In 1958 the Israelis acquired about 390 second-hand Centurions from Great-Britain. They were quickly locally modified and upgraded all along their service life. In Israeli service the Centurion was renamed Sho't. When the original engine was replaced by the Continental AVDS-1790-2A diesel engine The Sho't was called Sho't Cal, Cal being short for Continental. The denomination Kal is not totally correct although it is quite always used in the modeling world.

The Sho't Cal Gimel is the third evolution of the Sho't Cal which entered service with the IDF in 1982. It includes a set of Blazer ERA tiles to improve the protection against antitank weapons, a new fire control system, new sights and smoke dischargers protective boxes.

The tank is fitted with the British made L7 105 mm rifled gun with a range of 4000 m. The secondary armament consists of a 0.30 coaxial MG, two turret mounted 0.30 MG and a  0.50 MG mounted on a pedestal fitted to the gun mantlet. On each side of the turret there are 10 smoke dischargers.

The crew is of 4: a driver, a tank commander, a gunner and a loader.

The Sho't has seen action in the Six-Day war in 1967, in the Yom-Kippur war in 1973 where it proved very effective against the Soviet made T-55 and T-62 used by the Arab armies. From these experiences the Sho't Cal was fitted with the Blazer ERA package to defeat the modern antitank weapons like the AT-3 Sagger that the Egyptian army used in large quantities in 1973. In 1982 the Sho't Cal Gimel was used during operation Peace in Galilee when Israel invaded Lebanon. During the conflict the last evolution of the Sho't Cal, the Dalet, entered service.

The Sho't Cal tanks were decommissioned in the late 80s and converted into APCs and CEVs. The total number of Sho't in service with IDF is about 1000.

The kit

It is one of the many Centurions kits by AFV Club. It includes 20 green plastic sprues of which 5 only are new, 1 clear plastic sprue, 1 sprue of vinyl parts, 24 vinyl tires with the roadwheel outer rim, 1 metal barrel, 6 metal springs, vinyl tracks, polycaps, 1 sheet of dedicated photoetched parts, 1 sheet of decals and 1 length of nylon thread. In addition there is a booklet for the instructions and a color poster with the boxart painting.

As usual with AFV Club, the details are nice and crisp. Many parts are tiny and fragile so additional attention should be paid when removing them from the sprue tree. Some ejection pinmarks are ill-positioned for instance on the top of the driver's hatches or the main body of the turret roof MG. The kit comes with nice crew individual weapons (Uzis and Galils) but with no other stuff. The suspension is functional with metal springs.

The main issue of the kit is the re-use of the previous unmodified sprues. The location of the specific Sho't Cal parts can be a guess game and the fit is not perfect without some extra work on the original Centurion parts.

The build

It starts with the lower hull and the suspension. At step 2 AFV Club requires to secure the pins of the mobile parts by melting them with a heated nail. I found that the pins didn't need this at all. The fit of the pins in the holes is tight enough. I just cut the excess of the pins.

At step 3, the vinyl tires must be glued to the plastic roadwheels with CA glue. When done I didn't fit the wheels to the bogies to paint them more easily. Take note that the polycaps diameter is a bit too narrow so the fit around the axles is really tight.

At step 6 you face the first case of adapting specific Sho't Cal parts to previous kit ones with any markings. Fortunately the locations of the first aid kit box and the spare track links are shown in a drawing of the final assembly.

At step 8 you need to glue the idler wheels axles B23. They display some grooves to align with the tensioning system H8/H9. So you can adjust the track tension. If you use the kit vinyl tracks I advise not to put the axles in the most forward position.

At step 12, you have to assemble and glue the air filters and install the fire extinguisher U61 and the decontamination apparatus U28. It is better to the latter first as it could be tricky to glue them in the narrow space between the filters and the bins later.

At step 13 you need  to fit the first ERA blocks. Take care of the top view drawing before gluing the parts. The blocks located over the side bins Q9 and Q10 have a kind of lip at their bottom which should overlap the bins covers so each ERA block really sits on top of the bin.

At step 14 fit the parts Q1, L38 and L39 according to the picture and the top view drawing. The flap of the exhaust pipe should be glued to the top of the exhaust itself and not inside the armored cover. It is not that clear if you miss the picture.

At step 15 AFV Club asks you to remove some details from the glacis armor plate L37. I advise to remove the two central little tabs from the original headlights supports as they will prevent the ERA blocks to sit perfectly.

At step 16 fill the ejection pinmarks on top of the driver hatches.

Step 18 deals with the headlights assembly. They are quite fragile and require some care. The brackets P54 and P55 do not rest on the armor plate on their inner side. You need to add a 1 mm piece of rod at their bottom. You can also add the wiring which goes back to the top of the hull on the left of the driver.

At step 19 you need to cut 4 lengths of 13 cm from the nylon thread to make the tow cables. For some reason AFV Club does not give enough thread so I used some naval modeling thread instead. Be aware that 13 cm is too long. From my experience 12 cm are enough. The way the cables eyes are secured by part L35 is unclear in the instructions. In reality the cables go through the part L35 and the eyes are just hanging on the one side.

The hull is now complete. You only have to add the side skirts if you want. I prefer not gluing them before I paint and weather a bit the lower hull which I did again for this model. Likewise I didn't install the tracks. However I cut the ends of each 6th link as it was standard with the Sho't after Yom Kippur War.

The turret assembly starts at step 21. I found the polycaps for the gun trunnions too large so I needed to keep turret halves tightly attached while the glue set.

The location of the ERA blocks under the side bins is not precise but this is less an issue than for the ones on the hull.

At step 23 I didn't follow the sequence of assembly of the rear basket. I found easier to first glue one side to the bottom L28 and then gluing the other parts from bottom up. When done I glued the other side. When the frame is fully assembled you need to add the PE mesh parts. The side ones G19 and G20 are reversed on the instructions. The raised details should face outside the basket. Shaping the other PE parts G14 and G18 requires some test fittings before gluing them as there is no template to bend them.
Then you have to place 4 U10 parts without any locating marks. Refer to the drawing at step 24 to know their right place.

The installation of the mortar U53 requires some attention too. First glue the base made from U57 and U55 at the right angle. Then glue the mortar U53 and the plate U58. And finally assemble the mortar to the base. If you want to you can assemble and add the Uzis SMG which I chose not to do.

At step 27 AFV Club omitted to show the number of the TC ring mount P1 and the rear vision block protection I1. At the rear left corner of the turret there is some kind of "shelf" made of parts P12 and P32. First you need to fill the 4 ejection pinmarks in part P32. Then glue the both parts together and end by attaching the sub-assembly to the turret.

At step 29 I had to sand the periscope mount a little so the ERA blocks P58 sit well.

At step 30 the dust cover is added. It comes in soft rubber you can glue with standard plastic glue. I used Tamiya extra thin glue which worked too well and dissolved the rubber where it was the thinnest. So be careful there.

At steps 31 and 32 the smoke grenades launchers and the ERA blocks in front of them require some attention especially when it comes to attach them to the turret sides. Be careful at the direction of part P8 before gluing it to part P28.

At steps 33 and 34 the 0.30 cal MGs and their mounts are very nice and full of tiny parts to assemble. I just hollowed the MGs gun muzzle. When assembled the MGs were painted but not put in place yet to avoid any damage during the painting of the model. The 0.50 cal MG above the gun mantlet is assembled too. There is a mistake in the numbering of the ammo box holder. Part U62 is in fact U63. The length of rounds U49 is slightly bent so it looks more realistic. Wierdly enough AFV Club only gives ammo for the 0.50 cal MG.

The final step deals with the main gun. The turned aluminum barrel is nice with a rifled muzzle. However you need to file the central portion so the plastic fume extractor (I61 and I62) can fit. The dust cover V3 is in rubber and tightly fits around the gun so I only glued the rear of it to the gun mantlet. I didn't use the smoke grenades launchers rubber covers. In my opinion the sides are a bit thick.

To give my model a more operational look I decided to add some crew stuff. My spare parts box being poor I had to make some tarps, bedrolls and other things on my own. I mainly used Milliput for this. The wooden crate is made from styrene sheet. The various straps are cut from metal sheet used for bottle collars. The buckles are made from thin metal wire put in shape and flattened.

The decoration

In 1982 IDF shifted to a new color called at least in the modeling community Sinaļ Grey 1982. AFV Club calls for a yellow sand which is wrong. I started with the AK Sinaļ Grey 1982 reference which I found way too dark compared to period pictures. So I mixed it with Tamiya XF-57 Buff until I got a suitable shade. The whole tank was sprayed with this color. Then I painted the white strip on top of the gun. In parallel I painted and weathered the tracks. I put the tracks in place and glued the painted skirts.

Before the weathering stage, I applied the decals over a coat of Klir. They are very thin so be careful when you handle them.

The weathering was done with some oil dots and a classical pinwash of dark brown. Some oil streaks were added on the engine deck as well as rain streaks on the side skirts not too many though. To end the weathering I needed to create a dust effect. For it I used various pigment shades all over the tank. The lower hull got more dust by spraying diluted Tamiya Buff.

The final touch was the addition of the two antennas, one being painted dark green and the other one white.

12/2019