Chieftain build by Phil Woollard.

[Phil Woollard]

More progress on the turret, also you guys need to know that Ivano is in lock down over in Italy due to the covid19 virus, he says that people are already dead! This thing is going to affect us all!

[Phil Woollard]

Would anyone have details of the NBC box contents, as if the large door at the rear of the turret was opened ?

[Steve Ellis]

Hi Phil

Some photos I took at Bovington. I will post some pics from the Pam33 tomorrow.

[Phil Woollard]

Excellent Steve.

[John Clarke]

Ditto

[Phil Woollard]

Lots done, I'm running the weld beads as I work around the turret, as there are fittings, baskets and lots of extra detail I feel it's the most convenient method.

[Mark Heaps]

The two drum shaped objects behind the retaining plate were the air filters for the NBC system. The fan motor to the right of them was not a pressurising fan providing the NBC protection but a scavenge fan whose job was to extract dust from the incoming air so that it could not clog up the filters. The vents below it are outlets and not inlets. The extra cabling is for pressure sensors on the inlet and outlet side of the filters to monitor the pressure drop over them, giving an indication of their health. An increasing pressure differential indicated blockage by some form of contamination and the filters were not working to their optimum.
During my time the tanks were fitted with training filters, but in each troop cage was a set of operational filters for each tank to be fitted if we went to war.
The NBC fans were very powerful and leaving the filters out did give a very good fridge space for chilling beer. I cannot say whether the Chiefy crews ever did it, but I know that on the ARRVs I crewed, the training filters were nowhere to be found.

Mark

[Phil Woollard]

More progress, working on the cupola wiper units.

[Phil Woollard]

Cupola work, and will be for a while as there's lot of extra detail to do, so much in fact that I may have to comprise just a tad

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Yachting stores have something called rubbing compound. It comes in coarse and fine grade and is designed specifically to make sun bleached and scratched hull or any other plastic shine. Maybe?

[Vince Cutajar]

Or maybe a cutting polish.

Vince

[Phil Woollard]

Progress with the turret additional fittings The three sided pencil lines in the bottom left corner I presume are comms antenna covers? The commanders seat and the older style pyrene extinguishers arrived from Dave, the latter I will cut down to make the remote system handles inbetween the fender kit lockers.

[Mark Heaps]

I cannot remember what was under those rear left covers but I suspect likely to be antenna locations left over from the Larkspur fit.
The ribbed spar between the commanders and loaders hatches has been puzzling me for some time. I experienced it once being used as a turret datum point trying to establish why a tank was firing inaccurately but if that was its true purpose, then crews would have been informed never to paint it. My brother who crewed them told me they were never a no-paint area and he thought it was just a supporting rib for the turret roof.
If it was just a strengthening part, then why the channel ? The channel is not that deep that it could somehow add to the rigidity but it must have been there for a reason.

I believe it was a guide rail for a movable barrel support gantry to be used for barrel changes in the field. The worn out barrel was extracted out the back of the turret, NBC pack opened and stowage racks that were in the way were removed and a support rail put on the back decks, I know how that was done so it is not a supposition. A movable support would have been useful in supporting the breech end on its way out and the muzzle end of the new barrel going in.
Mark

[Steve Ellis]

Hi Phil as promised pics of the NBC Pack.
Also some pics of the Loaders Periscope.

[Phil Woollard]

Many thanks for those Steve! I will ask my boss if he wants the NBC detail .