Armortek

Hi to all
up date on progress of the small hatches ,finished the mould today for the hatch ,i have still got to do the hinge mould yet, i decided to tackle the hardest piece first ,if i couldnt do the hatch first then theirs no point going ferther .
Hear is the mould , iwas very pleased how it came out this next picture is of one of the hatches cast from the mould next to the patern i made for it this next picture is of the worst one i cast so far i dont know why this hapens ,i have degreesed the mould warmed the mould and then cooled it down and it still happens to a sertain degree ,it could be the material im using its not ment for this sort of aplication its used more in industrie .Overall i,m quit suprised with the way they have come out ,even that bad one, the worst of them could be saved with a bit of filler this next pic is of a good one, i think the next pics are of the whole batch of nine that took just over an hour to do tonight

i have got to do the hinge piece next so give me a couple more days and i might be able to show you a complete cast one keep my fingers crossed ,so far i,m pleased with whats come out and hopefully it will get better.
regards to all ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

Hi Nick

Missed your post the other day sorry bud the only thing I am making at the moment is my house done a complete rebuild and loft conversion just making the stairs now on top of that I am trying to find the time to fix my bike(whole new engine due to my local Yamaha garage) so gone back to the old ways DIY.
Not even looked at my mid tiger yet.
The castings are very good and as you say will get better I’m sure of that mate.
So looking forward to the next instalment.

John
Your set of plans are in the post there is also a set of extra large plans for the garage wall they are around 1/5th - 1/4qtr scale.

Robert
Your set of plans are also in the post as of today.

Regards to all

Steve

Hi Nick,
Try next time to give a little extra inflow area. You know the part of the mould you pour into. The part you left is a bit small. Did you dust the mould with talc powder? Parts are great, well done. If hinge does not work I can make a mould for you. I will
be making some moulds soon. I tend to put multiple parts in each mould, especially small parts. Did the kit omit these parts completely? Put my instructions down somewhere and cannot find them. Work area is a mess at the moment. Trying to get a few items finished as I am off skiing next week and not home till February.

Stephen, thanks again for the plans. Brilliant. You should have got a Honda. Even Hitler rode a Honda.

Castings came out good. That cover on the back is the radiator fan connection release port cover.

Hi to all
Steve i,m sorry to here that your comitments to house and bike are keeping you away from tank building hope you get both sorted out soon ,sometimes thats just the way it goes ,at least you got it to lookforward too at the end of your hard work .All the best and a speedy completion of your other comitments
John
thanks for the information on the mould i was thinking it might have something to do with that ,its nice to have it confirmed by someone else ,i think i might be able to widen the neck of the mould a bit then it might help . These parts are not included in the kit ,and i wanted to atleast try to put one on the back where it is quit visible ,so then i thought i might as well do the other two on the hull as well and casting them seemed to be the best option (i havent got the luxuary of a milling machine) and the pattern took me four hours to make . Have a good holiday skiing ,thanks again .
Hello Mike
Thanks for the info on what the this cap on the back does it is usefull to know ,so when im asked by some one i can tell them do you know what the other two caps are for on the hull side , glade you like them and thanks.
well ive got to get on thanks to every bodys interest and imput
all the best ,,,,,,,,nick,,,,,,,, oh john i have done some hinge pieces ,cut from aluminium will see if they work before i call on your skill,s thanks again for the offer .

Hi to all
the last episode of the cast hatches , the next pics are what ive managed to acheive so far i dont think they can get that mutch better ,i didnt think they would comeout as good as this ,i,m on a very steep learning curve i have dabled in casting before but each time i do it i am suprised by what you can achive with very basic equipment
the hinge plate is made from aluminium this bit was easyer to make by hand the hatch plate is cast.
regards,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

HI nick,

Good looking ports (and PzIV)
The 2 ports at the LHS are fuel filler ports.

Kind regards
Kent

Thanks kent
i am but a novice,s novice compared to the work and skill you have shown on the forum not to mention the reserch you do as well into all these tanks , thanks for the information on the ports ,its always interesting .
Best regards ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

nice job nick. are you going to sell some? if so put me down for 3. i'm sure they'll sell like hot cakes.

HI Ray
sent you a p.message all i need is your postal adress
regards,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

Hi to all
fitted my fuel hatches when i realized exacly what position they were going i chickened out ,i couldnt get a drill in to mount them with bolts so i decided to glue them in position instead. I had to sand down the backs on the two fuel caps so they sat flush and then i added two conical bolt heads that are in the kit to the holes to blank them of i had to be carefull sanding down this metal it is odd, it melts at a very lowe temperature (water boiling point) if you try to do it in one go it could start to go molten again ,it is used in a lot of applications one of them is making patterns for presses, so it is very hard and wares well ,any way this pics of the modification if you drill it you got to think the same it can clog a drill up in no time so use some wd 40 as well, you can tap threds as well heres the result on the side
i have still got to do the one on the back ,this one will be able to open and shut and will be bolted on next i havent had time to do mutch else so i thought i would do the door handles cone bolt heads locking leavers ,i used my own locking leavers as i used on the cupola to keep it all looking the same ,and also two of the original handles had snaped ,so it was just as well i used my own
well thats it for today best wishes for the weekend to all ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

Well done with the castings Nick
They look great on your Panzer 1V
Keep em coming
Phil

Great looking castings Nick

> i have still got to do the one on the back ,this one will be able to open and shut

Somewhere to hide the smoker or main power switch ?

Adrian.

Thanks Adrian
i have been wondering about this problem of getting access to the switches on this one the turret is hanging over the rear hatches when its pointing strait ahead and the hatches wont open plus im hopeing to do the side skirts as well ,so this could be an option . all the best ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

Hi to all
fixed my hatch to the rear and found a problem , the rear exhaust brackets are positiond in the wrong place ,i only discovered this when i mesured up for the hatch they are quit a bit out. I only mention this so those who havent started there builds can sort this out early ,i just never noticed it until now ,the first pic are of the hatch and the others you can see the position of the exhausts now after i moved them , you can see the original holes and see how much they were out . I supose that if you were going to use the kit exhaust you could posibly get away with not moving them ,it is only that i,m using the later style exhausts that i felt i had to correct it ,i am sorry if this puts a spanner in the works for enyone .
i have just got to sort out these holes now and then on with the rear mud guards ,it was a bit frustrating but its sorted now .
all the best to all ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick