00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

[John Clarke]

With the better weather, I've been able to go outside and finish the belly plate mod started a few weeks ago.
While making the belly plate "furniture dressings" inspection plates plugs and jacking plates, I thought it would be better to show them off by removing the side plate overhang.
Unlike Stephen White and his lovely machining work on his side plates, I have to be a bit more brutal.
B&D workmate out, and start "power sanding disking" away.
Using all the fineness of masking tape to stop the process when target depth reached.
Once a little filler has been applied which fills the fold gaps as well, I'll have a relatively flat beveled bellied Chieftain hull with a flattened extended front lower armor plate.
Anyway, who's going to check underneath the model?

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[Adrian Harris]

I've been doing a very similar operation on the front of a T-34, using the same hand tools

> Anyway, who's going to check underneath the model?

You'd be surprised at the rivetcounters we meet at shows.

There were various muttered comments at the Bovington model show about the "rust" on Stephen's red Vietnam mud covered Centurion

Adrian

[Stephen White]

Good job they didn’t say that within my earshot, Adrian....! Interesting reflection though. The plastic kit fraternity have become hooked on rust because the suppliers of so called weathering products have conned people into thinking rust is a vital part of scale modelling. Same is true of “chipping”. So when the guys you heard see red brown, they automatically see rust. Yet, on my Cent, there are very accurate representations of the one bit that did rust in service, the covers over the exhaust boxes.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the Fehrmann Tiger was to hear the Nietenzähler say that you couldn’t possibly have had an early turret on steel wheels. So wrong.

Meanwhile John, loving your approach. Beat it into submission. Keep the magic coming. Stephen

[Richard Goodwin]

I know who the mirror is aimed at! I'm raising an Urgent Technical Instruction for the introduction of an anti-mirror device to counter that threat; effective immediately

[John Clarke]

"Beat it into submission" kind words Stephen.... and Richard, wouldn't dream of it "Read my lips".

Chieftain's belly plate seems to have mastered the almost flattest welds there are in the tank world, evidently to reduce friction when bottoming out on soft ground. Only spoiling it with oddly mounted inspection hatches and an ugly plug hole.
I thought long and hard for a couple of minutes, how can I do this very long and flat belly plate weld and came up with engraving.
Nope, bad idea, engraving removes metal and you need a steady hand, both no no's.
So on to plan B, I like plan B, It's easy.
Cut a thin strip of self adhesive aluminum tape and fix it to the center line of the belly plate and then scroll in the weld lines with a tooth pick. It's actually metal, it's raised,it's shaped and it's done.
Now if it's been done before, sorry I missed the memo.
The jacking points have been fitted "Glued and Screwed" wouldn't want them to fall off and on the front end fitted the Plug/hole. To give it some shape like the original I squeezed a washer in a countersunk former giving it a conical shape.
Fake welds, When I took this close up picture of the plug/hole, first thought "laughing stock". Not one for having done this fake weld business before, so excuse the novice approach, there's all sorts techniques out there and I seem to be rubbish at most of them.I think I might have worked out one problem, I'm might be holding the shaping stick upside down. I'll have to do the plug/hole weld again, still you can see the conical washer effect, I hoping etching primer will smooth out a multitude of sins in the future.

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[John Clarke]

As well as the Belly plate "furniture" parts as I call them, there's the little add on bits I also wanted to make. There's the side hull plate rear extensions that Greg Clement has so elegantly made on his miller (Bum cheeks I call them ) and the rear bottom towing lug extensions. both can be seen on the original tank pictures.
The lower towing lugs seem to be made of thinner material than the upper lugs so I made cut mine from 6 mm aluminium plate as opposed to the original thicker 8mm plate model spec. They still need a bit of tickerling around the inner section lines, but should look ok once/if I master the milliput.
The "Bum cheeks" are another story and on going, I haven't got any 8mm plate, so elected to chop up some 12mm plate into a 8mm strip then halve it diagonally again along the thickness and start filing. Should be ok by the weekend gluing and screwing into place.
A tad unorthodox, long winded, but simples and it will get there. It gave the jig saw a good run for it's money too

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[John Clarke]

Well the weathers a bit better so I thought get the steel plate components outside to check if I'd given them a decent coat of primer.
Armortek supply the steel plate components in protected wraps, but once touched, finger prints could and can start a rusting process off.
I compounded the process by welding up the joints oxidizing the surface in the welded areas, so I thought I'd better to get some protection on them ASAP.
The welds were tidied up, steel plates laid out and painted, today laid out and photographed outside, they'll be lots to do later on them, but for now just protect them.
I'd be telling all the B obvious, but keep an eye on the plates as the dreaded real rust has caught me out in the past.

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[Richard Goodwin]

Nice job John; hopefully I'll get mine back soon You know for one moment there, I thought you had some Quality Street in the flower pot by the side such is my eyesight! I had to look twice

[John Clarke]

Prefer Hero's Richard.
Starting to get close to finishing the underneath of the hull.
The real Chieftain has some good looking, bad and down right ugly weld seams around these areas.
With wonderful support from Stephen White, I've had a play around with Fabric Paint to try and form the heavy weld seams around some of components welded to the hull.
I brought a couple of types of fabric paint with mixed results. One of the problems is finding the right paint with the right consistency.

Too thick, too thin etc. Different colours too. The Silver looks good, but is too thin for some places ,tiny welds maybe. It's also difficult to see against an aluminum back ground, the black puffy seems too thick at the moment. The royal purple seams pretty good and easy to see too.

Syringes are a must, paint out of the bottle tends to spit out when an air lock is en-counted. Controlling the bead with the syringe is easier too.

I've tried various ways to finish the application of the paint, finding using a terminal screw driver to tamper the surface to finish it off.
It's tricky to get the milliput herring bone effect in the fabric paint, but then again it's not away's there on the really lumpy welds either.

The Fabric paint does take some time to dry. But it can produce Bibbily bobbly welds lines and heavy thick weld lines too.
A mix of different techniques are going to be needed during the build so it's fun to try different materials.
Suggestions always welcome please.

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[Stephen White]

Well done John, really good results. Great that you persevered. You can put a coat of acrylic lacquer over the paint job, which also helps harden it. I always think Milliput welds tend to look like ... Milliput welds.

[Richard Goodwin]

Not bad!!!! Can I have my tape measure and hand back now though; it was only meant to be a short term loan

[John Clarke]

Sorry Richard, once you've put your hand in there's no taking it back.
Another picture of the front towing lugs. but this time using the thinner 3d silver fabric paint. It looks good and you can build up on top of it, but I wiped it off and I'm in the process of using the Royal purple stuff which is much thicker. lumpier a "big weld" round the towing lug.
The fabric paint once dry, like Stephen White says is tougher than Milliput it will take hit without crumbling away. It will be useful around removable panels like the turret lid plate which I intend to be located with magnets for easy removal. The silver being an ideal colour.
I'll be using milliput in places, it's another "useful tool" in the box.

[John Clarke]

I had to guess what the inspection plate and fitting at rear looks like, a faint outline can be seen on some original tanks but I'm still not sure what it really looks like

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Added the Bum cheeks and filled in the gaps, most of which won't be seen when the inboard gearbox plates are fitted.

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Painted the hull and then gave it a muddy messed up look.

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Now working on the rear plate fittings.

[John Clarke]

Looking at gun clamp first, I'm making a few changes to the model's supplied clamp. Nothing major as it looks good as it is.
I'm going to be thinning out the frame, the screw blocks and the Tommy bar.

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[John Clarke]

Painted the leaner meaner looking gun clamp. Tommy bar remade in brass to allow it to slide with "Ends" fitted to stop the bar to fall off.
The screw blocks being thinned down allow easy positioning and operation.

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If you've got one of these, (a bicycle air valve LED that lights up when the wheel rotates. brought from Pound land 15 years ago). It might come in handy for this next job.

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