Note: This model was designed to be used with the Kemlow Sentry Series Centurion Tank but the two were only sold separately.
Largest of the Sentry Box models at 166mm, the Tank Transporter was based on the articulated Thornycroft Mighty Antar vehicle.
The model was designed in two parts with a large cab/tractor unit and a trailer with separate rear ramps. The permanent coupling was by a vertical axle-pin with a crimped top holding the spare wheel in place. This was a flexible system allowing the trailer easy turning but the hole in the cab through which the axle passed was quite large so the coupling was always a bit wobbly.
The standard of the casting was impressive. Not only was the detail excellent but the cab section and the trailer (excluding the ramps) were made of single castings. This meant that the cab had no base and the axles for the metal wheels fitted directly into holders on the castings. As with almost all Kemlow's models, there was no maker's name included on the model, just 'Made in England' under both cab and trailer.
Painted in British Army green, the Tank Transporter was given silver trim on the headlights and the fuel tanks on each side of the cab although this was sometimes reduced to just the headlights. Decals representing regimental emblems were usually applied to the base of one of the rear ramps but models are often found without any. Red & dark-blue square emblems seemed to be the most commonly used but yellow & dark-blue were sometimes applied.
The unpainted metal wheels on flat-head & crimped axles were the same rounded style as those used on the Armoured Vehicle and the Gun. At the rear, the ramps, which could be raised and lowered, were fixed in place by a wide metal pin crimped at one end.
With such a long model, the box for the Tank Transporter was a conventional end-flap type without the rounded top flap of the other Sentry boxes. The model name was on each side of the box with the red panel on the base flap left blank.
The Tank Transporter is not too hard to find but the boxes are scarce. Gamda in Israel bought the dies when Kemlows ceased manufacture and produced sand-coloured versions for a while during the 1960's.
