My Beaut Aussie Cent

[Steve Stuart]

Stephen, I was hoping Mark and Gill were going to say their veg patch at home, had just the right soil?
Steve

[Fabrice Le Roux]

Just you and the Major...shooting rats!!

Quietly hilarious image.

Nice understated work on the tracks.
regards
Fabrice

[Stephen White]

The track weathering goes on (and on, and on...) but a very welcome break arrived in the form of engineering drawings of the Inf/Tank Telephone from Allan Bowers in NZ. It didn't take much persuasion (actually, none) to make a start, assembling the main parts and beginning construction.

The tank telephone on Paul Scott's AFV has the later horizontal installation:



but the tank I'm replicating had the earlier vertical mounts:













Research has turned up an archive in the States with online period military maps from the Vietnam era. These are a sample, reduced in scale:



It will be a bonus to have the correct mapping on the turret but that's looking way ahead..

Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

More work on the inf/tank telephone:











Regards

Stephen

[Chris glover]

Stephen
You may have the drawings which does make life easier, but you sure do have bucket loads of skill to make use of them
Cracking job!

[Stephen White]

Thanks Chris, I'm really enjoying the challenge of this bit after the tracks. Fitted the First Aid Box Lid:

Work holding using rare earth magnets on a steel plate covered with card:



Resistance soldering kit:



The hinge was made from brass tube and rod and in the end wasn't that difficult.





One success, followed by a failure. I only had to add two hinge plates to the telephone door at the bottom but even with resistance soldering targeting the plates very precisely, it proved impossible to keep five small parts soldered at the same time. So tomorrow, I'll have to remake the door from one piece and eliminate one of the joins.

Reach for a beer......

Stephen

[Paul Wills]

Nice bit of work there Stephen I find Soldering does tend to try my patience a little I have never tried resistance soldering. I will have to give it a go, it looks to give good results.

Paul.

[Chris glover]

Resistance soldering is the way to go.I am just doing the Cent gun rails and its a god send.I use bits and pieces like the magnets as heat sinks or just clip extra bits of brass on in places.I am new to soldering but I don't know what I would do without the RS unit.
Chris

[Stephen White]

Making the tank telephone door from a single piece turned out not to be the answer - I couldn't make the bend sharp enough. So back to assembly with different grades of solder. This has really reinforced my faith in resistance soldering: it worked second time around. The difference was pre-tinning the parts, better work holding using rare earth magnets and more patience with the resistance callipers. Good fluxing and cleanliness also made a difference today, plus not rushing to finish. The working door mechanism is a marvel of engineering over-design:









Regards

Stephen

[Paul Morris]

Hi Stephen.

Excellent as usual think we have all come to expect nothing less.
Cheers Paul.

[Stephen White]

Cheers Paul. Adding some more bits:

Tapping the front plate retaining bolts, 10 BA. I generally use WD40 as a cutting fluid:



Adding the retaining catches for the first aid container door, riveted in place. I used a dapping block to make the curved section:







The mechanism for holding the telephone door open and closed involves two retaining catches, bolted on and the bolt heads peened over:











Trial mounting:







Regards

Stephen

[Stephen White]

Primed and base coat applied and installed on external tank:











Thanks to Allan Bowers in NZ for the engineering drawings and Paul Scott (Australia) and Mike Cecil (formerly Australia/USA) for the reference material. Without whom......

Regards

Stephen

[simon_manning]

lovely! is that the right word, looks real i suppose is better, regards simon.

[Chris glover]

Stephen
If I was being uber critical (not that I'm in any position to be) I would say those hardness testing ? Marks are too severe in depth.Just my opinion and it might be the light.
The rest just gets better by the week
Chris

[Kevin Hunter]

Just incredible work Stephen. The fuel tank was a work of art. The telephone box is the icing on the cake!
Where to next? Can hardly wait......
Kevin