A Chequered Chieftain at #10

[Mark Heaps]

I respectfully disagree that all of the Berlin brigade Chieftains looked exactly the same.
Look at this photo from the parade in 1989. There are clear differences between the two lead vehichles.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Bri ... tanks.JPEG

[Richard Goodwin]

Mark,

I suggest you read Page 12 of my blog where I experiment with colour and Stephen's response to that and ensuring you read his Knowledge Base article!

[Richard Goodwin]

Spent the past week pouring over photo's as I start the push towards Stillbrew. It's only when you do something like this that you fully appreciate the complex geometry of the Mk5 turret. Whilst the model turret isn't perfect, its not far short so well done Armortek.

As per normal, the crew had done a runner down town so enlisted the help of this fella who was trying to top up his tan ....

Trying to keep him focussed was somewhat difficult since his eyes kept wandering towards Kitty he was probably thinking....if only I had that engine in here, I'd only have head gasket failure occasionally
Making steady progress on working and marking out the left cheek and the area around the main gun. The right side is a different animal particularly that little tunnel with the door at the end of it. AM struggling to work out how far it goes up that tunnel if at all?

Kitty's off for her MOT this morning so fingers crossed. Incidentally, she kindly donated her bent front armature for me to remove the steel plate so I'm going to use that for the skirting plate mounting lugs and a couple of other things. I may not have an L60 in 03 EB 20 but I will have some good old British Leyland on her somewhere

Happy Freedom day folks....stay safe though!!

[John Clarke]

They'll be bits of British Leyland everywhere Richard.
Recycled and recycled again. Tins, gate posts and the odd older Armortek models maybe.
Though I must say the steel work on Chieftain is excellent, no corrosion problems and easy to work.

[Richard Goodwin]

Ah but there's a difference John, this won't be melted down and mixed with other metals! It will be just cut and fixed into position so its true BL

[Richard Goodwin]

Just a quick update as to stillbrew progression.

The turret has been mounted on a baseboard and held in position using the bearing locating bolts....

Next several layers of board were then cut and screwed together to obtain the necessary height for the support staging for the main stillbrew armour. The turret was then marked out on the staging which was subsequently cut......

Finally, it was screwed into position.....

staging in position.jpg (173.44 KiB) Viewed 4074 times

I did say it was a quick update

If anyone happens to know the max and min main gun elevations, that would be really useful?

[Stephen White]

Richard, I'd like to think these figures are ingrained somewhere in my gunnery brain (but my course notes are more reliable)

L11 elevation limits:

Plus 356 mils (20.025 deg)
Minus 178 mils (-10.0125 deg)

Recoil: 35.5 cms

Traverse: 6400 mils (all the way round, once, clockwise), 6398 mils (all the way round anti-clockwise, taking account of backlash).

Time taken for the BV to boil when full....

Number of pumps required to fully elevate the commander's seat.....

Number of brews in a two hour stag.....

Number of pulls required to set the parking brake.....

Now surely some of our other "Old and Bold" can fill in the missing gaps.

[Richard Goodwin]

Thank you Stephen, that's a great help in forming the front opening.

If I may be so bold.......number of brews in two hr stag.........depends on how long it takes the BV to biol a fresh load, prob on continuously

[Stephen White]

So we arrive at the following formula:

b = 120/y * θ/2

Where:

b = number of brews in a two hour stag
y = number of minutes to boil the BV
θ = coefficient of operator's enthusiasm (/2 halved during hours of darkness)

[Adrian Harris]

I presume that's θ as in "Is t'heta on yet lad ?"

Adrian.

[Richard Goodwin]

The oldies are always the best Adrian..........definition of an expert.......ex being an unknown quantity and spert being a drip under pressure

[Mark Heaps]

So we arrive at the following formula:

b = 120/y * θ/2

Where:

b = number of brews in a two hour stag
y = number of minutes to boil the BV
θ = coefficient of operator's enthusiasm (/2 halved during hours of darkness)

Liked it however the fomula does not include one factor which could affect the end result severely, namely Hands On The Flavourable Liquid At Selected Kelvin, usually shortened to Hot flask
Also y was a variable number depending on whether or not you were allowed to start the ME or GUE

[Richard Goodwin]

Jovialities aside....stillbrew progress to date.....

I've shaped this approximately. Once the two side cheeks have been completed the same, I'll blend them in together to the final shape and yes, i know I haven't cut the coaxial slot yet

Out of curiosity, is or has anyone else doing/done either a Mk10 or 11?

Stay safe

[John Clarke]

Nobody??

Looks like your on your own out there Richard.

[Richard Goodwin]

I wonder if I said that I would be making moulds from these masters (once finished) if I would still be on my own?