00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

[John Clarke]

Many thanks Stephen for the info on painting, but it is a skill and with practice who knows...

I usually use Tamiya spray paints for larger areas, they give good coverage but come in very expensive little cans. I think I used about ten cans on the Quad, I did'nt mind too much as the colour was constant easy to apply and not too heavy. I also know I'm not going to get a reaction from any other Tamiya (hopefully) paints applied.

I agree with you about the faffing about with all manner of artist techniques. Rarely do static modelers have to worry about two bits of metal rubbing together, real chipping when you open a hinged door or an unfortunate scrape with a hard immovable surface.

The clips from "Night Shift" were pretty good from the point of explanation, not too serious and a sense of dry humour in the hobby.

I do like to paint my own stuff as I like to think I had a hand in the whole process of the build. For my part, the key is just trying to get the correct balance of an interesting realistic look without over doing it.

I haven't read the "Fish Submarine" and will try to get a look at a copy.

[John Clarke]

Continuing with the Kit Bash for the Chieftain, two essential bed rolls a plastic water container (yet to be painted from Armorpax) to go with the two metal Jerry Cans.(Nato Green hummmm)
The bed rolls were made from a single sheet of A4 EVA Plain Foam Fabric Craft & Hobby Sheet 2mm thick. (ebay) £1.50 Cut the A4 in half, roll and a couple of recycled, sorry up cycled 1/6 scale army straps. Soft and spongy, nothings too good for the little guys

[Mark Heaps]

Hi John,

Great idea for the sleeping mats, half an A4 sheet 2mm thick scales up fantastically.

They were not black though but a dull light green, unless RTR actually got black ones rather than the standard issue. The lime green foam suitably dirtied up would probably look more realistic.

You would also need a total of four, one for each crewman, judging from the photo you posted the crew would have had two on either side of the turret.

And they would normally not have straps around them, but bungee cords wrapped around and then hooked on to suitable points.

Mark

[John Clarke]

Lime Green Naaaaaah don't think so. Though I did buy a sheet but it looks just wrong even dirtied up

I'd be worried an roaming A10 would want to take pot shots at such a blatant target strapped to the turret.

The black foam comes over with high lights of light grey, could always spray with a wash. There is a dark green available, at £1.50 might give it ago.

I've seen bungee straps on 1/10 models but I was worried that they may crush the foam too much.

Four mats? Does every one sleep at once on duty? ............................... usually you only see a pair on the turret.

[Mark Heaps]

Just spotted a metal jerry can in the photo. Very unusual unless the tank was "very thirsty" for a particular type of oil. Extra fuel in cans was not carried, nor were extra lubricants unless needed to ensure the tank could make the next replen.
Standard replens provided you with rations to survive four days plus topped you up on water,fuel and ammo. Battle replens provided ammo and fuel only .
A 20 liter water cannister is not sufficient for four people for four days, unless that tank needed the extra oil to keep operational, a second water can would have been stowed if the space allowed.
Mark

[Mark Heaps]

Lime green suitably dirtied up is better than black, and also definitely four. Unless REME were working on their vehicle or they had to do radio or ground stags, then all four crewmen would be sleeping if possible.
Mark

[John Clarke]

Got my Steve Winstone order the other week.

Absolutely wonderful

I'm hoping there'll be more detailed parts in the future.

I've noticed there are two types of bin catches, slotted and non slotted fitted to Chieftain.

Amorteks very nice catches look like the non slotted type, so there's an option to mix them up on the model too.

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I hope Stabilization is an option on the Armortek Chieftain. We could then test it like the German's do


German's and beer what are they like

[Mark Heaps]

Good demonstration of Stab and Chiefy would have matched it.

Cross-country the Chieftain was better than the german Leopard. My brother raced one, beat it hands down. Second race, they turned the Chiefy around and had it in reverse. Still won.

Mark

[Mark Heaps]

Non-slotted bin catches are probably correct for earlier models. They were there to secure the lid and a seperate catch which would take a padlock was present.
Slotted catches to take a padlock were introduced later . A mixture on the vehicle would be fine but not on a bin, ie each bin either non-slotted with a padlock hasp, or slotted. Slotted with a seperate hasp would be wrong.

[andymusgrove]

I know where you're coming from Mark but the bin on the Right has slotted with a seperate hasp?

Regards

Andy

[John Clarke]

Chiseled a couple of oil cans from a couple of lumps of scraped rollers, borrowed a lathe for a few (lots of ) hours and finished up with two artistic licenced efforts.

Adding them to the other containers, they'll complete the liquid storage on the turret. Just need to find some transfers for the oily stuff.

The chain for the water container screw caps was swagged from the better half's jewelry box.

Did pretty well with the resin lump too, fixing most of the air bubbles. (Black paint is most unforgiving on resin lumps)

[Stuart Faulkner]

Looks good John.
Amazing what you can do with a double ‘A’ battery and a ring pull.

[John Clarke]

Pull the other one Stuart No negative vibs
I'm always positively "ever ready" to go that little bit extra, as long as there's no "charge"

Oil be Back

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[Mark Heaps]

OEP-220 was the synthetic gearbox oil so in my experience to be realistic, maximum one 25 liter can for a tank that had a fault and was limping back for a gearbox change , or was carrying it for the troop of three tanks, better would be one or two 5 liter cannisters.
OMD-80 was the engine oil, carry as much as you could.

Stephen White may wish to comment as to what his tanks normally carried, or had to carry because it was mandated.

I can only speak from experience. Crewing a Chiefy ARRV supporting a squadron of Challenger´1´s, one 25 liter drum of OEP-220 was enough to cover a few multi-week exercises for normal top-ups and an emergency fill-up. Not just for our ARRV but what we carried to support the squadron.

Mark

[Stephen White]

Gentlemen, I posted this in an earlier thread:

"John, we carried a lot of spare oils and lubricants. The official stowage was in the turret baskets but we usually carried two additional drums on the rear mudguards, held on by spare fan belts bolted to the rear bins. It would be a good thing to add to a model. The oils were one each of OMD-75, the mineral detergent oil for main engine and GUE lubrication and OEP-220, an extreme pressure oil for the hypoid gears in the gearbox. Levels were checked at least twice daily. At every halt, the tracks were inspected, the roadwheel hubs topped up and the engine decks were raised to check for leaks. Most precious was the smaller can of OM-15, a very refined and expensive oil, which we seemed to need in large quantities, not to fill the hydraulic start but to start the fires which kept us warm in the depth of winter. Sorry taxpayers.........
"

Within a tank troop we carried on each tank one 25l drum each of main engine oil (OMD-75 but see below) and gearbox/final drive oil (OEP-220). Within the troop we also distributed one each of undiluted coolant (AL-3), OM-13 (brake and steering brake fluid) and a quantity of the very precious OM-15 (one litre cans), not for the hydraulics it was intended for but for ..... well, mainly keeping warm and brewing water in our Benghazi Burners (prize to anyone who makes a one sixth version and tests it). The main engine oil was also used to top up the roadwheel and track guide roller hubs and the suspension arms, which we checked whenever we halted and could get out of the vehicle in safety. I have a (very) dim memory of using OEP-220 on the roadwheel hubs on my first Chieftain and (thinking I might just have been incompetent), have checked. It turns out 220 was used on the early marks but the main engine oil was substituted from about Mk 5 onwards. Too much detail, I know but I aim to please with quantity of info if not quality of entertainment.

A note of caution about being too clever about oils. This is the British Army and nothing is logical or straightforward. OMD-75 was the multi-grade mineral detergent oil (Oil, Mineral, Detergent - OMD) used to lubricate the main engine and GUE on the early marks of Chieftain. It was supposed to be replaced by OMD-110 but there must have been a cock-up because I can remember both being available for a period (110 was I think a single grade oil). OMD-110 would probably be appropriate for a Mk 5 Chieftain (ie the Armortek model). OMD-110 was in turn replaced by OMD-80 in the late eighties (don't ask, the logic for the numbering sequence escapes me). OMD-80 would only be appropriate for the last marks of Chieftain (Mks 10 and 11} and is really more applicable to Challenger 1. It has now been replaced by .....OMD-90. We live in strange times.

And that, gentlemen, exhausts my knowledge of British Army oils and lubricants (unless you want to mention the thick, black graphite grease (XG something or other) which could be liberally applied to the inside of the commander's sight eyepiece to give young troop leaders a splendid set of panda eyes.......).