Armortek

Christian & Chris, Thanks for the complements.

Stephen, Thanks for posting another great photo, I will look to see if I can improve this area. I think I can shave a bit off the vertical part of the hinge, I will also look to see if I can shave a bit off the horizontal surface.

I think these 2 options might improve its general layout, again many thanks for your input.

Regards

David

Hi all,

Making slow progress on the cupola, I have shaved a bit of material off the sides of the hinges and off the horizontal surface and I think this has helped to improve the overall appearance of the cupola. I have made some periscopes and will try to fit some clear polycarbonate sheet to replicate the glass lens.

I have also painted the detachable turret roof and I am pleased with it's fit.

Regards

David

Nice work David. I do like those larkspur bases!
Chris

Hi All,

It has been a difficult few days working on the cupola as the more work that I carried out on the cupola the more I felt it was going in the wrong direction.. It was at this point that I decided to fit my cupola centre to the armortek cupola centre, I managed to get a good fit but the more I looked at it the more I felt that I had made a big mistake with the width of the rubber seal that I had made. I felt very disappointed at this stage so I had few days break from this part of the build to have a bit of time to think about this issue.

Because I had used white plastic to replicate the rubber seal this highlighted my mistake so I decided to paint this part to see if it would blend in a bit better.
It has helped a bit and I think I will leave it as it is as I can no longer fit the original cupola unto my lathe chuck or rotary table chuck.

I have learnt a lot about using a milling machine on this part of the build and the one thing that I regret is not having DRO fitted when I purchased the machine, so that's another lesson learnt the hard way.

Regards

David
:

Hi all,

Making slow progress with the cupola, I have been working on the machine gun mount and had some success with most of the brackets. The one bracket that I am struggling with is the bracket that machine gun locks into, I have one drawing and I have seen a few photos on the internet but I am struggling to interpret the details of this bracket.

There are a lot of links and plates to this bracket so I have just made a basic slot bracket for now, perhaps when I have more skills and a better understanding of this part I might be able to improve it.

Merry Christmas to you all

David

This may help, David:





The handle at the top folded down to allow the commander to fire remotely from under armour. It was a pain in the (insert any appropriate part of the anatomy) and was generally binned in service.

All the best.

Stephen

Stephen,

Many thanks for the photos they will be a great help, this bracket is very complicated but a least I now know what the handle is for.

Following your detailed build of the cent bins I have made a list as long as my arm on all the tools and bits and pieces that I will need for when I purchase the soldering tools to try and make complex parts like this bracket.

I am hoping to start learning this new skill early in the new year.

Regards

David

Hi all,

After studying the photos of the machine gun bracket provided by Stephen I decided to try again and I think I have made reasonable progress. There is still a lot of work to be done but I think it is going in the right direction.

I have also finally found some material that will act as a rear reflector and it seems to do the job, if I find something better later on it will be easy to change as it was only some kind of sticky back plastic about 0.5mm thick.

Regards

David

Hi all,

Still working on the machine gun bracket, I am finding it very hard to interpret how it was made but I think I am on the right track. I now have purchased some brass sheets and bars from Knupfer and was very impressed with the service and quality and it is all in metric which is a big bonus, so now I will start to look at making the ammunition box bracket.

Regards

David

Hi all,

Decided to try and make the handle for remotely operating the machine gun from inside the turret, now need to make a small bracket to hold it in position.

I have made a vain attempt at making the vane sight I think this is a reasonable result following the photos that I have. Now it is backed to the ammunition box bracket for the machine gun.

David

Hello David
Like every time perfect details. You are really a novice...
Regards
Frank

Hi Frank,

Thanks for your kind words. I really did consider myself as a novice when I started out on this build as I had never used a milling machine before and my knowledge of tanks was very small.

Also what I have not shown is the amount of parts that have ended up in the bin A lot of credit has to go to this forum with all the advice and help that I have received.

David

Hi all,

Still working on the .30 cal mount bracket, I decided to remake the U bracket for the machine gun so that it is now a few mm higher so that it can now get enough depression to be able to shoot directly in front of the tank. It is nearly finished just waiting for a few new tools to arrive so that I can finish making the long bolts.

I have fitted the tools and the new towing cables and I think my centurion is really starting to take shape, I am hoping the weather will warm up soon so that I can get these parts painted.

I have also stated to build a storage trolley for my models, my aim is to be able to store 3 large models on this trolley but it will be on casters so that I can move it around in my workshop.

Regards

David

Hi all,

It has been a while since my last update as a couple of other jobs got in the way of tank building. I have now painted and fitted the cupola and I am fairly pleased with the result. I have also tried to paint some identification markings on my model but this airbrush painting is a skill out of my league. This is the reason I decided to paint my model as it was newly delivered to the army.

Regards

David

Wow!