Pz III New Build

[Stephen White]

Enjoyed yesterday at the SW Model Engineer Exhibhition, particularly with the Armortk stand providing the central attraction. Good to see Mark's Pz III running and Stuart Holden's making good progress.

The bump stops on the Pz III are a quite distinct shape and with the help of the new milling machine, I've done a couple of small mods to shape the kit parts:



Comparision with the original:



I've also replaced the M6 grub screws on the torsion bars with M6 16 hex head bolts and it does allow a lot more torque to be applied - thanks Richie and others. Finally, the hull has had sealant treatment.

Regards

Stephen

[Robert E Morey]

Good eye for the details Steven. Very nice modifications. Bob

[Stephen White]

At last some visible progress. I've started to install Steve Winstone's cone head bolts. They need a lot of work, drilling and tapping M3 at both ends and in some cases counterboring 6.5mm, but I think they look the part. There are 89 in all, so a few at a time. The left and right sides of the hull have different layouts, so some planning is required. Nevertheless, I'm very pleased with the effect and very grateful to Steve for his hard work in preparing them.





Regards

Stephen

[Pierluigi Patri]

You are doing a good work. The tank looks nice.

[simon_manning]

thats looking good,nice detail.
simon manning

[Tim Bowman]

Excellent!

Looking very nice Stephen. Great modification to the bump stops.

kind regards
Tim

[Stephen White]

Quality shed time.

Finally managed to sort out the workshop and commission the machine tools. All tested, adjusted and working and starting to cut metal.



Needing to see some visible progress, I've started to assemble the upper hull. Included some small mods to the hull brackets in line with the real thing, the rest loose fitted to adjust the fit:









Back to the suspensions. I've refined the shape of the shock absorbers on the lathe, still some detail like bolts, inspection plates and lock tabs but an improvement.



I've also started machining the upper shock brackets which can be substantially reshaped on the mill. Ran out of time but next weekend.....

The great thing about the Armortek experience is that the amount of work still to do increases faster than the amount of work completed. So the project has no end date......

All the best

Stephen

[Robert E Morey]

Wow Stephen that upper hull is complicated. I didn't realize it had so many parts. Its looking like a real tank. Enjoys your machine tools!
Bob

[Stephen White]

Now got one set of shocks and suspension arm completed and mounted to see how they will look.

The shock cylinders have had some detail turned on the lathe and the top shock bracket has been substantially re-shaped on the mill with some added milliput detail.

The final bit of the suspension arms was the central boss, washer and bolt.

With Steve Winstone's cone head bolts, one side is beginning to look complete.





Before - top bracket:



After - top bracket and suspension boss:






Regards

Stephen

[Dale jordan]

Fantastic workmanship Stephen .. I will be doing these mod's on my PzIII . It's these details that make the model more scale like . The lower hull plus the running gear on a PzIII are a real fecture of this version ... Dale

[Stephen White]

Some work on the kit engine intake boxes.

The internal divisions were of 10mm armour plate, so the kit webs were milled to 2mm and the webs nearest the hull have been chamfered to make them less prominent. All the webs were then lowered by a couple of mm, the surfaces prepared and welds applied. Results below.

Original kit :





Work in the mill:



Results and comparision with the real thing:









Regards

Stephen

[Dale jordan]

This is great Stephen !!! Thanks for sharing , I thought it looked a bit chunky .. I have a new milling machine like yours !! I have used it heaps . It's another hobby in it's self .. big improvement ..Dale

[Kent Wiik]

Nice one Stephen!

Looks so much better now.
With only a Dremel I would have done it as well as it is a huge improvement.
Your Panzer III will be a masterpiece at the end, thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Kent

[Robert E Morey]

Stephen,
The modified grille looks great! The thinned sections look perfect. Great looking hull and suspension so far - keep up the great work. Enjoy the progress!
Bob

[Stephen White]

Thanks Bob - in between finishing the suspension arm hubs and the cone head bolts, the next area is the re-modelled rear hull plates. I did the first one last weekend and the second one is on the mill. The two plates need to be full hull width with a small rebate to interlock with the hull sides, the angle with the hull sides needs to be re-set and both need to be of greater height (depth?) than the kit parts. More when I've finished.

Regards

Stephen