00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

[John Clarke]

I've been working on the front head lamps and guards recently, the copper braiding I had used seemed difficult to paint and it would loose it's form too easily.
I had made the decision to run all the wiring through the braiding like the original and it became a messy difficult fit.
After using and getting reasonable results from the plastic 2mm braid I have used on the rear end, I went for the make over on the front end.
It's a fiddly job and not one for my sausage fingers. But we're getting there.
Also in the mix were the alterations of the kit lamp guard, After altering the shape where it became a bit smaller and more compact to the rear. I found that the mod exaggerated the lamp bar being not far enough forward. So with the aid of the real tank pictures and artistic license I think I've got the best of both worlds.
With the rear of the lamp housing poking into the rear of the light guard and the front a few mm from the front of the guard.

IMGP0969.jpg (69.32 KiB) Viewed 618 times

[Steve Norris]

Hi John
Very nicely done and perfectly timed as I am just looking at doing mine at the moment.
Can you tell me where you got the braided tube and end ferrules from.
Regards
Steve

[Richard Goodwin]

Looks fab and accurate. Nice work John!!

[John Clarke]

Thank you Richard, I've made around 2000 changes so far if you include sized screws, super detailing parts and of course modified original parts. It's slowly coming along.

Steve,

The 2mm braiding came from Ebay, although it looks like nylon type material and it does allow paint to stick to it. 2mm was the smallest I could use if I was poking wiring for the LEDs through it. The 2mm is a little too big scale wise, but it allows the four wires to pass through without expanding too much.

If you wanted dummy braid I think they do go down to 1.5mm, maybe smaller, very cheap by the meter too. After cutting, if you gently melt the ends you'll stop it from fraying, unlike the copper shown in the picture which just likes to fray willy nilly especially on short lengths.

I wouldn't advise using copper braid unless as a dummy braid unless you have lots of patience. I did try a stiffer silver coated braid but had no luck with that either.

The ferrules are cut from old radio telescopic ariels, their usually chrome plated brass and ideal for thin walled tubing of various diameters. Cutting them with a Dremel tool mini disk cutter.

The easiest solution is to hide the wiring, probably under braid on the side lights using dummy braid else where, drill directly down below the lamp housings going straight through the armor into the hull. it will save you a lot of time and frustration.

[Charles A Stewart]

Good morning folks.

Good solution John, it is how i am planning to wire the lighting system. I am hoping that when fitted and a coat of green paint applied it would be hard to see.

I also bought some extras of the 90 deg. plug fittings from the Armopax Cupola set and used the knurled section in the back of the lights(not shown).

The braided cable came from, www.prime-miniatures.co.uk.

Cheers Charles

[Steve Norris]

Hi John.
I like your idea of using dummy cables, I think that’s the way I will go.
My plan is not to have the ir lights illuminated which will save some wiring and a channel on the rc. In reality there is nothing visible with normal vision coming from the ir lights but a red LED would add a bit of theatrics.
Thanks for the tips on the braiding.
Regards
Steve

[John Clarke]

I was most impressed with Charles solutions Steve. Sad to hear you won't be doing IR SFX, understandable, mine just ties in with the convoy light mode.
Not that you will be able to see that easily either. I'm not even sure if they were used in conjunction with each other.
Just an add on to make me smile like the little blue light I had on the KT I used to own

[David Battson]

Hi John,
Great to see some more Chieftain action on the forum. I'm still deciding on what cabling to use so it's really good to see how yours has turned out.

Charles, that's a very clever solution for the cable routing, I doubt that will be easy to spot, certainly much less obvious that my attempt.

Steve, For info, I make the real cabling outside diameter to be 1/2" or 2.1mm to scale. For comparison the diameter of the guard bar is 3/4", though somehow it seems much bigger in photos. If you follow Charles's link to Prime Minatures, the ODs of the braided fiberglass are 1.9mm for the 1.0mm ID and 2.2mm for the 1.5mm ID. I look forward to seeing yours solution to it all, especially the pesky cabling ferrules, car aerials are not so easy to come by these days !

David

[Adrian Harris]

Could you use bootlace ferrules, with the pointy bit inserted into the braid ?

Adrian

[John Clarke]

Nice idea Adrian, the wiring is a pig to get down the braid, maybe next time

A few more super detailing bits and pieces. The splash board cut from an sheet steel from an old electric heater unit. The brackets too and the strange wedges on the front casting cut from some thick aluminum plate. I still don't know how they work or what their for sitting just in front of the splash board.

I've made another dozer tin plate cable guard, solid this time with more detail, It's now in a reasonable place together with the casting numbers on the add on side armor plate just above it. Lining these things up with the bazooka plates brackets is approximate. I must check if there's casting number is on the other side too. I've seen two distinctive types of numbering, this is the vertical type following the weld line.

I've asked Mark Harkins to draw up and print me a couple of extinguisher pull handles, preferably red. There will be a few extras printed too if anyone's interested.
I tried making them, but failed miserably. At least this way there'll be a matched pair.

[Steve Norris]

Hi John
Great detailing, I did the wedges on mine but like you I don’t know what they do.
If you have a pair of pull handles available I would be very grateful.
Regards
Steve

[Vince Cutajar]

That red handle must be small at that scale.

Vince

[David Battson]

Hi John,
Looking very good with the addition of the cast transition piece details. Early vehicles didn't have the wedges, so I'd always assumed that they were added to provide some sort of restraint to the splash plate which was introduced with the MKIII.

I've also been wondering how to make a decent job of those extinguisher handles, so would be very grateful for a spare pair if you have some.

Best Regards,
David

[John Clarke]

Yes Vince, quite tiny. I showed Mark an old style British fire extinguisher, guessing at the measurements and we'll see what turns up next week once printing has been completed. A guesstimate.
I just couldn't form those recesses that are typical of the extinguisher handle.
Conceding to 3D printing
I've only asked for the actual handle as the rest of the fittings can be made up if desired. As usual, nothing's simple on Chieftain as can be seen on the pictures David supplied.
I'll probably just do the mount, a couple of nuts and with a dummy wire returning back to the hull.
Mark tells me he's also printed a 1mm hole for ease of fit without drilling, (very thoughtful). I also thought it would be cool printing it in Red when Mark offered me the option.
He's very talented and does commission work along with his modelmaking hobby.
If all goes well there will be a few extra sets (x2 handles), if you like what you see. There'll be for the "usual suspects" or should I say "the hard core", mad enough to go down this rabbit hole.
David and Steve included

As for the wedges, what possible use are they before the splash plate? Unless it's to stop it bending after a big enough wave has doused the driver and he gets a second wave back off the inside of the splash plate

[Vince Cutajar]

Just out of curiosity, from those photos, I get the impression that the way to 'fire' the extinguisher is to 'turn and pull' the handle. Is that correct?

Vince

P.S. To answer my own question, just saw the instruction sticker in one of those photos.