Wading Rail

[John Clarke]

Nice picture Andy showing some cute Chieftain curves.
At the weekend got the grinder out, Strapped the three lengths of 6mm alloy channel together with masking tape.
Drew a line along the edge for the desired thickness and thinned them down.
A block, wet and dry to flatten and smooth the edges. Done.
Who needs a miller?

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Yes, it would have been handy.

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Taped together.

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Regularly taping down while gently grinding with a flap wheel, taking time not to gouge lumps out of the channel

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Lots of elbow grease required, (wax on, wax off motion)

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The new slimmer more in scale rail, compared to the supplied rail.
Certainly easy to bend to the correct shape, tighter bends are easier to form without the creasing effect than the supplied rail too.
Worth doing...... I think.

[Greg Clement]

Thanks again to those of you who provided the photos, made the task a lot easier.

The following photo shows the finished item. Fixing the rail to the casting was the hard part but I used brass rivets which I think were originally meant for the wheels. Its not perfect but I’m happy.

Driver’s periscope next.

[Richard Goodwin]

Nice job Greg I think we need another Category of builder! What was Cat 4 is now Cat 5! Cat 4 is now those that occasional totally rebuild the odd part without using the original Some more pics of other parts of your tank would be good

[John Clarke]

Fine work Greg, Tricky little devil the wading rail, finding the right pictures to give prospective. I used this one a lot because as I look down on the model I could replicate the angle.
Some ways to go yet, but it's coming along.

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