My Beaut Aussie Cent

[Stephen White]

David

Bollard cut-outs are 23.3mm wide and 29.0 high

Driver's cut out is 145.55mm wide, 35.0 high and the chamfer is 6 degrees.

Regards

Stephen

[Dale jordan]

Looks real nice Stephen . I was out a Klints house yesterday climbing over his aussie Cent and the extra armour you have done looks spot on ..Dale

[davidwilkins]

Hi, Stephen.

Many thanks for the information, i done some measurements from a AFV 1/35 scale model
Centurion glacis applque armour and i was between 1 and 4mm out. Would it be possible to have the overall measurements of the plate and the start position for the cuts outs for bollards and driver position from the outer edge.

As i have never done any milling before i am going to have go at this armour plate first to get some practise, if it is not right i can just try again.

Regards,

David

[Stephen White]

David

Like this?

Good luck with milling. I can remember my first cuts. Very satisfying once you've got into it.

All the best

Stephen

[davidwilkins]

That's brilliant. Thanks very much.

Merry Christmas.

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi, Stephen

Just one more question the top of the plate is 312mm in length, but what is the total length of the plate where the bollards are. I have it at 280mm, I think it might be a bit shorter than this?

thanks,

David

[Stephen White]

I had a great message from Paul Scott who is restoring ARN 160091 in Australia, with some photos that showed I'd got the sides of the applique too wide. Here's the corrected shape (measurements on the previous page are correct). I've also added the mounting blocks for the roadwheel retainers (which were known as Omega brackets):





Cut a pattern for the Omega brackets:



Final assembly:





Note the right hand roadwheel was mounted lower on some vehicles, to improve the driver's view close in to the tank. This was vital in manoeuvring in jungle vegetation, in contact, close to infantry on the ground. The Omega brackets were an in-theatre mod and made out of steel strip, crudely cut. In service, it was too inefficient to remove the brackets when the wheels needed to be dismounted and crews did the obvious un-official improvement - they bent the lower part of the bracket to allow the wheel to be removed without taking off the bracket. Like a lot of the Vietnam Cent mods, they weren't pretty but were effective.

Regards and happy building over Christmas.

Stephen

[Stephen White]

David - spot on, 280mm it is. Regards. Stephen

[Stephen White]

Happy New Year.

Firstly thanks to Paul Scott for some more excellent reference shots of his Cent restoration. I'm intrigued by these marks which can be seen on all the plates on the Cent. Paul tells me they are caused by the quality control tests of the armour hardness during manufacture:





Welds on the Cent come in two distinct patterns, arc and submerged, which was used on the main plate joins:








Next is the idler brackets which benefit from a lot of additional detail. Big challenge is to machine the detail without compromising the structural integrity of the part:

























Thanks again to Paul for the great reference shots.

Regards

Stephen

[paul&robinmargle]

Great work Stephen, how did you do the welds on the wheel brackets? Is there any special technique or just careful sculpting?

Robin

[davidwilkins]

Hi Stephen

Outstanding detail work on the idler bracket and deferrent types of welds.

I was looking at a centurion mk6 in the Swiss army {new book I had for xmas} and it has the external fuel tank fitted, do you know if this was fitted to the mk6 in the British army?

Regards

David

[simon_manning]

one word says it all, outstanding! i detect your enthusiasm is up for this build stephen, regards simon.

[Adrian Harris]

Whilst Stephen's eye for detail and machining skills are yet again second to none, I can't help feeling a little embarrassed at the quality of the original casting.

It looks like something I would have done in junior school pottery class

Adrian.

[Stephen White]

Thanks for the interest. Robin - the welds are all done using a piece of brass tube cut at an angle and mounted in a pin vice. David - short answer is yes, a Mark 6 with 100 gall tank became a Mk 6 LR (long range). It wasn't until the Mark 7 came along that the hull was extended and a third, internal fuel tank added.

Simon - lots of support from Down Under in the form of Paul Scott's photos of his restoration and contact with some of the original crews. Bit of an incentive to do a good job! Hope it's of interest.

Completed the second idler mount, added the grease points and re-drilled the mounting holes. I've chosen to re-drill to the correct pattern, with four bolts on the bottom flange and upped the size to M5, which is close to scale.













Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

Slow progress these last couple of weeks which have been taken up with commissioning a new mill from Warco. Tramming the table took a while and installing the DROs needed some brackets to be made.

Made some castellated nuts and drilled the idler brackets M4 and added the fourth bolt to the bottom:





Then made a start with the new mill on the bollards:








Regards

Stephen