00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

[John Clarke]

Thank you gentlemen. I had embarked on this journey to build a model as accurate as possible. But I do find it more and more difficult to make executive decisions that may or may not be correct. (a Mk14 Chieftain maybe)

Phil knows.

Iv'e also been wondering, will the Armortek site crash if Phil hits 100 "Phils' Chieftain topic" pages?

Richard
Gun clamp exhaust box misery !

[Richard Goodwin]

another one for you.........mudguards!

I agree with you, there is a limit otherwise, you may have well made the thing in entirety

[John Clarke]

Richard, Mud guards to you too!
I haven't done much to the Chieftain model, waiting for bolts that seem to take for ever to come, 12ba hex heads from BA bolts com, waiting on 7 days now. The coach and horses must arrive soon. I could have, with a few breaks run there and back by now.

I've been trying to work out how to cut a strip of aluminum 4mm x 630mm fill in plate to join mud guard to upper side armor. Can't wait to drill the 25 holes in the plate too!
Then there's the detail on the mud guard outrigger brackets. Not to mention out of shape front head lights and the driver's periscope. The hand portable lathe came in handy there though.

It's a big gap between the side armor and mud guards without the fill in plate, but I still need the 12ba bolts

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Gap filler plate still needs to be thinner

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Mud guard outrigger detail came out ok allowing wiring to connect to the side lights.

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Working on drivers periscope, original on insert picture. New lens made. Tinted?

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Hand held lathe for small bits.

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Original front lamp housings given a bit of shape careful here or you end up with a tube and disk. There's not much to work with.

[Phil Woollard]

Your doing a splendid job John!

[John Clarke]

Finished the gap filling plate on the side armor, (actually part of the mud guard in reality) one side done. A thin strip of alloy strip cut with 25 12ba bolts added for detail. Not sure if the counts right but it will be close enough.
I've made one rear tool box up, using different fittings not supplied with the kit.
I was almost crying cutting the locking lugs off the Steve Winstone Centurion latches. but it had to be done.
Most Centurion's apparently didn't have hasps on their tool boxes or did they? anyway Chieftain didn't have padlock lugs on the latch or did they? Who knows?
I've added shaping on the box it's self, half round alloy strips and side edges to the lid
Such a lot of work goes into just one box, certainly tricky little monkeys to put together even if you were to use the original kit bits, it make me appreciate the hard graft Phil puts in running up the detail on his models.

I''ll be back ..........................eventually

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[Richard Goodwin]

Nice work John, oh and thank you for adding more bits onto my already overstretched list of stuff to do

[John Clarke]

Pleasure

[John Clarke]

Put the front bin together yesterday, made the mistake of fixing the latches in the position of the pre-drilled holes. silly me, Not quite correct.
I should have checked original tank pictures.
The rear latch is fitted closer to the hasp than the forward latch to presumably make it easier to open and close the bin and not rap your knuckles on the bazooka plate bracket.
Another mod to add to the list Richard

I do like the Steve Winstone bin fittings, awkward to fit, but very nice fine detail. Each part is glued and 0.8 mm riveted for security. that way I can pull at the fittings without them falling off.

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[Richard Goodwin]

Good spot John and many thanks for the helpful tips n tricks! To do list has been updated

[John Clarke]

I've been looking at the hasps Iv'e fitted to the bins and I'm not really liking the fit.

Their pinned and glued but the mounting tab is on the outside, it means the hinge has to bend to much and will not sit square on the loop.

Easy fix, I've put the tab on the inside of the bin lid flap.

I seem to have been on these bins for hours and hours and not much too show for it, breaking quite a few tiny drills in the process.

Still, I've got Elvis rocking to a bit off uplifting trance to keep me going, giving the Minons the day off well, it is a bank holiday.

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[John Clarke]

The Trance has just finished, the long bin has had it's bits fitted and it should look ok cleaned up with a lick of paint.

I've had enough today in the room of the flying drill bits.

The Steve Winstone fittings were originally made for Centurion and are a tad big for Chieftain. If you brought a set you may have to make allowances.

Elvis has Left the building.

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[Daniel Brooker]

Those latches look great are they still available to purchase? What size half round styrene strip fits those bins ? Keep up the hard work

[John Clarke]

Hi Daniel I can see from your post that you've asked Steve Winston if he has anymore sets which is where they came from.
I believe they were made originally for the Centurion. They do look very good but they are difficult to fit because no holes have been drilled for anchoring, Glues are good but not as strong as pining and gluing. They are also a little big so a need for trimming in certain places may be needed, plus the need to cut off the pad lock lug / loop .
The latches themselves seem very strong though it's not always easy to get an even pressure between the latches, especially on the angle boxes where the long hinge I added is pulling differently compared with the lighter Armortek hinges.
I did put a couple of Armortek latches together finding them ok but a bit light weight, they do look good, matching the other type of Chieftain latch, often seen on Chieftain sometimes mixed up with the Centurion types.
I did think the Armortek wire part was little difficult to keep in position in use, but the main body being bolted on the side of the bin makes them easy to fit.
The half round is actually aluminium welding rod attacked with a grinder. I'll post about that later

[John Clarke]

Finally got the hinges on the bins pretty much sorted, but I still need to drill the drainage holes and stick a tube in them, later.

I've also been looking at building the tray that the rear bins sit on, making it out of light aluminum angle brought from B&Q's metal trim area. This will be glued into position when I finally figure out how the rear lights will be fitted. This threw up another problem how to attach the tow rope as Armortek basic tow rope clamp ringed will not fit anymore, well, not where it's supposed to anyway. It's not a bad clamp, but I want something better. Wing nuts would improve it and you'd need to build something for the other end of the tow rope retention. Four Quick release clamps then.
So over the last couple weeks I've had ago at building a "more correct" looking and operating tow rope clamp.
First, drew a picture of the hideous little things. worked out what I'd make them out of and go for it.

Getting the scale reasonable took some time, the first one turned out a bit to tall or is the gap between the mud guard and bin too small? and then there's tow rope, it seems to be too fat. The wing nuts were brought in, but I had to tap them M2 to fit the eye bolt retainer.

I will be attaching the clamp to the mudguard with 2mm countersunk screws, smoothing over with filler.

Just as well it's a working quick release tow rope clamp under the current circumstances

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[Vince Cutajar]

Nice.

Vince