British heavy tank FV221 Caernarvon

The chassis was taken from the planned A 45 "Infantry Support Tank", a project that began in 1944 shortly after the A 41 Centurion.
After the war, a "Universal Tank" of the FV 200 series was to be developed. This 200 series was to use a common chassis for all family vehicles (self-propelled guns, armored personnel carriers, various armored vehicles, etc.).
One of these tank types was to be the heavy FV 201 with a total weight of 55 tons, which was to be armed with an 83.8mm gun. In 1949 it was decided to increase the armament to 120 mm.
As this led to a project delay, in 1952 the FV 201 hull was combined with a Centurion Mk 2 turret (with 17 pounder gun), and became the FV 221 Caernarvon Mark I (the tank was named after a town in Wales).
Ultimately, twenty-one examples were built with the Centurion Mk III turret (with 20 pounder gun) as the Caernarvon Mk II.
The FV 221 may have originally been intended as the "battle tank" of the FV 201 series, but with the success of the A 41 Centurion such a vehicle became obsolete.
The examples of the Caernarvon that were built were now only used for chassis development work as part of troop trials.

Plastic model kit of an FV221 Caernarvon

• workable single link track
• including photo-etched parts

Scale 1:35

unbuilt / unpainted

paint and glue not included