IBG

Charioteer Mk.VIIB in Finnish Service

This is a quick review of the IBG FV 4101 Charioteer Mk.VIIB in Finnish Service. Overall, I have to say I was quite disappointed in this, not necessarily due to the quality of the kit itself, but rather with the poor research done (or not done) by IBG in respect of kit accuracy. I built a a previous Charioteer VIIA using an MR Models resin conversion along with the Revell Cromwell hull, which required a reasonable amount of scratch building, but it was something that I expected, owing to the nature of the conversion set. When I saw the announcement that IBG would release a VIIB in Finnish markings, I was excited at the prospect of building another with much less additional work required. Sadly, in examination of the kit, it does not appear to be the case here.

Let me start off with the positives though:

• Plastic is nicely molded with minimal flash and manageable mould seems.
• Interesting approach to the tracks in that they are molded integrally with the inner wheel halves as one piece with well rendered track sag. See comments below regarding road wheels.
• Track external detail looks good (interior detail, less so)
• Turret hatches are provided as separate parts allowing them to be portrayed in the open position which consequently also allows crew figures to be added. Internal hatch detail is absent however.
• Small photoetch sheet, which includes some small parts that do provide nice scale fidelity (e.g fender and smoke discharger supports).
• Small number of plastic parts, generally providing adequate detail, makes for an easier build without the gratuitous quantity of parts sometimes seen in other manufacturers releases.
• Shovel is thankfully provided as a separate part and not molded on (yay!!)

But alas, here are the problematic parts. In general to all of the variants of the Charioteer released by IBG, missing are a few prominent features including:

• No gun travel lock cradle on the aft right hull
• No pull handles, conduits and hull penetration provisions for the external fire extinguisher actuation system mounted on the forward side of the left and right hull storage bins.
• No representation of the canvas mantlet cover seen on most British, Austrian and Finnish machines.
• No provision for wood jacking block stowage on aft fenders
• No infantry phone box on aft hull (not usually seen on Finnish vehicles though)
• Crow bar and pick axe are moulded on
• No cable reel on aft right turret side
• No left and right turret stowage straps (would have been a useful addition to the PE fret)
• The drive sprocket and idler have "axle" provisions in the lower hull, however there are no corresponding axles for any of the road wheels, despite the inner wheels appearing to have a recess for these (unsure if this will leave a peculiar gap to the hull when assembled)
• Commander periscope covers are provided as PE parts, but there is no corresponding periscope provided to actually cover.

In respect of the subject of this kit, that being Charioteers in Finnish service:

• I can find no evidence that the Fins EVER mounted .50 caliber M2 machine guns on the turret of any of their Charioteers, so the IBG instructions that include this weapon, and the mounting provisions, seem quite spurious.
• Photographic evidence shows the Fins mounted a sledge hammer on the left, aft side hull just aft of the crow bar, which is not provided
• The kit type F hull is not appropriate for marking option Ps 251-37, which photographic evidence shows to have a type D hull.
• The kit's moulded on loaders hatch is a circular raised copula type which was only used on Jordanian Charioteers. The Finnish machines using a simpler rectangular split hatch arrangement.

Preview sample purchased by the author.

Article Last Updated: 20 August 2026