Armortek

Photo 1 - Early Chieftain due to early NBC panel control panel
Photo 2 - neglected vehicle due to boxes missing.

Mark

Hi Phil, My job was making sure the BV would work, along with maintaining and fixing the other electrical and electronic systems if time allowed. Stephen White & John Heaps have more first hand knowledge of mechanical fittings and stowage points. However it looks to me like one of the later stowage ...

I'm heading toward the workshop in a mo but just thought this little warning label on one of the turret systems cabinets was interesting! That box with the warning sign had nothing to do with the metadynes which provided high current for the turret and gun drive motors. It was the power unit for th...

Awesome stuff Phil! Not sure if this may help with your quest on the inside: 03 EB 20 Those photos bought a few tears to my eyes, a few from nostalgia and bringing back memories. Most of them were due to seeing the neglect and abandondness. Electrical boxes missing, cables missing or not connected,...

Now if I've got the correct information ( or rather the information correct) the metadyne compartment and it's contents provided a very consistent reliable and infinitely variable dc current for the turret traverse and gun elevation/depression control. The system seems to have been very troublesome...

I really like these, but would the packs have been broken down to fit in the Chieftain stowage bins? Will the boxes fit in the models bins? I do not think the ration pack would have fitted in any of the Chieftain stowage bins or the stowage bins on any other armoured vehicle. Standard drills on any...

For those that never experienced compo or the 4-man pack variant of it, The salt bottle was a pale blue colour. The tins were a shiny dark bronze colour, holding a tin up to the monitor gives #8f7143 Hex Color Code as a good match. Apply a gloss varnish over the top of it. The sundries pack was a cl...

And to answer the question from Dave Dibb, I would suggest he offers a laser cut plastic stencil so people can either opt not to buy it and stow the boxes so the menu and date code cannot be seen, or purchase it so they can mark their boxes with dates suitable for the time-frame their model depicts ...

For the 4-man box - Four half-size tins for the items he stated, plus in some 1 for the Oatmeal blocks ( 5 of them in a tin so there was always a rota in place for it ) I seem to recall 10 full-size tins with the other items being packed as Dave Nadin posted. Biscuits AB were issued seperately if re...

on the compo the date range would be from Mid 1976 through to early 1980s. I would have to disagree with that date range for Compo for a Chieftain Mk5. The only time in 22 years I had new compo was when trialling the first boil-in-the-bags before they were accepted into service. New compo was held ...

Just to clarify. The wear indicator is not a hole that goes through the tooth but a concave depression on each side. If memory serves me correctly, it was only about 5-6 mm deep at the middle point so as not to adversely affect the structural strength of that tooth. I would suggest the best way to r...

One tooth on each sprocket ring had the wear indicator and it was on both sides of the tooth.
Mark

Did anyone notice the hole drilled into one of the sprocket teeth? Is it a timing mark or an alignment mark perhaps? Anyone know? That dimple is the wear indicator and was used as follows. The leading edge of the sprocket teeth would get the most wear with most movement of the tank being forward. W...

Having read through the link, yes definitely done with the typical squaddie humour. Very enjoyable.

Mark

The wiper blade drive shafts on each cupola wiper drive motor could not get out of synch. Any photo or video suggesting such is down to either one shaft has lost all drive ( never experienced this ) or the grub screws securing the blade to the drive shaft have become loose and only occasionally catc...