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The Chieftain area of the forum has been very quiet lately, so I thought I would put up some photos of my progress with the engine compartment in the hope it sparks some interest.

This build took a lot longer than expected, the biggest issue was ensuring everything could all be easily dismantled to allow access to the electric motors and associated modules underneath. The L60 engine supplied by Ivano Costantini is superb and the additional parts printed by Phil Woollard are great and made the job so much easier. This is my first Armortek project so it’s not perfect and there are some areas I will revisit in time. Next is to finish modifying the Grills/hatches.

Inspirational. I will return to work on No.34 soon, promise .

Cheers all

Charles

Hi Greg
Great work you’ve done on the engine bay and front casting. Ivano,s engine and Phil,s gearbox details really add to the detail.
Regards
Steve

Excellent work, i am not into the Chieftain but can appreciate the effort here, superb stuff, looks good, regards simon manning.

Absolutely superb! So good to see a Chieftain thread again on the forum.

Beautiful work, first class

Ah, more eye candy for the tankies.
Love it

Thanks for all the positive comments guys

I'm working on the engine covers/grills at the moment, so got the MIG welder out. I will post photos when done.

Hi Greg,
The engine looks excellent, a lot of other extra work going on there as well to Tee bar and hatches ? Difficult to believe that you can still fit the motors and motion pack in under there as well.
David

Masterful work on the engine bay - that is incredible. Esp if its your first 1/6. Very nice.
Bob

Picking up on Charles Stewarts comment regarding the lack of recent Chieftain posts on the Forum reminded me of a promise made to put up some images of the Engine Covers/Grills once finished. This has got to be one of the most frustrating parts on this kit (so far) and whichever solution is chosen it will end up being a compromise.

I wanted to add the small front hatches near the turret, I know they are obscured most of the time but once the decision to add Ivano’s engine has made this area more important. It was sometime before I realised all my reference photos were for tanks fitted with Stillbrew armour and showed the revised front covers. But that’s enough words on with the photos.
Following the example of others, the T piece was cut away from the rear decking.
The point of no return.
Machined a piece of aluminium to support the end of the T piece.
Not a true facsimile but its close enough.
Filling in the gap nice and slow, too much heat and the parts will distort.
The other side.
Again not exactly correct but good enough.
Much closer to the real thing.
Removing the nuts and bolts from the engine covers to make them look less clunky. I cut away the bracket and plug welded into place.
With the welds cleaned up. The original fixing holes will be filled with weld.
Managed to get some wire mesh on eBay, a big improvement.
Using the induction soldering iron, and excellent tool.
Almost finished. Need to mimic the "serrated" edge near the hinges next.

Very well done Greg