A Chequered Chieftain at #10

[Mark Heaps]

I stand by to be corrected by those who know better but I understood the tanks got the dozer blade attachment for obstacle clearance. Makes sense for one of the SHQ tanks to have it rather than one of the troop tanks out in front that could have got knocked out.
Obstacles could be ground laid mines or booby trapped obstacles so not surprising you would not want to carry the dozer blade.

The Chieftain ARVs and ARRVs had the dozer blade.
Primary purpose, ground anchor during recovery taskings.
Secondary purpose, obstacle clearance.
A good recovery mechanic in the drivers seat could also use it to excavate firing positions for the tanks or defensive positions for the other vehicles and flatten areas for volley-ball courts.

During my time attached to the QRIH, if they needed one of the ARRVs because of the dozer blade but it was not a recovery tasking, they would come on the radio and ask for a callsign with a big spoon.

Mark

[Stephen White]

It's a wet afternoon and the rugby bombed, so a warm fire, glass of wine and a thumping good read - not. Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineerings Regulations EMERs for Chieftain and Royal Armoured Corps Training Volume 1 - Tactics, Pt 1, The Armoured Regiment could never win the Booker but unlike any Booker winner, they do tell you what the dozer was officially supposed to do:

Mine clearance was better left to the Sappers, as was serious preparation of defensive positions but in extremis the dozer could do a bit to help. The real problem is that no self-respecting tank commander wanted to risk the health of his power pack and transmission with pushing hods of earth around and anyway, the squadron 2IC was far too busy to be distracted by such stuff. The only time I ever used it was to push a hole in a bund to clear a route for the squadron, when the Sappers were held up elsewhere. I was given a bollocking by the Brigade Commander for doing the Sappers' job for them. He would have made a great shop steward.

[Mark Heaps]

Should have called for a call-sign with a big spoon.
Mark

[Richard Goodwin]

Many thanks Mark and Stephen for you contributions.

It certainly seems as if the drawing has been amended and more than likely, due to the dozer mod. Wrt the attachment plate as I'll now refer to it as, I spoke to my contact at CMSM who drove for 2 RTR and his belief was that it was for the dozer also. He believes it was fitted to all his tanks and from the Tankograd book where i can see, it is fitted to most of those also. It would be logical then that if any Chieftain could be fitted with a blade then this attachment plate would be fitted to most if not all of the active fleet whether they were normally fitted with a blade or not.

[Richard Goodwin]

So on to the build. The first day was spent checking the various parts lists and admiring the level of engineering that has gone into producing this kit; so worth the wait! Following guidance provided by this forum, the fixings were sorted and placed into individual compartments within component boxes as shown below. I would recommend this to anyone undertaking one of these kits; a pain initially but it will prove its worth over time!

fixings-1.jpg (166.26 KiB) Viewed 2997 times

[Richard Goodwin]

Now like others, I was going to follow the manual and had organised the first 9 pages into individual work packages for preparation and assembly. Then I looked at my tracks and found that many had rust on which is what you'd expect I suppose from unprotected steel. Now for most, that's probably ok but I wanted to paint my tracks so this rust would have to come off. After a couple of attempts of trial and error, I came up with a process; I'm not saying it's the right way but it is the way that I did it! But first a word of caution! Wear a suitable mask at all times; the vinegar fumes will get to you eventually and the wire brushing generates copious amounts of fine dust. Also wear gloves and eye protection for various reasons!

So the process is:

1.Soak in white vinegar for two hours
2. Using a stiff brush, brush all over removing those rust deposits that want to come off (keep the link in the vinegar as you do)
3. Soak for a further hour and repeat with the stiff brush (if rust remains, soak for longer until it comes off)
4. Remove the link from the vinegar and immediately wash the link and your gloves in warm water giving it a good swishing to ensure all the vinegar is removed. If any vinegar is left on, it will rust before your eyes hence washing your gloves as well!
5. Shake of the excess water and wrap in kitchen paper towel to remove most of the water
6 Using a hot air gun, dry off remaining water especially within the nooks and crannies of the link
Note:-Step 4 to 6 was done on each link before progressing to the next link
7. At this stage, insert a track pin, add a washer and check that the cotter pin can be inserted easily. If not, as indicated in the manual, you'll have to grind away a little of the casting. Remove the cotter pin, washer and track pin.
8. Using a rotary wire brush and a hand wire brush, thoroughly clean the link all over (I held the link in a vice and rotated it to get at each face)
9. Soak in degreaser for two minutes before brushing with a stiff brush
10. Shake of the excess and speed up drying by using a hot air gun
11. After the batch (mine was 10 links) has been degreased, immediately spray with etch primer to prevent rust reforming.

Incidentally, if you want an au natural all over rust look, soak the links in white vinegar for 24 hours and remove without washing to dry. Within minutes, you'll have a rust layer forming! A comparison between the two is shown in the last picture below.

Pictures follow:

The links as received

Soaking in white vinegar. Look closely and you can see the bubbles!

After wire brushing and degreasing

This is the colour of the vinegar after one batch of 10!

And the water wash after one batch wash!

Comparison between the forced au natural look and the wire brushed look!

[John Clarke]

Hope you didn't flush that rust away, there's many a builder that would "dye" for it

[Richard Goodwin]

Hope you didn't flush that rust away, there's many a builder that would "dye" for it

If only I had a filter small enough.........typical newbie mistake

[Marco Peter]

Hope you didn't flush that rust away, there's many a builder that would "dye" for it

If only I had a filter small enough.........typical newbie mistake

Easy enough and many more tracklinks to come haha!

[Armortek]

Richard - if you add some salt to the vinegar it will speed the process up.
The warm tracks will start to rust pretty fast again in this humid weather, so best to etch prime each batch as you go or use WD40 and leave the de-greasing till later.

[Richard Goodwin]

Richard - if you add some salt to the vinegar it will speed the process up.
The warm tracks will start to rust pretty fast again in this humid weather, so best to etch prime each batch as you go or use WD40 and leave the de-greasing till later.

Didn't know about the salt! Mine are all done now but that would be useful for others to know although I had mine in a batch process ie 10 in soak, 10 being wire brushed, 10 degreasing and 10 etch primed and i moved to each stage as was required doing 50 links in a day. Have amended the post above to reflect etch priming occurring quickly after degreasing. Many thanks for the info, always useful!

[Richard Goodwin]

Now thinking ahead to track assembly, I have a few newbie questions which i hope the more experienced of the community would be kind enough to provide some guidance. I apologise now if these have been discussed elsewhere and I've missed it! Questions are as follows:

1. Is it worth giving the track pin, washer and cotter pin, a thin dusting of etch primer?

2. Should the track pin be lubricated and if so, with what?

3. Should the cotter pins with the exception of one on each track be on the inside of the track?

4. Should the pad securing nut be secured with Loctite blue and should it have a washer under the nut?

Many thanks in anticipation

[Mark Heaps]

Now thinking ahead to track assembly, I have a few newbie questions which i hope the more experienced of the community would be kind enough to provide some guidance. I apologise now if these have been discussed elsewhere and I've missed it! Questions are as follows:

1. Is it worth giving the track pin, washer and cotter pin, a thin dusting of etch primer?

2. Should the track pin be lubricated and if so, with what?

3. Should the cotter pins with the exception of one on each track be on the inside of the track?

4. Should the pad securing nut be secured with Loctite blue and should it have a washer under the nut?

Many thanks in anticipation

For realism
1. No
2. No - the only time they were lubricated was as part of a wind-up for somebody new. A worn track pin resembled a crank-shaft
3. The track pins were secured each end with a circlip so I would suggest all cotter pins on the inside.
4. No - worn and missing pads would be realistic. One of the SQMS´s vehicle would generally follow any road move and pick up pads that had been lost to remove the hazard for other road users. Crews were generally appreciative when we condemned the tracks so they got a new set with fresh pads. Track change was a bit of work but replacing pads when they knew the track would shortly have to be changed, was just messing them around.

Mark

[Stephen White]

Richard

There’s inevitably a Knowledge Base Topic on tracks:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... 05297d9cc9

The subject of rusting tracks is a familiar one in this Forum. It seems to be common in the popular imagination that rusty tracks are appropriate for an operational tank. They aren’t. For Chieftain they would be doubly inappropriate not only because use has an effect on corrosion but also because the track links had a manganese content in the alloy which effectively inhibited rust.

[Mark Heaps]

Track change was authorised by the VM Sgt condemning the tracks. He would look at the track and decide at a glance whether it had to be changed or not.
He had a GO/NO-GO guage to prove serviceability but I only ever saw it used once. A young troop leader was insisting his tracks were worn out and he should get a new set although the VM Sgt was insisting his tracks were still good for a while yet. Out came the guage, tracks were proven serviceable.
Young officer then had an interview without coffee and biscuits with the Squadron Leader to explain why he was questioning the decisions of the experienced tradesmen in the Fitter Section who were responsible for keeping the tanks operational, and why his perfectly serviceable tank was absent from the battle during that time.