COBI Challenger 2 Set 2627

COBI's Challenger 2 is a 1:35 model built from 954 blocks, 33 cm long, with moving wheels and tracks, a rotating turret, a brick engine under the service hatch and an opening turret hatch. A crew figure with two interchangeable headpieces — helmet and beret with a British badge — is included, along with markings for either the British or the Ukrainian version. A new part was made for the Challenger's distinctive barrel.

The last rifled gun

Every other main battle tank in the West fires from a smoothbore barrel. The Challenger 2 does not: its 120 mm gun is rifled, with grooves cutting the inside of the barrel to spin the shell.

Britain kept rifling because of one particular round. HESH — high explosive squash head — flattens against armour and detonates, sending a shockwave through the plate that throws a lump of metal off the inside. It needs to spin to work properly, and it is unusually good at demolishing buildings and bunkers, which suits an army that spends more time on peace-support operations than on tank battles.

The price is that it cannot fire the NATO-standard smoothbore ammunition everyone else uses, which has made supply awkward. In Iraq in 2003 a Challenger 2 destroyed another tank at about five kilometres — the longest confirmed tank-on-tank kill on record. Fourteen of them have been supplied to Ukraine.

Specifications

Pieces: 954 · Figures: 1 with two headpieces · Scale: 1:35 · Two marking options
Model dimensions: 33 × 12.5 cm (13.0 × 4.9 in)