 11 Armoured Brigade. (Early version at the bottom).



The two types of roadwheel differed in the number of drainage holes and there were also a few variants of hub.





Two types of return rollers:



I'm sure there are other subtle differences and variants, awaiting discovery. Hope this is of interest to the Comet cohort.

Regards

Stephen

I've been looking at the exhausts and thinking they were B not A.

The interesting thing to me is that, in some of the WWII photos of A models with the shrouds, they also seem to have square metal plates bolted over where the fishtails would mount - as per your left hand photo.

It would look as though, with a couple of small panels and bit of bent brass for the shroud, you could have an A quite easily.

The shroud is an ideal candidate for a photo-etch, after-market part

Adrian.

Adrian

I believe it was always intended to fit the fishtail exhausts and provision for them was made in the Type A design. I don't know why they decided to adopt the Cromwell pattern shrouds, whether it was for production reasons or simply the operational requirement to reduce the heat and light signature. The Germans were experimenting with IR technology towards the engine of the war.

I agree that it should be easy enough to replicate the shrouds although I'd ask Mark to consider whether he can offer a model with Type A characteristics. Type B was a bit short on operational service.

Regards

Stephen

The comet service manuals can be had as reprints from the MLRS, I find these invaluable, although it must be said that some of the pics in the reprints can be a bit hard to discern. The erprint costs are about the same as those for an original copy of the manuals on Evilbay but the pro's are that you only have to wait 10 days for them from MLRS whereas they don't seem to come up all that often on Evilbay. I know I'd prefer a good clean original copy but needs must as they say...

http://www.mlrsbooks.co.uk/bookstore/in ... &qry=Comet