3D Printed-1/76 Centurion Mk 5 AVRE
Big Shot!
The Centurion Mk 5 AVRE...
When the British Army decided their tanks should bring explosives, bridges, dozer blades, and a bad attitude to the battlefield.
Meet the Centurion Mk 5 AVRE: the ultimate combat engineering tank with the heart of a demolition crew and the body of a Cold War brawler. Originally built off the legendary Centurion tank chassis, the AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) is what happens when you look at a battlefield obstacle and say, “I’d rather that not exist anymore.”
Let’s get one thing straight:
This wasn’t just a Centurion with a shovel. The Mk 5 AVRE took the 105mm L7 gun and tossed it aside for something a bit more... specialized: the 165mm L9A1 Demolition Gun, sometimes lovingly called the “Flying Dustbin Launcher.” Why? Because it fired massive HESH demolition rounds—each one weighing 64 pounds—that could flatten bunkers, blast through walls, or reduce reinforced positions to rubble in one shot. While not as big as its old man's cannon(The Churchill Petard), it still got the job done, and from a rather safer angle
But it wasn’t just about firepower. The AVRE was a full-blown combat engineering platform, kitted out to tackle everything a retreating or entrenched enemy could throw at advancing forces. We're talking:
Dozer blades for clearing rubble and carving paths through urban chaos
Fascine bundles (basically giant logs or tubes) to fill in ditches and trenches
Trackway launchers to lay temporary road surfaces over soft or muddy ground
Even a mine plow or mine rollers, depending on the mission
This thing was the Swiss Army knife of armored vehicles, except everything on it was heavy, loud, and designed to smash, flatten, or detonate.
Mobility? Well, it’s still a Centurion under the hood. The AVRE kept the powerful Meteor V12 engine and solid armor protection, giving it decent cross-country performance for its nearly 50-ton weight. It wasn’t quick, but it could keep up with armored columns, push through wreckage, and get engineers right into the thick of it.
And yes—it saw action. The Centurion AVRE played a crucial role during the Troubles, where it helped British forces with clearing and mobility. But its real moment came during the Gulf War in 1991. Even by then, the Centurion hull was considered old-school—but the AVRE still proved itself invaluable for breaching Iraqi defenses and supporting armored spearheads through minefields, berms, and rubble-strewn terrain.
Was it perfect?
Not exactly. By the 1990s, the Centurion chassis was aging, and newer engineering vehicles like the Trojan were waiting in the wings. But the Mk 5 AVRE was tough, reliable, and terrifyingly effective, and the fact that it kept seeing action long after other tanks were scrapped says everything.
Bottom line?
The Centurion Mk 5 AVRE wasn’t here to fight tanks. It was here to clear the path so the tanks and troops could roll through—and if that meant blowing up a bunker with a 165mm round the size of a mailbox, well, that was just another day’s work.