Armortek

Hi Stephen,

Another great job. You do know that you are giving us all a lot more work to do to keep up

Mine should arrive next week, then I can make a start. I'll probably steal all your good ideas if you don't mind. What are your main reference books? I've got quite a few and also waiting for the Panzer Tracts to arrive.


Keep up the good work.

Sarah

Beveled escape hatch. PHEW! One of your excellent mods I won't have to try and replicate.

The Stug conversion won't have those hatches.

Nice work Stephen(as always)
Tim

Great work Stephen, I'm enjoying all your modifications. I'm really thrilled I don't have a PIII - I would have to duplicate all your mods! Its great to see the effort and thought you are putting into yours - and for sharing it for others!
Bob

The good news is that 55mm rc car shock absorbers can be fitted into the Pz III suspension units. Both the inner and outer chambers have to be bored out to a 1mm wall thickness and pins cross drilled to anchor the ends.





Came the great moment of fitting them and ....... it became apparent that the shocks were likely to bottom out before reaching the limit of torsion bar travel. If that were to happen, the loading would be transferred to the upper shock mounting, shearing the bolts. Reluctantly, and after two days of work, I decided not to risk it. All is not lost however, the shocks come with very good quality hard springs and end caps. So, after turning an insert to re-fill the lower shock piston, the assemblies are now sprung. On the outside, nothing to show but at least the front and rear torsion bars will now have some support. Oh well.

Regards

Stephen

Wow, that's interesting Stephen. Thanks for sort of being the "scout" in that project for us all. Now the question is can one get those springs without the shocks and will they fit into the unaltered PzKw III shocks?
Thanks again!

Stephen,
You might consider putting the shocks *inside* the hull as I plan to with both Tiger and Panther kits, just to get a realistic dampening effect on the ride. Internal mounting might give you the chance to set up a tangential geometry to prevent bottoming or to use a longer stroke shock.
Just a thought.
Fabrice

Thanks. The springs are available as spares. Try here, for example:

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en& ... CCEQrQQwAg

For Fabrice - yes good thoughts. I might see how the springs perform. As I see Jeff's marvellous build progressing, with some of his mods on my list, I have a feeling of needing to move on. The suspension seems to have a compelling attraction.

All the best.

Stephen

Back on track. The modified shock absorbers before reassembly with some added detailing.



Regards

Stephen

While I've got the suspension off, I've turned discs which complete the suspension arms. They are visible once the roadwheels are on, so are worth doing, even if the lathework is a bit repetitive.







Regards

Stephen

Hi Steve, Amazing mods you've done. Have just started my build but I don't think I will be doing as many mods as you. Can you tell me what you use for the dummy welding seams please ?. Have got milling m/c and lathe so will be doing some work on the engine vents, certainly look better with less meat on them.

Dennis.

I've now done the final installation of the final drives and torsion bars. Following Mark's advice, I've used molybdenum grease on the bushes and coated the gear and bearing surfaces with a dry lubricant, Rocol DFSM aka "Oxylube".

The suspension arms are now as complete as they're ever going to be. The final push to add the discs at the top of the arm took ages as the scale shape is quite complex.





The shocks were completed with a strong internal spring and have had the final detailing done.



Now that the torsion bars are in, the final installation of the electrics follows. I've done a test fit of the turret ring and base to make sure there is clearance with the batteries and speakers.



Regards

Stephen

Hi Stephen.
I am not sure how the gun elevation motor is installed on the p3 but on the tiger i had to locate it higher up to clear the batteries, it would be worth checking now.
Regards
Steve

Hi Stephen,

The suspension arms look great, the discs really do finish them off.

The bolt heads that are showing, are they m2.5?


Sarah

Steve - yes, same issue for the Pz III. The motor is mounted vertically and sweeps a large area of the central hull. I had an installation worked out for the older motion modules and flat speakers but with the new versions and the Tannoy speakers, it's a much tighter fit.

Sarah - plain old 7 BA that I had lying around. They're accurate to scale, as are the disc shapes.

Regards

Stephen

Having acquired the new motion modules and speakers, I've had to rethink the electrics layout. After a lot of trial and error testing, this speaker setup works. The main problem is avoiding contact with the elevation motor . I've got reservations about the effect on the sound by hiding one speaker in the nose but I can't find a better solution:



The speakers mounts are bolted to the floor. They are too soft for use without support and I intend to mould a resin cradle to firm up the mounting.

I've dispensed with the steel floor tray to save weight and have started to build an ally battery cradle. I've used 1.5mm angle and have to hope that the structure will be strong enough to retain the batteries cross country.



The auxiliary and speed controller modules will go alongside the batteries and the power supply module will be mounted flat behind the batteries along with the sound and smoke boxes.

Regards

Stephen