23rd March 2014 Tool Racks

So this weekend was spent making tool racks. All weekend! Talk about a labour of love...

Anyway, again, we dont claim to have made everything 100% accurately but we have made them 'look' right and fit the tank! The tools were all made some time ago so literally, the racks took all weekend. Made from steel and all welded they will be uber robust. The fully working tool clamps were supplied from Dave Dibb of Armorpax who especially made a few sets of his 1:6th tool clamps in 1:4 scale, thanks Dave :-)

This is the left hand (if you were sitting in the tank) tool rack. We made the handles of the cutters a bit longer to lessen the gap between C clamp and the ends of the cutters handles otherwise this is fairly as per.

And this is the right hand rack with a tin of Coke for size reference. Its not until you see something like this do you realise how flipping big they are, or in fact everything is in 1:4 scale! The C clamps and fire extinguisher were cast by Chris Leech who also made the crank. We need to bend this a bit as you can see as the length above the extinguisher should be parallel.

This is the holder for the wire hawser used to pull the tracks onto the tank and sits on the right hand side. The holes are for fixing, the real one would have been welded onto the tank of course!

And finaly, the hammer/pry bar/track tensioning bar holders. We need to make the hammer head a bit bigger as its lost in the bracket! H is going to 3D print one :-) Otherwise all pretty much as per. Chris made the two bars I made the hammer. The hammer, spade and axe handles are all real wood turned (in my mains electric drill in the vice!!!) filed and sanded to shape and stained, the heads are all resin filed and sanded to shape.

And thats another weekends work :-( I'm pleased with what we (the Royal we again) achieved this weekend and slowly but surely progress is being made. We're away next weekend and the weekend after we'll all be working on the other Big Panther so no progress for a few weeks...