00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

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John Clarke
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

While having some bits welding up on the UC, I sneaked in the right hand angle bin. An odd shaped bin and even odder on this model, but one angle I could sort out is the very odd angle on the front leading edge, Why is it there? it's not on the left hand side, very strange.

The bit of steel plate used to fill the corner in came from an old video recorder base panel. The thin steel work from old appliances can come handy, I keep the odd old video recorder in the attic, lots of re-usable components available too. Fine quality wiring can be found in old scart leads ideal for LED lighting circuits.
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Steve Ellis
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Steve Ellis »

Hi John
Enjoying the build.

As it happens I’m using an old toaster for parts for the Elefant I’m currently building.

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John Clarke
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

After tinkering with the UC motion pack, buying some bits for the 25 pounder, then managing to get the firing pin to work. All done in the best possible taste ready for the Queens Jubilee.
Ps looks great with a muzzle brake flash. 8)
Thought I'd try to get back in the saddle with the Chieftain, putting it off for way too long.
I've not relished the next bit, 40 tapped 12ba threads in the front mud guards. Problem is, I have a history of violence with any tap smaller than M3.
Shock horror, :shock: only broke one 1mm drill and no 12ba tap casualties.
I must admit the steel work on Chieftain drills and taps really good almost straight too.
Cracking Gromit.
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Charles A Stewart »

:D :D Well done sir, my compliments.
Chieftain No.34, functional. PKW IV (2002), operational. Panther G No.18 (2022), started, well some of it is. Series 1 4x4 No.28 and a Bailey Bridge.

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John Clarke
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

Thanks Charles, tricky to do on the side with the mudguard still fitted. The loose one was easier, holding it in the lap trying not to drill any vulnerable bits of my personage. :shock: Had to remove the idler on the fixed guard to drill and tap from the inside out. But necessary because your never quite sure where parts will line up, or over lap, or just basically look ok.
Just a couple of bits to make on the mudguard support bracket and that funny shaped mirror mount, which I'm hoping to make work with a simple gland like grip internally, It will allow it to be locked in upright or lay down position. Drilling a 1.5mm hole in the center of a M3 bolt is challenging at the moment with a hand drill.
Then I'll hopefully be able to return to the smiley front end and start fitting the Armortek parts, lighting, fording rail, etc 8)
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Richard Goodwin
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Richard Goodwin »

Expertly done John.......mine are on route to you :wink:

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John Clarke
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

Hi Richard, looking forward to seeing some stuff from you soon. Some times it's so easy to get distracted with other things. Warmer day today so I thought I'd spend time indoors on the mirror brackets and Eddy.
What 's wrong with symmetrical shapes, very little is on Chieftain, she's got curves everywhere!
One mirror bracket nearly finished the other one is coming along.
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Wow! where did he get those mirror back's I hear you say (or not) Well,




I brought some parts to build fun Crawler, buying two second hand toy bodies, With this toy age group, previous owners usually leave kiddy bite marks or it's been a chew toy for the family dog, so the spares are always a plus.
Now this is where up cycling comes into its own. The mirrors needed the orientation changing, tidying and a bit of paint, and I think Stephen White said the real ones usually ended up in the tanks bins because they were next door to useless. Oh well.
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Stephen White »

Well, not entirely useless, John, we used them as shaving mirrors. We were supposed to fit them for road moves to comply with local traffic law but who’s going to argue with a sixty ton tank? They lived in the bins mostly. Good work though and the brackets, which were fitted, look great.

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John Clarke
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

Thanks Stephen.
There's something about Eddy.
(My Chieftain driver)

I had been easily distracted and I got a bit fed up with trying to make the mirror brackets for Chieftain.

If I had a penny for each one that didn't come close I'd have...................... 4 pence.
Their coming along ok now, see previous post.

So, putting the things on a short hold, I had a look at what I could do with Eddy the Chieftain driver.

Sometime ago I thought I have a go at making some sort of pop up driver, where he could be brought up for fresh air without having to muck about trying to tuck him in or drag him out without too much embarrassment. (Legs and arms all over the place normally)

But for being such big model there's not a lot of space in the front end height wise, hence the driver has to lay down to get into the button down position.

I brought one of Dave Dibbs very nice busts for the Chieftain British crew and set about making a swing arm. Then it came to me, (it's probably been done before), but I thought I could use a mini video camera mounting parts. And of course it could double up as a Camera mount. This one cost £15 off a market with loads of add on bits. Pictures not too bad but the battery doesn't last long but a battery bank can boost that.
The change over between bust and camera is a bit fiddly and takes a couple of minutes.
But Eddy raises and buttons down really quick and I like that.
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Mark Heaps
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Mark Heaps »

John Clarke wrote:
Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:53 pm
Which leads me to a Question. If You were to pull on one of the big red extinguisher handles on either side of the tank would the crew have to be evacuated?

Would the enemy be able to run up pull on the lever and disable the 52 ton monster with it's own fire protection system?
Of course you'd need some big pants to try it :lol:
The answer to that is no.
During Chieftain times they were dry powder and I am fairly certain there were only 2 in parallel & discharged into the engine compartment to put out a pack fire. Or at least that was the intention, only ever experienced them pulled once & it took another 5 of the hand-held extinguishers squirted through the decks to put the fire out,
That was what was fitted to the Chieftain ARRVs that I crewed.
The CrARRV ( Challenger Armoured Repair & Recovery Vehicle ) that came later had 3 Halon extinguishers, the 3rd discharged into the crew compartment and was physically disabled, only to be enabled if we were going to war.

Mark

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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Mark Heaps »

And those strips on the front wings were there to secure a rubber flap, about 9mm thick with a fabric core.
No idea what they were supposed to achieve but they were known as the mud-flaps.
Mark

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John Clarke
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

Thanks Mark, I didn't realise it would be a dry powder extinguishers, expecting Co2. Dry Powder creates quite a mess, like bomb in a talcum powder factory. I always thought twice when I pulled out a powder extinguisher, knowing I'd have to clean up the mess afterwards. Dreadful things, especially on electrical circuits. The relays never quite worked the same afterwards :cry:

As for the mud flaps, not sure I'd fit them, only about 50% of the pictures I've seen of the Batus Chieftains have them fitted.

00 FD 96 at the time when the pictures were taken, show the mud flaps missing and the area on front mud guards has been painted black. Others show the rubber flaps painted camo, either way that's not going to happen on my final rendition.

Being effectively training vehicles, I suppose they'd take a lot of abuse from various parties, not like the pampered vehicles assigned to the regiments back in the UK and Germany.
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by Stephen White »

Now, here's an excuse to use "counter-intuitive".....which it was when you consider failure rates. The BATUS fleet consistently reported better serviceability and fewer major component changes per track mile than the Germany fleet. There was a reason - if you send a regiment off to other operations, such as Op BANNER in Northern Ireland, or Cyprus with the UN or one of the many other jobs we undertook (putting out fires, running ambulances etc), it's not using its tanks. With the best will in the world, a Rear Party could only do so much in barracks and invariably, when it came to post-operational training, the REME had plenty to do. Tanks like to be used.

Rubber mudguards - a right royal pain. We had to fit them to reduce the incidence of flying mud clods, which used to attack other traffic on the German Roads. Quite rightly, the German authorities put up with a lot but insisted on additional mudguards and "winky pots" (and latterly some truly awful multicoloured stripy strips to help blind civvy drivers spot the back of the tank before they hit it). Some still managed it.

Re the beacons, the lamp was constant on, the flashing effect was created by a rotating silvered flap which made the lamp appear to flash, similar to a lighthouse. We always put lots of masking tape around the bits which directly faced us in the turret, because at night, it would otherwise blind you.

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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

So who does have the right of way down a narrow lane? and do drivers or commanders accumulate points somewhere? :lol:
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Re: 00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

Post by John Clarke »

Just spending a bit of time, working out where the wading rail is going to sit and how to mount it. Waiting for more plastic casting letters, more on that later.

Idly lovingly picked up a piece of track, an amazing piece of engineering and wondered about fit round the front Idler.

Time to dust off the angle grinder
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