Armortek

Finally finished the loader's hatch:

The real thing:

Painting and weathering details still need to be added.

The pull handle was made in the likeness of the handle on Steve Winstone's escape hatch upgrade from a piece of brass tubing. 2 small holes were drilled in the tubing to accept the piece of bent brass wire and soldered. The open ends of the tubing were the filled with solder and filed flat. It took longer to solder the 2 keepers for the wire cable than all of the rest on the pull cable.

I spent a lot of time smoothing out the top of the hatch per many published period photos:

Here is one with a lock in place:

Still need to drill out the bolt holes in the hinges to attach to the turret roof.

Here is another photo of Mike Stannard's locks:


Here are the lock tabs in place on the idler hub caps:


and the real thing:


You don't really want to take the hubcaps off again. Painting them will be fun!

Permanently attached the hammer and axe to the front deck. Note where the original attachment holes are:


Detail of the sledge hammer clamps:

Used 80 size flatt head screws. Will file screw heads flat and fill the slot before painting. Also need to round the static hammer head retaining tabs a little.

Counter sunk a cap head bolt into the front hatch retaining hooks:


Also filed the ends round like the real thing. They are a little too thick so I may suck it up and thin them down at some point.

Found some chain here in the US that is 5 links per inch and real cheap.

http://store.goodybeads.com/store/products/A008192.html

I started weathering it by dulling it with a gas torch and then soaking in a rusty metal solution (lower chain):


Here is my rust farm (steel wool in water for months) that I soak stuff in. The rusty residue is used for detailing rust marks, etc.


As you can tell I get bored easily and end up working out of sequence on different parts. It will all get done in the end.

Finishing the deck hooks is next.

Brown

You have been busy

All those liitle details are going to make for an amazing finished KT.

> I get bored esily and end up working out of sequence on different parts.

Several times I've ordered brass or aluminium from eBay and, by the time it turns up, I've forgotten what it was that I was going to make with it ! I've started my own private forum now, and post my ideas to there.

Adrian.

Forgot to mention that keys will be made for the padlocks (nonfunctional) and for the loaders hatch central lock (functional).

Here is what I was trying to copy with the front hatch latches:

My latches may get a little more taper on the release arms.

Does anyone have a source for cap head bolts with a square opening? I'm not sure what a square "allen" wrench is called.

Cheers,
Brown

> I'm not sure what a square "allen" wrench is called.

According to Wikipedia, it's called a Robertson, and is popular in Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_ ... #Robertson

Adrian.

Working on the front fenders:

Note that the rivets and bolts on one side don't line up with the rivets on the other. This is how the actual fenders were layed out and can be seen below.

Strobbe Svens' picture used for a go-by:



A 1/32" bit was used to drill the holes for the rivets. The bolts are 1/4" 8 BA with the smallest Stannard lock washers. 7 BA specials might look ok too.


This is my newest and favorite tool:

I forgot to mention my wife gave me this for Christmas!

Brown

Very nice Brown!

best regards
Tim

Hi Brown,

Thanks for taking the time to show all the details that you are adding. I may have to "borrow" some of them into my build

Mark

I had an epiphany a while back with regard to the proper battery chargers and how they should be set up. This has taken several months and lots of emails. Here goes:

For the main 24 volt system (everything but Richie's smoker) I set up 2 BIG batteries:


It's not pretty yet and kind of dusty.

I installed the small 12 volt battery (red outline) to run the smoker and the head light and tail light (if I remember correctly). The Goode Maybach engine may yet fit into the hull! The yellow circle marks the power lead to the 2 big batteries that connect to the charger below.

Here is the spliced charging lead, that came with the motion pack, to the 24 volt charger lead:

Just disconnect the main lead off the batteries and connect to the charging lead. Sorry if this seems basic to folks, it took me a while to catch on.

Here are the chargers I'm using:



Simple and effective. I got a 15' extension for the chargers and guess an inverter for the car would be in order for when the tank takes a trip in the future. There may be one charger out there that will do it all, but not at the price these 2 chargers cost me. Both chargers and accessories were purchased from Amazon.com.

Brown

I have been working on a new subproject.A while back I made drawings of lots of small parts including the front sprocket lock washers. Here are the results:

I'm dangerous now that I fired up the etching kit.


It took me a couple of tries to get reasonable results.


In order to have the control needed to properly place the and tighten down the cone bolts on the lock washers I ground down 3mm nuts to fit up against the inside of the hubcap. In some cases I almost ground the nuts in half.



The results are better than I had hoped. I haven't been able to bring myself to bend the washers yet, but I will.





If I get enough interest I may mass produce sets of 10 large lock washers and the 2 round center washers for a reasonable cost.

Brown

I bent the lock washers per the reference picture shown above:




The tools I used are also shown, a small stout knife for starting the bend upward and flat nosed pliers to snug the bend up against the cone bolt. Stating the obvious again.

Brown

Those lock washers look great.

I haven't etched anything since I used to make printed circuit borads in my previous job. Do you have the full works (bubble tank etc)

I did make up a drawing for a sheet of washers for the Mid Tiger wheels and sent them off to a guy in Germany for etching but he's busy with something else so I never found out a price

Adrian.

Hi Adrian,

My little etching kit can do a 3" x 3" sheet of brass from .005" - .010" thick easily. Larger area sheets are possible but more prone to over etching of details. I may try .015" material when it gets warmer in the Spring since the etching solution needs to be warm to work best. It makes bubbles with a small aquarium air pump.

I'm working on some smaller lock washers than are currently available that will be correct for 080 and 090 size bolts (roughly 10 and 12 BA bolts).

Brown

Brown,
Excellent job on the etched washers. They look great. Keep up the good work on the KT. Kind regards,
Bob

Hi Brown,

Nice job with the photo-etched bolt retainers. I was planning on doing the same thing on my build for the small parts. Did you order a PE kit or make your own acid tank/pump setup?

Mark

The lock washers look better painted: