Polistil 1:50 Scale Tanks – Part 3

By Robin Godwin

C.A. 102 Chieftain Mark 3 was also a 1974 release. This is another example of Polistil competing with Solido products, without duplicating models (as an aside, Solido only produced one British military vehicle, the Alvis Stalwart, but that was a default because the model was actually introduced as #214 Berliet Aurochs (an extinct long-horn cattle species). Berliet was to have manufactured the amphibious Stalwart under license as a replacement for their Second World War DUKWs but this never came to pass, so Solido bit the bullet and renamed the model Berliet Alvis (#247)).

British origins are recognized on the packaging, although the box carries on with a secret missive in Italian from Agent Sirio to “base” regarding an update on “Operazione Mosca-Bianca” and awaiting further instructions. This doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the contents of the box and, in the end, the Italian Army never had Chieftains (no NATO allies did). None of the soldiers match the box photos – the top two are mirror images, and the bottom one is completely different. The unit emblem sticker FVRDE stands for Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, which existed from 1952 to 1970, so would have been engaged in Chieftain development

The Leyland built Chieftain was introduced in 1967, replacing the Centurions, and provided Britains main NATO land contribution during the Cold War. The Mark 3 was an evolution of earlier Marks with multiple upgrades, including a more powerful engine. Foreign sales were largely to Middle East countries, where the tank saw its only real combat action in the Iran-Iraq war, on the Iranian side. It proved to be somewhat unreliable, underpowered, and despite more modern armour, did not fare that well against Iraqs Russian sourced tanks. The main armament was a 120mm rifled bore gun, with a co-axial 7.62 mm machine gun (used for ranging in early versions) and a second 7.62 mm gun on the commander’s cupola. It had a crew of four, with the driver sitting in the front of the hull under the main gun, in a reclining position. The Chieftain remained in UK service until 1995 and was replaced by the Challenger.

In the toy world of the time, many companies produced model Chieftains, but none as spectacularly as Polistil. Playart of Hong Kong and Tomica of Japan produced quite accurate renditions in smaller scales. Interestingly, the Playart model has the same “6258” serial number and FVRDE stickers, although it doesn’t otherwise look copied from the Polistil. Only the Dinky Chieftan model introduced in 1972 is to a similar scale (although Dinky did not indicate the scale of 1:50 until the 1976 catalogue). I have included it for contemporary comparison purposes, although it is very much a toy, and the Polistil leans much more toward a scale model, again, similar to Solido products.

You can tell they are of the same prototype, and pretty much the same size, but that’s where the similarities end. Dinky 683, left, features a firing gun with the spring mechanism located internal to the barrel, which forces it to be hugely out of scale, and requires a large spring release lever mechanism. Rotating the commander’s cupola raises or lowers the gun barrel. The Polistil can be faulted for missing a few access panels at the rear (that Dinky actually included), some ugly stickers, and the standard space between the last road wheel and the rear drive wheel. 7.62 mm machine gun (slightly overscale perhaps), antenna, opening turret hatch, smoke dispensers, and turret stowage baskets are just some of the added detail

The Polistil is exquisitely cast with fine engine grill detail. They have captured the lower profile of the vehicle perfectly (which I will compare to the Centurion in a later article). It feels like a scale tank should in the hand; big and heavy. All the large bits are metal, including the base. I can’t explain the presence of the supple black plastic shroud covering the barrel/turret connection point. The Chieftain had no mantlet (basically an armour piece to protect the gap where the barrel enters the turret), but the early prototype used a canvas cover to disguise this fact and also the armour around the junction, but this was not a feature of the production Mark 3. My references are not detailed enough to indicate if this was a subsequent modification. Perhaps Polistil used a bit of artistic license. Still, I think this is a terrific model, and is easily available on eBay, but not inexpensive.

You can see the extra hatch detail that Dinky included in their casting. Dinky concessions to play value are very evident. As always, the Polistil added details are plastic and can be easily lost