My Beaut Aussie Cent

[Robin Hinson]

Hi Stephen,

What a wonderful piece of engineering, certainly is a beaut

Best of Wishes

Rob

[Stephen White]

Now to make a start on the suspension units. The bottom was a cast steel unit but the top plate was thin steel plate covering the shock absorbers, hence the characteristic welded joint on the front face. The top surface slopes down towards the back by 5 deg to give clearance to the return roller housings:









Making a start on machining the suspension housings:






Regards

Stephen

[Iacopo Di Giampietro]

Dear Stephen,
Your attention to detail is amazing: great job!
Now I wait for the weekend to see your progress: much better than a soap opera!

[Stephen White]

With Tiger Day yesterday, only a little progress on the suspension housings. The cast bottom and sheet top housings prepared. I've tried to represent the two different surface finishes:



Looking at the Bovington Mk 3, the curvature seems a lot flatter than on Paul Scott's spare suspension unit in Australia but maybe it's just a trick of the light:





The top surface is not at right angles to the front face, in order to accommodate the 10 degree cant of the hull sides and still allow the suspension unit to sit under the return roller housings on the front and rear stations:





Next job.

Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

Continuing with the suspension housings. The top surface was milled away at an angle of 5 deg from the horizontal. It looks as if it ought to be 10 deg to match the hull side angle but it turns out to be 5 deg. Another example of measure twice, cut once in order to avoid disappointment. The top fixing cap heads will need re-drilling and tapping lower down and the existing holes filled. Six off housings gets a bit repetitive, now I see why production engineers earn their pay.





Trial fittings turn out to be a good fit under the return roller housings:







Next the detailing.

Happy Easter to all.

Stephen

[Stephen White]

It doesn't seem much for the fruits of two days' work - all the heavy machining is now done on the suspension housings. The side panels needed lowering:



Then to create the mounting strips at the back of the housings. I chose to inset these into the Armortek housings so that I could make them functional, although I'll also re-drill and tap the top row of fixings:











Regards

Stephen

[Derek Attree]

Hi Stephen
Some really good work being done again.

Looking

Derek

[Stephen White]

Not much visible progress but a lot of drilling and tapping to fit the suspension housings and the new top flange and re-locate the top five fixing set screws. All done though so now I can move on with detailing and starting to assemble the functional parts.









On the research side, I've been really well supported by the Royal Australian Armoured Corps veterans. Bruce Cameron, who wrote the definitive account of the RAAC in Vietnam, Cannister, On, Fire, is coming to UK soon and we've arranged to meet. With Bruce's help, I'm now in a position to contact some of the crewmen who took 169064 to war. I'm hoping not only to confirm a lot of details about the tank but also put some real flesh on the bones of the official histories and war diaries which I've been able to get from the Australian War Memorial Archives and other published sources. 169064 took part in two of the four major actions which are recognised as the principal battles , ie the Battle of Binh Ba in 1969, and Operation HAMMERSLEY in 1970. I'll hope to post some of my research soon. Here's a foretaste:









Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

More detailing. The side ("bazooka") plates were removed very soon after the Australian Cents arrived in Vietnam, together with their lower support brackets. The resulting holes were filled by inserting bolts at each station:



Back to the suspension stations, starting with the two centre ones, which lack the damper brackets. These were removed and a coverplate was fitted:



More detail of the central reinforcing strip, with its filler plugs etc:



To get the very finest of weld lines, rather than using Milliput, which is too coarse, I use Mr Surfacer 500. If you leave it until almost dry, it can be worked:







Final results:

[







Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

The Mk 3 Centurion introduced the first effective gun stabilisation system, based on electrically driven gyros. The system provided stabilisation in elevation and azimuth. While doing some research, I came across this film, which shows the system on what is probably Warcop range. Noteworthy also is the very fast rate of fire. I'll guess the commander was holding a couple of rounds on his lap to speed up the loader's task.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/bang-on-always

Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

We all make mistakes.....corrected the layout of the bolts securing the side plate support brackets:



The shock absorber lever housings need a bit of re-profiling to correct the shape:











They will also need the housing for the lever bush to be built up:



Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

Eight off, shock absorber lever bush housings..... Fortunately, EKP were able to supply the correct 3/4" OD brass tube and I just had to bore it out a few thou to fit over the shock pivots. Once the pivots are secured, the housings will be fixed and blended into the shock housings.












Regards

Stephen

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

This build story is top class entertainment and inspiration - thank you very much for sharing!

/Chris

[simon_manning]

gardening, house maintenance and general summer duties in the way of tanking, always refreshing to view this build, keep at it, regards simon.

[Stephen White]

Christoffer, Simon, thanks.

There were two patterns of shock absorber lever housings, the difference being the position of the oil filler cap:





On Paul Scott's tank, there are four of each, randomly fitted.

First one, oil filler added, milled from aluminium bar stock:





Regards

Stephen