Sunday 30 December 2012

Sunday 30th December

Not much progress today for no other reason than it was a bit poke and hope! First we chopped off the moulded round engine hatch off the rear panel of the top (does that make sense?!) which left a flipping great hole :-) We then cut and fitted a metal plate behind the hole and filled and sanded the hole and fixing holes. This doesnt have to be spot on as the whole of this is hidden behind the new hatch anyway. Then we started on the hatch itself. Howard didnt have thick enough steel for the hatch so he made it from a laminate of Aluminium and Steel, once painted of course it wont be apparent! Initialy we used M3 nuts and countersunk bolts but these turned out to be too small so we had to enlarge the rebated holes (twice!) and then fit M4 countersunk bolts and nuts. This looked ok. The hatch has a hoooge bolt welded to it, this passes through the rear panel and bolts into a crosspiece of the main chassis, similarly to my 1/6th JagdPanther, and together with the lip at the glacis provides the fixing for the top to the chassis.

This is the hole left when we chopped off the moulded rear hatch. We thought it was a stuck on detail peice like the exhausts (which you can see the outline of in the pic) but no!!!

We fitted a metal panel behind the hole and filled and sanded the hole. The rear panel is now the right way up!

 This is the front of the hatch. Uppermost is the steel layer with the welded bolt end in the middle of the picture. Howard had to enlarge the rebates three times as initially we used M3 nuts and bolts but these didnt look big enough once we'd finished this stage, so we then used M4 nuts and bolts but had to enlarge the rebates twice to get the right look. I've got so many pictures and diagrams of Panthers but very often its a case of try it and see as 1/4 scale is all new ground :-)


This is the Aluminium rear with the big thread fixing which passes through the rear panel and fixes into the chassis providing the fixing for the whole top. You can see the countersunk bolt heads as well in the pic.

More next week hopefully :-)

Saturday 29 December 2012

Saturday 29th December

Finally, some more progress :-)

Today Howard made the two rear chassis extensions and trimmed the rear panel of the fibre glass top to fit between the new extensions.

 This is the left hand side rear with the new extension top most. All the holes below are the mountings for the idler adjustment.
 This view is looking across the rear panel of the fibre glass top towards the right hand extension.
 A different view of the left hand extension without the top on.
Looking across the rear without the top (rear panel) in the way.

 Howard welds the steel bottom onto the sides...
 ...and the cleans up the weld with the grinder. The steel bottom and sides are here removed from the chassis frame.
A close up picture of the lower glacis and belly plate which is all one piece bolted to the floor and the inner sides of the gearbox.

Tomorrow we're going to make a start on the smoke generator and exhaust arrangement, mounting the main batteries and making a new rear panel engine hatch!

Sunday 11 November 2012

More Progress!

No update last week as I couldnt find my USB lead!

Anyway, last weekend I spent most of the time finishing off the sprockets with the millions of little castle nuts (remember them?) and bolts. The end result is quite pleasing. H made some new sprocket caps complete with tab washers and the we trimmed and bent up the main star shaped tab washers. The next two pictures explain it better than I can!


 While I finished the sprockets, Howard machined keyways into all the stub axles as in retrospect he thought the bolted clamp idea wouldnt be man enough on its own. This took some time!

This weekend we've been welding the chassis together and cutting up sheet steel :-) Firstly we dismantled the gearbox assembly and rear idler assembly and H welded the flat plates to the chassis rails.
Then he made the cross pieces and welded these in. The fist pic shows H machining the cross pieces in the mill and the second welding them in.

After this we cut some sheet steel. These are the two side pieces with all the holes drilled for the fixings.
The next few pics show the chassis taking shape and with the sides on and gearbox and idler assemblies added. The we trial fitted the top to see how it all fitted together.





Now its really starting to look like a tank again :-) Next weekend I'm reprising my role as Darth Vader (dont ask!) at a charity event so wont be much done until a fortnights time.

Sunday 28 October 2012

Wheel caps!

This weekend has been all about wheelcaps!

It took me all weekend to modify the wheelcaps as supplied from this

 To this! Howard turned down the dome in the centre so instead of looking like a wide brimmed bowler hat it now looks like a little flying saucer! I then removed the cast bolt heads, drilled and tapped holes for proper bolts and then made up the tab washers from 5mm strip. Because the bolt positions are not that accurate, I made each tab washer up individualy by drilling the first hole, bolting it onto the cap then marking and drilling the second hole before fitting the second bolt. Very labour intensive but quite effective I think you'll agree. I timed myself fitting the four tab washers and bolts took 13 minutes for each cap, with sixteen caps thats a lot of minutes :-(
 Just to prove I have done all sixteen!
While I've been busy making the wheelcaps, Howards been modifying the tubes which the wheels fit onto and house the wheel bearings. He's also started making the stub axles for the swing arms as well. Here's a couple of pictures of the wheels on one of the chassis longtitudinals. Its starting to look like a tank again :-)

Check out all those lovely nuts and bolts!!!

Not sure what the plan is next weekend but hopefully we'll be starting to put the chassis together soon!!!

Sunday 21 October 2012

More Wheels :-(

Finished all the wheels today (Sunday). We made some steel rings up to represent the step in the back of the wheels, seen on this real wheel,
unfortunately, the way that the wheels have been made, the flat section towards the rim is wider than it should be as in this picture,
so we made the disc wider than it should be otherwise it would have looked silly the correct width, if you see what I mean! Anyway, below is a picture of a ring inset in the wheel,
and below with all the nuts and bolts fitted and the centre reprofiled and bolts fitted.
Once its got some paint on it, it should look about right. There are some limits with all this re-manufacturing and compromises to be made but hopefully the whole effect will be alright!
Next we've got the wheel caps to modify with seperate bolt heads so we can fit tab washers behind them and to flatten the domed centre which on the supplied caps is to prominent. Watch this space.




Thursday 18 October 2012

Bolts (sigh!)

Got the nuts and bolts and fitted them into four wheels before I nearly lost my sanity!!! They look about right but unfortunately the bolts are a smidge too long. Call for the Dremel! And no, I'm not fitting those funny tab washer thingies behind the bolt head, I flatly refuse :-)


I'll grind the bolts down a smidge and bung a bit of paint on them to see what they look like.

Monday 15 October 2012

Wheels This Weekend!

Very boring work this weekend! For some reason only known to themselves, the Russians didnt cast the roadwheels with sixteen bolts (ie the earlier version) or 24 bolts (the later version), no, they put 18 bolts!!! Where they got that from I dont know but the fact remains that it aint right. So.....poor Howard spent all day last Saturday knocking the cast bolt heads off on the lathe, then he made a template to sit in the wheel inside the rim for me to drill the new holes and that took all day as well :-( We have 700 nuts and bolts on order so guess who's got the job of fitting all them? :-/

 Howard making the template on the mill using a rotary table to get the even steps between the holes.
 The template clamped inside a roadwheel...
...and 24 nice little 2.5mm holes drilled in one of the wheels. Multiply this by 24 wheels (we didnt bother with the inside of the double wheels as you wont see them) explains why it took all day and why I needed a beer by the evening :-)


Sunday 23 September 2012

Sprockets-Again!

Yet more work on the sprockets this weekend (well Friday!). Both inner rings have their bolts fitted and grooves needed to represent the two peices of the ring.





In hindsight, I think the bolt heads could have done with being a little smaller but they looked ok when we offered them up!

The outer rings have had the tab washer star shape made. I'm not sure if on the real things, they butt up against the centre cap or are clamped behind the cap but for the model its easier to make them all in one peice like this and then fit the cap over the top.

Here's a picture of Rex Cadmans Panther sprocket which has the centre cap missing which shows the individual locking tabs. The tabs at the 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock position look like they've been clamped as they have a different colour strip along the bottom which looks cleaner than the rest.
Besides which, the centre cap fits right up to the base of the base of the spokes, like this picture of the Bovington Panther, so it must overlap.
Anyway, here's a couple of pics of the tab washer spacer representation.





 The six bolts will have their heads sanded flat to get rid of the modern markings. Also, the holes for the nuts around the edge of the sprocket ring have been drilled out to accept the 3mm nylok nuts suitably cut with three slots to look like a castle nut! 
Here's the jig that Howard made up for sawing the bolts, all 64 of them with a junior hacksaw!!! Not a job I shall relish doing again :-/



There wont be much done now for a couple of weeks as Howard is working next weekend and we're both away the week after so dont look for any updates for a couple of weeks :-(



Monday 17 September 2012

Last Weekend!

Last weekend was mainly about sprockets! H has made new spacers between the sprocket rings as I want to make a dummy cone shape to fit between the rings to represent the casting of the sprocket assembly. These new spacers are thick tubes so the bolts fit into threaded holes in the tube. As it has no flange, a dummy cone shape can be made out of nylon and slid over the tube. The inner ring has a split collar bolted to it which incorporates a keyway. The keyway stops it turning and the clamp bolt allows a little side to side adjustment!


 With a Coke can for scale, heres a finished sprocket showing the split collar arrangement with its keyway and below a close up.

 And the next three pictures show the two sprockets mounted on the gearbox assembly, again with the coke can for scale. You can start to see the size of the thing now!


Apart from the sprocket rings, chain and chain sprockets, Howards made all this from scratch! Worth his weight in curry's now (especialy as he's not so heavy now!).

We were looking at what nuts to use around the sprocket ring and have decided on three mm nylok nuts as they look the part. I have tried cutting them with slots to make them look like castle nuts which they should be but this wasnt very successful so plain old nuts they'll be, unless anybody's got any ideas???

More, as they say, as and when. Hopefully some work on the wheels next weekend :-)