Tuesday 30 April 2013

Late April Update

Some more progress :-) This time some pics of the turret work, the fabricated stowage boxes and the result of wielding my trusty soldering iron for some hours in the shed!

Firstly the turret pics.

 The finished traverse assembly. The square base to the upright bolts to the tank chassis floor, the wires coming out of the upright are the turret power cables up to the integral three pin plug.
 Looking directly down onto the underneath of the turret showing the angle iron base frame and the centre spigot support legs.
 Same thing from a side view showing the elevation motor and recoil servo to the left.
 Close up of the frame and one of the support rollers. This bears onto the top of the hull but is purely for balancing rather than taking any of the weight, that is taken by the traverse mechanism.
 Close up of the elevation motor and recoil servo.
Close up of the centre spigot with the built in three pin turret power plug.

Next some pics of the rear stowage bins fabricated by Howard. These are superb and exactly to scale, however, they are too small for the rear panel so I'm not sure what we're going to do about that :-/ Not H's fault, I gave him the correct dimensions but the rear panel is not correct so they're about 20mm too short. Its so annoying as I'd wished I'd checked the rear panel measurements and adjusted the bins accordingly but cest la vie :-(

 Superb.
 Spot on.
Too short :-0

Next some short videos demonstrating some of the features of the working electrics.

First the synchronised exhaust smoke. Should have left it a bit longer to make more smoke but you get the idea. This uses the Benedini oil smoke module connected to the Benedini sound module but just to run the fans.

Couldnt get the short video showing the idler adjusting so here's the link to the YouTube appearance.

Idler Adjustment Video

Note how slow the idler moves and the led lighting when the limit switch has cut power to the motor.


This shows what happens inside when the idler is moving on the outside. Also shows the limit switches cutting power to the motor and putting the lighting the led on the control panel.


And to prove the turret works ok! We think the belt needs tightening as when the turret is sitting on the hull it tends to catch a bit as it rotates making it bounce too and fro.

Wont get much done this weekend as we've got some work to do on our tank transporting truck. More as and when.


Tuesday 9 April 2013

Early April Update

Well, after a couple of weekends living it up and doing family stuff we finaly have some progress!

Howard has made the turret support frame which incorporates the recoil mechanism mounted on the stout plate seen in the previous post. Last weekend I took the chassis over to Uckfield (still on the temporary electrics) for the trial fitting of the turret. Once again, things didnt work out quite to plan and poor Howard was seen to be giving me 'that look' again! Not going into detail but we have measured the hull top and turret and confirmed they are more or less right with the correct angles as well when we first got the model. So why the bloody hell doesnt it fit together correctly? lol We had decided where the turret pivot point was but when we mounted the turret it was found to be too far back and overlapped the engine hatch. This would have prohibited access to the switches and controls as well as looking wrong of course. Howard did some metal working jiggery pokery and lo and behold the turret rear sat just in front of the engine hatch, but..... the mantlet was far too far forward and stopped the drivers and radio ops hatches opening!!! We looked, we measured, we mused and we argued but eventually we worked it out, the curved turret front just behind the mantlet was too far forward. So... we cut it off, cut it down and hot glued it back on just to try it out and voila, success! Again, doesnt sound like much but that took most of the day :-( We also made a start on the flamvernichter exhausts, made from rainwater down pipe and 90 degree bends. Anyway, here's some pics.

 A view of the turret from the front. Note the mantlet's upside down! Not easy to see in this picture but the gun barrel is removable with one of Howards bayonet fittings.
 A rear view showing the disputed replacement rear sides!
Underneath the turret you can see the finished frame nicely filled and blended into the base of the sides. The turret is mounted on the traverse mechanism and this is held in the vice. To the left of the pulley is the elevation motor and above the stub of the gun barrel is the recoil arm.
 The engine hatch doing what it was designed for, holding the top in place.
Now the turret sits about right, just in front of the engine hatch...
 ...and behind the hatch panel.
 The turret mechanism mounted on its 30mm square tube post and viewed through the turret ring.
 The front of the turret with the mantlet removed to enable the curved front of the turret to be modified. You can see the trunnions for the gun barrel pivot and the barrel outer to allow the barrel to recoil.
 The view from above through the engine hatch showing the controls beneath.
 A close up of the turret traverse mechanism showing the three pin XLR connector built into the central spigot. This cleverly enables the electrical connection to be made and disconnected automaticaly when the turret is placed or removed from the tank.
The start of the flamvernichters! A lot more work to be done but a good start :-)

Hopefully more next weekend.