My Beaut Aussie Cent

[Derek Attree]

Hi Stephen
The drives look stunning ...Been doing a bit to the comet so I can take it
to Ally Palace M E show.
The workshop is very very cold so its a bit limiting when the fingers go blue .

Keep up the good work
And Happy New Year.

Derek

[Stephen White]

Derek - a very Happy New Year to you too and to all the builders and viewers on this Forum.

Finished off the inner drive case plates with Milliput welds:







And painted the interior the standard British Army silver interior colour. Here also by the way is a photo of Paul Scott's stunning Cent restoration in Australia:







Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

Next up the return rollers. There were two (interchangeable) versions of the housing, same bolt layout and the flanges were cut off if the extra bolt was not fitted:







There's a bit of scope to add to the kit parts. The housing for the suspension unit rollers is a bit undersize (hatched lines = kit part):



I can use the kit part as the functional unit and just dress it with a resin case to get the correct size and shape. To do that, I first turned the shaft parallel, being careful to keep enough material to maintain integrity:



I then cast a rough casing in resin:



Final shapes after hand shaping. Still got to apply details like the lubrication points:







Last step is to make a silicon mould, Loctite the M3 fixing bolts in place and then cast the six roller housings.

Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

Continuing with the return roller housings. Dave shows what can really be done with resin with his Amorpax parts but here are my amateur efforts. First, using the master and some lego, the mould:







Next I had to counter-bore the Armortek housings so the the set screws sit flush and perpendicular to the hull sides. I then loctited the set screws into the housings, because they won't be accessible once covered in resin:



Then to cast the new housings:





I also milled out the lightening holes in the rollers themselves for something different to do:



Production line:



Regards

Stephen

[Iacopo Di Giampietro]

I want to make you my compliments, Stephen.
A truly amazing work, the pursuit of perfection.

Ciao!
Iacopo

[Stephen White]

Thanks Iacopo - how is your Pz III?

More progress on the return roller housings. I drilled a centre hole through the hull side to allow access to the shaft retaining bolt, should I ever need it:



Finished one side:







Regards

Stephen

[Steve Norris]

That's a nice simple solution to the problem of holding the return roller shafts when attaching the rollers, it's a problem I could see coming up but I had not thought of a solution.
If you don't mind I will borrow your fix.
Regards
Steve
P.s. Great looking return roller mounts

[Stephen White]

Glad to help Steve. I'm sure I must have copied it from a build on the forum. Second side complete and base coat applied:









Regards

Stephen

[mick whittingham]

Hi Stephen,

fabulous work on the return idler housings, they look so real. Painted into the hull sides they look quite simply perfect.

Are you air brushing in situ or wheeling the whole thing into the spray shop for each undercoat?

Regards, Mick

[Stephen White]

Thanks Mick, if only I had the luxury of a separate spray shop. I've got a small home made spray booth in the garage but the tank sits in what I refer to as the Workshop but others refer to as the garden tool shed. No amount of offering to buy one of those plastic tool lockups moves the gardener in the family to getting the muddy, smelly ironmongery out of the other half of my workspace. One day.....

I do have a very good 3M mask and goggles and I try to do the spraying at the end of the day. I'm using a two pack automotive paint so I'm very mindful of protection.

All the best. Love the photos of your build. Keeps me inspired to progress.

Stephen

[simon_manning]

lovely job stephen, keep the mask on with two pack, and run outside for a breather,
yeovilton is on next month by the way, regards simon.

[Tim Bowman]

Beautiful! Love watching your posts Stephen.

All the best
Tim

[Robert E Morey]

Steven,
I haven't followed your post in a while. Wow what a feast for the eyes. Great work on the drive gear cases. Magnificent transformation on them, esp when I go back and look at the original parts! The idlers and roller housings are fantastic. This will be a truly Beautiful one of a kind Cent! Inspirational modifications in all regards. Keep up the great work.
Best regards,
Bob

[peter karlsson]

Hi!!

top noch building and craftmanship awesome!!


regards peppe

[Stephen White]

Thansks all, appreciate the feedback. Now for the front jockey wheel housings. The housing is a different shape to the return roller housings and is effectively rotated 90 deg (photos courtesy of Paul Scott, thanks):









Interesting weathering on Paul's tracks. Looks just like the models on Armorama......

I considered using the same resin technique but I'd have to lose some of the Armortek mounting holes and so opted for an aluminium "full metal jacket". First step a rough drawing of the mounting flange:




I'm trying to teach myself a very good freeware CAD programme, Designspark Mechanical (from Google) but I'm not there yet:

http://www.designspark.com/

Next to produce a blank, bore out the cylinder of the Armortek mounting and then mill a recess for the Armortek mounting flange:








Now I can start to shape. It may work, or......

Regards.

Stephen