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...

Finaly, some progress :-) Early March 2014

After a hiatus of some time dealing with the 'other' Big Panther and a couple of projects myself and Howard had promised to do, finaly some progress to my Big Panther :-)

Basicaly, all weekend has been taken up with fitting the running boards (Saturday) and making and fitting the front mud guards (Sunday). The running boards were made way back when last year but what with one thing and another that was as far as they got! Saturday was spent fitting these with the 'swastika' brackets (see previous post for explanation!) This wasnt as easy as it seems :-/

 A bit wobbly to start with!! That'll be alright H :-)

 Thats better.

A close up of one of the 'swastika' brackets. On the real thing the running board is bolted to the bracket with dome headed coach bolts and are quite shallow. Unfortunately, because you cant get a nut underneath the bracket (believe me, its impossible!) when we ground down the ordinary hex head bolts into a dome shape we had to keep the domes quite pronounced as we had to fit these with a pair of mole grips and thread lock so they are a bit bigger than they should be. Hopefully when its all painted they wont look quite so big...

 H starts work knocking up the mud guards...

 And here they are! These next few pics dont do them justice as you cant see the curved angle brackets underneath amongst other things :-) A very complicated job making them a; look right and b; fit! I had all sorts of dimensions from the real thing in Bovington Tank Museum but you might as well throw those out of the window (remember the fiasco with the rear tool boxes?) so we made these look right hence there are a few compromises!

 A three quarter view showing the small hinged section (ignore the huge hinge pin, thats temporary!) and the small bracket that bolts to the chassis extension. These arent bolted into the chassis as you'd never get the top off (easily) so the bolt heads are just dummies and the bracket rests on the chassis. Note one of H's modified shackles in place to see how it all looks.

Here's a side three quarter view with the mudguard and running board. I think we've got it more or less right!!!

The superstructure top has now stayed at H's for further work while the chassis has come back with me as all further work on the top can be done without reference to the chassis. No work next weekend as Kaths car failed its MOT so I'll be working on another German tank next weekend!!