The British Challenger MBT by Tamiya is the only one in plastic. The kit is moulded in the usual Tamiya yucky colored tan plastic, with very few ejector pin marks and no sink holes.

The lower hull consists of the whell torsion bars (moulded separetly), road wheels, return rollers, idler and sprocket wheels. All the parts fit well, but don't forget ot fill the usual holes in the bottom and add sponsons on the fenders.

You have an option of making the NATO, or the Gulf war version on this model. Remember that not all British Challengers were fitted with extra armor, or were painted with the British Armored sand. If you're making the Gulf War version, you musn't forget to paint the tools with the external colour as well. Tamiya tells you to paint the pipes on the engine deck "gun metal", I haven't pictorial evidence of this being done but I painted them with that color anyway. I suggest that you paint the gun travel lock separetly, since it's almost impossible when assembled and glued on.

The turret goes together well and has loads of detail. Tamiya tells you to cut off the antenna mounts, but since not all Challengers had their antennas removed you don't have to do so. You'll need to add the MG-lamp cord and the wire for the winch on the back of the turret. If you want to mount the figure, do it now (first paint the turret of course!) The gun barrel cover is well represented, but don't paint the straps sand, but paint them green or olive drab instead. Also, the muzzle head should be black, not sand.

Tamiya provides no accessories at all, but all the pictures I have of the Challenger have the back deck and turret covered with accessories. Also, almost always the stowage boxes have been coverd with cloth, or such. I stole a lot of accessories fom other kits, but also made a lot of new ones from tissue. I painted my model using Testors enamels, and Tamiya acrylics. The decals were applied using MicroSoll. They responded well and snuggled down in the panel lines with ease. The famous "Jeribo" Desert Rat insignia is provided in the decal sheet, but the instructions tell you not to use it. It should be applied on the upper hull sides right by the fire extinguishers, and both turret sides. You don't have to worry about this so much since the locations of this marking varied.

This being the only model of the Challenger in plastic, and featuring high quality and good detail, the open hull sponsons (as on most Tamiya tank models) and locations for all decals not being provided aside, it is highly recommended for British, or Gulf War armor buffs, especially recommended if you don't want to pay over $120 for the Accurate Armour offering.