044 Land Rover Centaur conversion

Description

Perhaps the most radical conversion of a Land Rover for military purposes is the Centaur halftrack. It is based on a Series III with a 3.5 liter V8 engine and a shortened belt drive from the Alvis Scorpion light tank. The resulting half-track had a very high payload and formidable offroad capability.

A model of the appropriate vehicle will be needed in the same scale to mount this conversion on 

either a Defender 110 or a Stage 1 chassis. The Hobbyboss Defender 110 could be used as a donor with the appropriate changes.

Pictures kindly supplied by Kai of his Build of the centaur conversion, his review :

Review Land Rover Laird Centaur Conversion (1/35)

This is my second model kit from the Dragonbadger Models Land Rover series and I must confess that I like it even better than the Cuthbertson Rover I built before. The conversion kit includes the rear body, the track drive, parts for the frame of the soft-top and (for those who cannot find a donor kit) even the front of a Stage I Land Rover. Not to forget a portion of filler.

I used an Italeri 6508 Land Rover 109′ LWB kit as donor kit. I cut the front part of the Land Rover just behind the Seat base and connected it to the Centaur tail using two small pieces of polystyrene. When removing the print supports from the drive unit, I unfortunately broke off the drive gear wheel – the connection is very thin due to the printing technique. However, this made it much easier to assemble the tracks, since you do not have to split the tracks to get them over the wheels. As the connection between the broken gear wheel and the base plate of the drive unit was hollow, it was very easy to reattach it after mounting the tracks using glue and a small piece of wire.

For the Stage I look, I copied the grille and the hood from a Hobby Boss LR Defender and made them out of epoxy putty, the self-made soft-top and rear tailgate complete the model. The 2-tone camouflage paint job is supposed to look like 48BT07, the Centaur prototype P1, but I think I need to work on my airbrush skills a bit more.

My conclusion: Not a kit for a predefined finished model, but an excellent base for the various equipment variants such as minelayer, tank destroyer or simply as a soft top version. Flexible in use – just like the original.

Kai Klutterman, 2021