Armortek

some more bits completed, I reduced the width of the trails and made the steel side covers I can now use 1/16 1/2 inch rivets which allow me to peen over instead of gluing 2, I will also clad the front cradle in steel this will cover any unwanted holes and soften the edges.
Marcus is correct in stating the elevation gearbox is too far forward, I moved mine 22mm to the rear, this ment moving and adapting the gear quadrant,
the bracket for the slew gear could have been moved rearwards but I did not want it on the bend of the trail, and it works well where it is, the elevation gear box now looks as it should regards Jeff

Ohhh yes!!!! That gear box looks the part! I am very interrested in how you made the top part (for the worm wheel), did you thin down the kit part and add a brass sleeve?
A brave decision to sand down the trails and add covers. I though about milling the oval hatches in mine but that would have meant to take the whole carriage apart. At the end I opted for only adding a top plate and leave the hatches off.......
I did move the slew gear bracket aft and sanded the angle in it, not a problem since the kit part is quite thick, later on I replaced the whole bracket for a brass one and did bent the base plate to conform to the trail angle.

Cheers,

Marcus

Hi Marcus, I reduced the thickness of the gearbox below the worm wheel, the cover was made from one piece of brass and knocked into shape with a hammer on a sandbag
Regards Jeff

A little more work on the 25 pounder, most of it repetition, riveted the side trails using snaps, very therapeutic, made 25 tie downs, not sure how many extra I need, one thing I did change was the screw in pivot bolt for the gun cradle, having to undo it every time drove me nuts, and is not prototypical also added some detail to the cradle, and to make the barrel look longer I shortened the slide

regards Jeff

Back to the build after a vacation, I made a start on the angles for the rear of the trail, and also made new top and bottom rear plates drilled to take 1/16th rivets, this is how far I got with the trial fitting regards Jeff

Love it! I know how hard it is to form those brass angle lines in shape, I failed miserably! At that moment I did not have the skills yet to work with brass, but even now I am still reluctant to try such a feat!!
The upper and lower plates of the trail ends are these aluminum or did you use steel?

Cheers,

Marcus

Hi Marcus, I used steel for the plates, did you spot my mistake, senior moment, I forgot to put the two spade box brackets, when I riveted the angle to the top plate, so have just removed 4 rivets so I can now continue.
Regards Jeff

Lovely stuff, Jeff, as ever. Very inspiring. Clever move with the carriage to make the barrel look longer. I turned an insert for a friend, having quietly noticed the discrepancy, Love the brass work. I see all the 3D printing and plastic casting and they produce excellent scale results but nothing beats the satisfaction of torturing bits of metal into shape. Nothing beats it for sheer frustration too sometimes. That's the joy of these models. Thanks for posting, enjoying some genuine craftsmanship.

Stephen

Thanks Stephen, I did a bit more torturing and metal beating today, the spade is very basic on the model, so have tried to address that, I have still to rivet on the brackets for the spade box, this is how far i got regards Jeff

Beautiful work on the Spade. I think all the rivets would have taken my sanity though. One man's therapy is another's demise -LOL. Super work Jeff, love all of your builds.
Bob

your not loosing your mojo jeff, thats a bit of young street jargon, so i am told, very nice, reards simon.

A bit more done after a short break, I thought I would make a working barrel steady / lock, constructed from brass f regards Jeff

Whilst studying photos of the barrel locking arm, it was clear that the axle cover plate extended further rearwards and was of a box section, and as I wanted to use smaller rivets I replaced the kit part regards Jeff

Back on the build after another break, I decided to finally fix the trail together, using the brass angles I had already made, the stops for the firing platform have been replaced with steel ones of the correct shape, this is how far I got today regards Jeff

Beautiful brass work Jeff regards Phil.