Novice Centurion tank builder

[davidwilkins]

Hi all

I was going to work on the smoke unit setup, but got carried away on the gun elevation/depression setup instead. When I got this installed and setup on the limit switches I had about 13 degrees elevation and 0 degrees depression, and a lot of wobble in the operation in the movement of the barrel. so I decided to make a few adjustments to try and improve this operation.

With my new setup I now have 12 degrees elevation and 6 degrees depression (it was depression that I was really after) and a much smoother operation. I am going to make a new guide bracket again to try and improve a bit more and hopefully succeed.

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi all

I made a new elevation guide bracket and increased the angle to 42 degrees this gave a depression/elevation of -7 and +16 degrees and a smooth operation, so I was pleased with this result.

I decided it was time to put tracks on start it up drive the tank off the building platform, all went well and a very happy armortek customer. I would like to thank every one for there support and help, this has been a very challenging project and very satisfying one it has taken me 2 years to get this far and I think it will take the best part of another 18 months to finish.

David

[Stephen White]

Looking great David. I was surprised at the length with the LR tank on. The Cent only just goes ink a VW Tiguan, no room for the Pz III. The elevation mod is well worth doing. It's a great model all round. Hope we see lots of them in October at Bovvy. All the best. Stephen

[Kevin Hunter]

Hi David
Great to see another Cent up and running. Like what you are doing with the gun elevation, the lack of depression in particular seems a common issue. I can't get my barrel into the transit cradle so more tinkering and tweaking clearly needed.
Keep it up
Regards
Kevin

[davidwilkins]

Hi all

Stephen/Kevin thanks for the comments, I am glad that I worked on the depression and elevation I think all the effort was worth it.

The centurion is now back on the building table, I checked it over before fitting the skirt plates. These lined up with lower skirt stay brackets that I had made perfectly.

Starting to work on the turret details now.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi all

Progressing on with the turret build, I have finally decided to fit the stowage boxes onto the turret sides on adjustable threaded bar like what appears to be on the real turret. Also the angle plate that the stowage boxes are supported on will have a bit of adjustment, as looking at photos of these stowage boxes the gap between them and the turret all seem to be different.

After a lot of studying photos of the turret roof (and converting measurements from my 1/35 scale plastic kit) I decided to try and make a new turret roof. This roof is quite a bit wider and a few mm longer as I have closed the gap a bit to the deflection ridge (that's what I call it) on the top of the turret cast.

By making this new roof it did make one problem that stood out and that was the front right hand corner of the cupola no longer lined up the edge of the new roof. To get around this I have added a bit of aluminium plate to the cupola and blended it into shape. I have also had to add and remove some aluminium from the deflection ridge on the turret cast to line up with the fixed scope as I felt it needed moving more to right of the turret. I have marked out the area around the front of the cupola where I think everything should go. I shall have to wait and see what the final result looks like.

The other bit of news I thought I would pass on is that I need to apologise to the Allied/Nato forces section as I have turned traitor, I have just ordered a Tiger 131 sorry I could not resist.

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi all

Have been making steady progress on the turret details, I decided to make a new loaders periscope mount as I felt it needed to be a bit wider and longer after looking at loads of photos of this area. I have made it 6mm wider each side and 15mm longer in the front so it is closer to the mantlet. Clamping the turret cast to my small milling machine was fun but in all fairness the milling machine handled it well.

Being as I have mounted the recoil module in the turret I have made the turret roof detachable this now means that I only have to disconnect the 2 leads that go to the amplifier and the 8 pin main turret lead. The turret will now lift off with all the other leads still connected.

By having the roof detachable it does create one problem and that is the armoured cable from the smoke grenade launchers that run into the turret roof, I am going split these cables inline with the roof and have very thin sliding sleeve to join them up. I think this will be a small compromise to make.

The other part that I have remade is the gun cradle, it was quite fiddly to make particularly the top piece but I am very pleased with the result.

David

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

The gun cradle is beautiful! It looks like a precision instrument of some sort.

/Chris

[davidwilkins]

Hi all

Chris thanks for the encouragement I am pleased with the gun cradle.

Making steady progress with the turret details, I can see where my confidence is starting to grow because when I made the housing for the loaders periscope I made in half the time it took me to make one for the driver. Then it was back down to reality when I tried to solder the cover for the loaders periscope, I failed again but at least I learned why my soldering iron is not getting enough heat into the metal because when I heated it up with a small flame gun I finally got the solder to run. Need to get a better soldering iron.
Here are a few photos of some of the other parts that I have made.

David

[simon_manning]

you will have to change the novice build title, some nice work going on in this project, very good, regards simon manning.

[Adrian Harris]

Too true

Just think what it'll look like when he gets good at it

Adrian.

[Stephen White]

David, congratulations, I've enjoyed every post you've made. You're certainly building this model rather than assembling it. Your machining skills are very plain to see, some lovely parts, especially the fire extinguishers and antennae bases. Great job. Looking forward to seeing her and the other Cents in October, four booked in so far and I hope more to come.

All the best.

Stephen

[davidwilkins]

Simon, Adrian, Stephen
Many thanks for your kind words.
When I first started this build I was really unsure about putting a build thread on the forum, I do not know much about details of tanks and had no idea how I was going to get on with a lathe and milling machine (plus I am rubbish on a computer).
I then meet Stephen 2 years ago at the last armortek/tank museum event and you encouraged me to do a build thread, and I am so glad I did. Seeing all the other builds has really inspired me on, there is so much knowledge and help it is great to feel part off.
So I must thank Gill and Mark at armortek and everyone on the forum for your encouragement and help. I was only going to buy one model but this tank buildings is very addictive and I am already looking forward to receiving tiger 131 although I will have to finish the centurion first so this will have wait until next summer. (I think the word novice will have to be left out of the build thread title from now on)
Regards
David

[Stephen White]

David, we all benefit and learn from each others' builds so I'm sure a lot of us are grateful for your taking the time and trouble to post.

Self taught machining is great fun, as long as you don't go too public on the bits that, in my case, have either flown across the workshop or been junked as a result of cocking up the last operation. Perhaps I could start a thread titled "bits that I almost got right".

Maybe you should award yourself a high accolade - "Accomplished Tank Bodger" on the next build?

Stephen

[davidwilkins]

Stephen I like the sound of that!