Armortek

Glad to see you've finally found a decent use for PowerPoint

And I love the fact you've made such good links with the original crew.

Adrian.

Next challenge is the trackguard bins. This has been a collaboration between Paul Scott in Australia, owner of 169064, Allan Bowers in New Zealand, who has prepared the marvellous CAD drawings and .... Westcountry Waterjet in Chard, who saved me many tedious hours of cutting out. All I have to do is the easy bit, stitching it all together. Allan's drawings show what a supremely overcomplicated assembly the bins are:





And here is the bag of bits:







Now, Wallabies v All Blacks......Good luck to both teams, it'll be a cracking match.

Stephen

Fantastic work Steven. The masterpiece continues. The gun, rifling, fume extractor are top shelf. The brass bins will be amazing. The "Phouc Me" is a great name - reflective of the time and place. Simply masterful -Superb work!
Best regards,
Bob

Congratulations to all the incredible detail work, Stephen.
Now they expect several hours of welding ... .. but I'm sure that will come out of a masterpiece, as always!
Good job!

Cheers, Bob, Iacopo, good to hear from you.

Preparation includes this method for bending a small flange, where there isn't enough shoulder to use the brake press:






For tackling a complicated assembly, it's helpful to have a range of ways of attacking each stage. This is my array of soldering options:







- for seams, a torch, silver solder and a liquid flux to run between the surfaces. I tend not to sweat the parts because any build up will make accurate assembly and work holding more difficult. The resistance soldering probe is also useful for subsequent seams where you want to localise the heat in order not to undo previous work.

- for adding details, either the gas soldering iron or the resistance soldering callipers and low(er) temp solder, with a paste flux.

- I've successfully used the aluminium solder in the third photo but only with a torch capable of 700 deg C.

Key to successful soldering is clean, abraded surfaces, sufficient heat, flux and above all, solid work holding. The steel sheet and earth magnets are fine for lighter components, probably with a variety of clamps but I find best of all is to use a hulking great chunk of steel bar. This can be arranged to apply a downward force where it's needed and also act as a heat sink to localise heating to where it's needed. If a seam needs adjusting, I'll use the steel bar with a quick application of torch flame. The Proxxon torch is brilliant because the flame is very controllable and pin-point accurate. It runs on lighter fluid.





First part of the assembly done for one side:







Interesting to hear of other approaches, there's a lot of expertise to amongst us to add to the corporate knowledge (plug!)

Regards

Stephen

Spectacular!
Make the envy of a professional welder!

Stephen,

Outstanding work on the bins, thanks for going into the detail of how and what methods you using to create such brilliant work.

I do have one question and that is with regards to the height of the bins, yours sit just below the top edge of the hull sides with the cut out for the turret ring well clear of turret ring over hang. I know that you still have the top plate to the bins to add and this will increase the height of the bins.

I have just been looking at some photos of this area in my books but it is difficult to get a clear view.

Regards

David

Thanks David, I'd an eye on helping with the "how to" section we're trying to launch.

Does this photo help?



I can give you the vertical dimension later. My model photo might be a bit misleading in that I plonked the bins down last night and they're not quite in the right fore and aft position. As you can see, the top of the base sub assembly does sit just below the lip of the hull sides (which are at an angle of 10 deg off the vertical). The lid does sit a bit higher - again, I can give you the dimension if you need it.

All the best.

Stephen

Stephen,

Thanks for the photo that image is very clear, it sits just below the top edge of the hull side. The part I do not understand is that the hull roof sits on top of the hull sides so why did they then re engineer the middle tool box to fit around the curved roof plate that over hangs the hull sides (if that makes sense). I hope I will understand a bit better when you get Further into this part of the build

Again really impressive work that you are doing, it is very inspiring and I am going to give this soldering a go but I am very much on the first steps of learning.

David

An hour in to a 7.5 hour sea crossing from Portsmouth, after trying for 2 days to get home..... what better way to pass the time than to catch up on the forum?

Stephen, as always your work is inspirational. At times I wonder why you bought the kit, so much of your model is now "home made". You are turning an already fabulous model kit in to a museum piece of exceptional quality. Your blog is always great reading and almost a "how to" article in its own right!

Keep up the amazing work. Look forward to future updates.

Kevin

If what I post is of interest, I'm pleased. Appreciate the feedback.

David, the answer lies is what's underneath the curved extension to the turret ring seating. If you look on this diagramme from the IPL, you'll see provision for the bolts which hold down the turret race. Three on each side are through the curved extension.



I'm not sure why on this photo of 064 only two nuts are visible but you can also see that the cut out on the centre bin also had to provide clearance for the weld. On the second photo, it looks like three nuts are present.





This is mirrored on the bin by three blanking plates which can be removed to give access to the nuts without removing the bins. Over-complicated?



Stephen

Stephen,

Many thanks for such a detailed explanation on why the centre bin had a section made to fit around the curved extension to the turret ring seating. They are brilliant photos and are taken at just the right angle.

David

Hi Stephen
Great work and tips as always


Derek

Being so complicated, the hull bins are a bit of a long haul. I'd not have been able to understand how they were built, let alone replicate them, without the 3D model and drawings done by Allan Bowers in New Zealand. I've been able to use the eDrawings Viewer from Solidworks to get inside the boxes and understand their structure. Both the base and the cover, for example, are double skinned. Heaven knows why.

Six base sub assemblies:



A couple of examples of work holding methods for silver soldering, using a combination of resistance soldering and a torch:





Access panels for the turret ring bolts. Making holes in thin brass sheet by drilling is tricky and I prefer to use a series of milling cutters in a Proxxon motor tool:





The centre bin support ribs:







The base double skin fitted:



Progress so far:



Regards

Stephen

Stephen,

Your eye for detail is incredible, outstanding work.

Regards

Dave