Armortek

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:30 am**

Onwards we go.

: From the upright centre line marked and cut a slot.

: Then cut and filed some pieces like so.

: They fit in the bottom bit.

: Then drilled a series of holes and filed the slots in the side.

: Then cut to the height required.

: And filed the curved corner.

: Once happy with the alignment of everything, loctited some angle blocks in place.

: Now I can spot weld the two together.

: Like so. Then warm up the temporary blocks and removed them.

: Then tacked the other fixing points.

: And dressed back.

: A coupe of pics.

: Remembered to add the rounded corner when they were off this time.

: These have taken so much time to do but pleased so far. Just the reinforcing ribs on the top surface to go. Not entirely sure how to tackle them yet so some trials on some scrap bits first. Have a good w/end, Dave.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 5:34 pm**

Back to the turret mods. Muzzle Brake.

: Decided to enhance the original one.

: Added some little pop rivet bits. This looked worse than what I started with so abandoned that idea and off to the drawing board.

: As before I am not taking credit for the machining just the concept and the drawings. Further section was machined off at the diameter of the bit that goes up the barrel.

: Then slots were added top and bottom.

: I may nib the tiny rounded corners out square at some point.

: Then a fake locking ring was made with the slots.

: That fits like so and gives the same amount as original to go up the barrel.

: Then the diameter of the top and bottom bits that stick out was reduced. New angles were then machined to get the outside edge to the thickness required. Hope that makes sense.

: That new top angle now gives me the little bevelled edge I was after at the top and bottom of the front face. Then the scrap holes were filled and flatted.

: How on earth you machine something to that thickness I have no idea but credit to you guys that have those skills.

: That part is now bonded in and gives me the very subtle angle change in the front face that I have seen in historical photos.

: New holes drilled at the angle of the slope.

: Then a very fine skim of filler to lose the join of the two parts. Very carefully flatted so as not to loose the circular lines.

: Pleased how that came out.

: Some 1/32 rivets added to represent whatever those things are on the original pictures. Hope you like, Dave.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 8:58 pm**

Great mods to the muzzle brake. Sure looks better.

Vince

Posted: **Thu Dec 28, 2023 5:01 am**

Hi Dave . How's your build coming along ? I see what you mean about the triangle stops on the gun travel lock a real brain teaser ... doing my head in with the angle , will try again tomorrow . Dale

Posted: **Thu Dec 28, 2023 11:49 am**

Thank you for the comment Vince.

Dale, seasons greetings to you. I have done very little for the last month as probably like many others I have been struggling with this years version of the lurgy that's been doing the rounds. Just about getting going again, although way too cold for painting at the moment. That angle you are referring to is really tricky. I built up the turret and barrel etc then took one of the new pointed bits out and concentrated on one side at a time. If I remember at least one of them ended up in the scrap bin. Its just trial and error. I have taken a photo as a very rough guide of the angle that hopefully will get you in the sort of area you need to be. It's not easy accurately measuring that.

: Hope that is of some use. It is approx 126 deg or 54 depending which way you are looking at it. But as I say that is a very crude way of measuring it, maybe try it on a scrap piece first. Good luck, regards Dave.

Posted: **Thu Dec 28, 2023 5:15 pm**

Nice Mods David - Muzzle break looks better! I made a little rounded nose piece just like yours. Big improvement. I'm curious what you do your spot welding with (obviously a spot welder

)
Bob

Posted: **Thu Dec 28, 2023 6:59 pm**

Hi Bob,
Here are some pics of the spot welder I use. I bought this for doing seams on a classic car I was restoring. It is a fantastic bit of kit that I have used a lot over the 10 years I have had it. It is probably about the max you can go on our domestic supply over here. It came with a basic set of arms but that box full of additional arms for getting into all sorts of places cost more than the actual spot welder itself. On top of that you definitely need the right protective clothing, face shield, gauntlets, welding jacket that protects the throat etc as just like the ones you see on the production lines in factories this will spit molten metal at you. Trust me speaking from experience you do not want that embedded in any part of you. I have no idea if this model or similar is available in your country.Good luck, Dave.

Posted: **Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:02 pm**

Thanks Dave . It's great to see your nearly back on the job . Here is my latest card board template looks ready for production . Dale

: IMG_4806.jpg (129.35 KiB) Viewed 3869 times

Posted: **Fri Dec 29, 2023 5:07 am**

Hi David,
Thanks for welder info. I've seen those available. I've seen guys using miniature hand held units with excellent results on small steel parts. Just curious and thanks again. Keep up the great mods!
Bob

Posted: **Mon Jan 08, 2024 5:16 pm**

Moving forward oh so slowly.

: Decided to finish the turret vent that I showed you in an earlier post. Started by drilling and tapping an m2 thread like so.

: Then filled the back section and curved the bottom edge.

: Drilled a hole through in the centre of the round bit .

: That's it for that bit. I can now screw the clamping handle bits in when I have made them.

: Must admit I am a bit old school and like a good mechanical fixing if it is possible to do so. Drilled and tapped a couple of m3 holes and fitted grub screws to secure the lifting eyes.

: Filling and a bit of blending in.

: More filling.

: Ready for painting and texturing when this awful weather improves.

Posted: **Mon Jan 15, 2024 6:19 pm**

Thought I would make a start on the top decks. Mainly so I can stay indoors and spend as little time as possible in a freezing workshop.

: A while ago I spent quite some time carefully lining up the bearing assembly so it was running nice and true, then a bit of adjustment here and there to centralise the assembly in the hole in the deck. So now I have fitted the bullet guard pieces equal distances from the hole in the deck using the existing adjustable fixings.

: Then marked and drilled additional holes in the deck, refitted the bullet rails and drilled through the holes into them. Tapped m3. Now they are fixed in one position and can't move.

: Did the same on the rear deck piece adding two more fixings to the u shaped piece.

: Like so.

: Marking out the cut out for the fire system control box thingy. Not sure what its propper description should be.

: Like so. Then whilst looking at photos of how to make the box and piece that surrounds it I got distracted, which seems to happen a lot, and I started looking at the filler cap.

: I am more than happy to be corrected but I am not sure the filler cap is in that position.

: So I have repositioned it where I think it should be. I drilled and tapped the deck rather than having nuts underneath.

: That photo is a little bit deceiving, there is more clearance to the turret than appears there. Anyway it opens nicely and has become sort of functional as it gives me access to one of the turret motor bracket screws.

: At least getting distracted has made me think about the little box thing I was working on. Somehow that will have to be easily removable for access to the other screw.

: Once the little pivot blocks have been loctited in I shall cut the threaded bits off flush so they don't interfere with the motor bracket.

: That's it for now, back to what I was doing, whatever that was.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:24 pm**

Decided to tackle the tracks.

: All tapped, filed where required and checked they all pivoted freely. Then degreased ready for painting.

: Decided to notch the pins, like the real ones are. They are perfectly ok as they come but I wanted to make sure they couldn't turn/work there way out. Using a spare link, setting the point I wanted.

: clamping pin with a couple of fixings.

: Sacrificial washer.

: Grinding the little notch.

: Then turned the pin round and repeated the other end, making sure they are parallel.

: Decided to leave the middle two as they were, I'm happy just doing the outer two.

: Then longer grub screws fitted like so. That was a couple of spare links I painted last year as a colour experiment. Not sure I'll be going that route.

: New grubs level with the top.

: And level with the underside.

: That point where the amount of time this little mod is going to take hits home.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:01 pm**

I've written a piece of gcode to put V grooves in the pins, to use with pointed end grub screws, similar to what I've done on the Churchill.

It takes longer to chuck and position the pin than it does to cut the groove

Adrian.

Posted: **Sat Feb 10, 2024 6:15 am**

Hi Adrian,
That's another way of doing it and I imagine time consuming as well. I'm not sure there is a quick, easy solution considering the amount of them. Just got to dig in deep and get on with it.
Regards,
Dave.