Armortek

[michael hilton]

I wish, Armortek's next model, or is this sacrilege Mick

[Adrian Harris]

In 1/6th Scale

Adrian

[Robert Reid]

While no streamliners that I saw....

There is a company that specializes in this stuff!

http://www.rmirailworks.com/SS-Steam-Lo ... rV2cojwZPZ

Cheers,

RPR... the devil on your shoulder...

[Robert Reid]

For those looking for a WW1 level experience...

How about a trench locomotive?

Suddenly an Armortek tank seems pretty much a bargain, doesn't it?

http://www.rmirailworks.com/SSP-WWI-Tre ... rV244jwZPY

Cheers,

RPR

[Phil Woollard]

If I remember correctly, before Armortek were Armortek they used to make large scale locos so Mark already has the expertise

[michael hilton]

Just had a look on their website Robert, made my eyes water... Mick

[Jeffrey Goff]

Hi Mick thats a great choice for a model, but it would scale to just over 11 1/2 foot long and would need a crane to move it, I scratch built an early small sized shunter in 1/6th scale and that took 3 people to move it

regards Jeff

[David Brady]

Nice work Jeff any info on the 1/8 scale tiger

Cheers

[Robert Reid]

Hi Mick thats a great choice for a model, but it would scale to just over 11 1/2 foot long and would need a crane to move it, I scratch built an early small sized shunter in 1/6th scale and that took 3 people to move it

regards Jeff

My god that is beautiful!!! Can you post some more pictures and some build pictures?

If I get some time later, I'll post some pix of a current project (well, two of them)... re-creating in 1:1 scale two Civil War No.1 Prairie Carriages... with live tubes. One Mountain Howitzer, one a smaller rifled-style tube. It's just like building models... but they are 1:1 scale!

Here is one I built a few years ago:



Building the trail. Cheeks are in place. That is a fairly large milling machine! Modeling in 1:1 can sometimes be challenging!



Trail finished and primed with the wheels in place. These are an original set of wheels and axle beam. But I had to make much of the hardware from scratch. Blacksmithing and welding. I lucked in to some original parts. And built the T&E from scratch. Using parts from... a Lucas Scissor jack, among other things!



Painted and ready for the yoke and the .45 Gatling to be mounted.



All finished and mounted with the T&E in place....

Nothing nearly as complicated as that locomotive. But it will cut down trees!

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert Reid]

Some images of the current project(s). Two No. 1 Prairie Carriages. And a tube restoration.



One of the tubes as unearthed from a barn in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Hardware somewhat intact. Wood and wheels all rotted away. Tube plugged with crap. Steel liner needed... now fitted.



Hardware restored and, after a lot of blacksmithing, a lot of new hardware reproduced. Twice. Because I'm building two carriages. Both No. 1 Prairie's.



Axle boxes created and cheeks in the process of fitting to the axle beams. Wheels are getting professionally made by a Wheelwright in Tennessee. The trails... are my next project. I've been splitting time between my Armortek limber... and this... since about January.



This is the carriage for the Mountain Howitzer. About the same as the one for the Rifled Phoenix-style. One of the things I never appreciated before building my own carriages... is the amount of engineering in a U.S. Civil War carriage. It's the culmination of some 400 years of the most advanced engineering... in the world. The British, French and U.S. put their talents into artillery. And these are about the last generation of cannons before old-style wood and blacksmith'd carriages were replaced by iron and steel riveted carriages with hydraulic buffers, etc. This is the pinnacle of engineering...



A few of the machined bolts that old the cheeks together. The trunnions were all standardized in size... that way you could use 'captured' enemy cannons. These are 2.75" diameter. Medium tube sized. In addition, the cheeks were shimmed with parts called "Rondelles." Which allowed wider/narrower tubes to be fit in carriages in a field-expedient manner. As long as the armorers carried a variety of rondelles in different thicknesses, a captured tube could be fit to a carriage quickly... In addition, if carriages were destroyed (easier to wreck a wood carriage than an iron or bronze artillery tube) Barrels/carriages could be mixed and matched in the field... to keep them firing.



Awaiting the trails themselves... You can see the rondelles in place. Note that the rear-rondelle has extensions, which are load-bearing under firing.



Closer picture showing the cross-bolts, the rondelles and the rear supported Rondelle.

Just some of the strange things Armortek fans get up to on the weekends... And, yes, these cannons are both fully-live and will fire not only salutes, but projectiles.

Cheers,

RPR

[Jeffrey Goff]

Hi Robert, stunning work on the artillery pieces and I am envious of all that space and equipment, Like a lot of modellers l just have a garden shed and make do, if you would like to see some build pictures of the loco,
before I retired I worked for a company that bought and sold antique arms and armour, everything from anti aircraft guns to flintlock pistols, one of my favorites was a Colt navy gatling gun on tripod

[michael hilton]

Good morning chaps, fascinating model builds, I envy your skills. I know my place .
Just an aside, I am following the debate on German tank camouflage colours and variations . A branch of my many hobbies over many years was motorcycles. During my sixties, I restored and displayed at various 'shows' a 1950 BSA Bantam. At one such show an old guy came to talk to me about my particular Bantam and in doing so he explained why there was such a variety in the shades of Bantam Green. During the 1940s he worked at the British Small Arms factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. He explained that with the 'bantam green' paint, as the working week progressed, the paint shop 'thinned' the allocated paint to last for that weeks production. As a result the 'green' became much lighter as the week progressed. Just saying. ..Mick

[Graham Hough]

Good point Michael, just look at all the wide range of cloth colours used for British WW1 uniforms, even in individual jackets. So can we assume that the paint for German tanks was produced in different factories and therefore in different shades? Nice bike.