T34/85 25th Guards Brigade No 234a

[phil fitzpatrick]

Finished and fitted my sprung Tow Hook retainer



Where is the ******** mudguard Comrade Tovarich

[phil fitzpatrick]

Getting some uppeer Turret and detail parts ready

[phil fitzpatrick]

Made a start on my Turret with a bit of grinding filing and some filling

I just did a bit of grinding to smooth out the top of the Turret to the front and all the
sharp edges and filled the joint between the Turret front.
The hole I drilled to assemble my mantlet,I plugged with a 10mm grub screw and filled flush,
with BlueTack first and then a bit of Milliput,so it will be easy enough to poke out if I have to.

[phil fitzpatrick]

Fuel Drum parts

[phil fitzpatrick]

Making sure my Gun slides nice in the bush before I fix the Gun Base to the Mantlet
prior to starting on my Turret texture

[phil fitzpatrick]

Fuel Tanks assembled

[William Lewis]

Hi Phil

I have the same issue you had with a small gap between the front deck and rear deck, also rear deck lid overhangs upper rear plate by about 3 to 4 mm. I saw that you moved rear deck forward until deck lid was flush with upper rear plate. Did you have enough room to drill and tap new 3mm holes or is there some other way that you did this? Did the turrent clear the rear deck / deck bolts with this mod.

Any info would be appreciated

Thank you
William Lewis

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi William
Yes there was enough room to drill and tap for all of the new holes.
If you look at my pic's on page 8 of the rear deek after fitting,you will see from the front
it just overlaps the front deck screws just enough to cover the little gap and be nice
and flush at the back.
You will notice the 2 inner hex head screws have there flats facing the base ring,
and I rounded the bottom of the base ring a bit,which looks better anyway and there is
about 1mm clearance with those 2 screws,the others are no problem.
I did the 2 front outer edge screws first after marking for them,then the 2 outer back ones,
taking the deck off each time to see where I was drilling.
I wanted it nice and flush at the back of the rear deck lid so I could fit the hinge type latch
that you can see on the board in the previouse picture,I have fitted them now and they work
fine after a fiddle about
Cheers
Phil

[phil fitzpatrick]

Done a bit more to my T34/85 Rear

[Adrian Harris]

Nice to see your T34 coming together so smoothly Phil

Work and family are keeping me too distracted to get to the workshop, so it's nice to sit down and follow this thread and see the progress in each posting.

Adrian.

[William Lewis]

Hi Phil

Thanks for the details on the rear deck mod, your pictures and info have been a great help.

Thanks again
William

[phil fitzpatrick]

Hi Adrian,
Sorry to hear you cant get to your Tanks
Yes its another great Tank to build with a handfull of little challenges thrown in
The decent weather has helped and I've done most of it outside on the patio,on
the evenings and weak ends.
I've been having a go at the cast finish on the Turret and doing other bits in between
while it dries.
Will post some pics soon
Cheers
Phil

[phil fitzpatrick]

Started on my Turret Casting.
Ground off the sharp edges and 4 coats of the spray filler,before
2 thin coats of polly filler,so far
Will be using the spray filler on the bottom because of the limited clearance and the mantlet,and
some more spray filler over the polly filler to seal it all and play with it untill I'm happy.

[phil fitzpatrick]

Doing the Mantlet slowley with just spray filler

[phil fitzpatrick]

Bit more work on my Turret Casting,a few coats of the spray filler,if I slip
and spray too much, I just stipple it a bit more
I used cling film over my Turret Top to keep the joint and inside clean.
The Mantlet and Gun Base is slowly improving.