Armortek

SO decided to take the plunge and buy an E8 kit to allow me to get access to the Sheringham WWII weekend where i can hopefully show off my Tiger 1 and Panther G as well.

Now some may remember that I am in the process of building a Chieftain but sadly, that has had to be put on hold for awhile. Earlier this year I had to undertake chemotherapy and then major surgery followed by more chemo. This stuff isn't kind to the human body so at the moment, I'm struggling to feel the ends of my finger tips as well as my toes. Hopefully this will disappear with time but at the moment, I don't trust myself on the Chieftains detail so am building this instead. I won't be doing detail; this will be a straight build out of the box following the instructions implicitly so hope they are correct!

My first task will be to do a full dry fit before anything else which will help me understand what changes if any I will need to make. No electronics will be fitted during this task.

After 4 hours, I had assembled the kit completely with a few parts leftover as always
The directions were easy to follow but it took significant time to identify the relevant part numbers Assembly however was easy.
and the leftovers although I do know where they go, they just wouldn't fit (where have I heard that before)
The dry fit clearly identifies that some fettling is required as well as the manufacture of some new parts since the bogies are deffo not E8s. I knew there be a challenge somewhere

Merry Christmas everyone and have a happy New Year, I know I will be! Now here's the real No 20 thus far.

It'll be nice to see another Easy 8 build and any twists you put on it Richard. No Berlin on this one though

No Berlin on this one John, am sticking to US Army Olive Drab. I will have extra armour to put on since this will be a copy (he hopes) of Lightning VII commanded by Lt Col Creighton Abrams

I thought this evening I would explain the relevance of the wooden Sherman.

An additional side effect of some chemotherapy drugs whilst under treatment is to make you more sensitive to the cold so getting milk out of the fridge is in some circumstances, is painful to9 the touch, similar to a mild electric shock; metal also has the same effect since normally its cold to the touch. You can get around this by wearing thick gloves but next time your out in the workshop, try working on your tank with them on! SO for me , the alternative was either plastic or wooden!

I have an Abrams as well
Tomorrow i'll provide an update as to what I had to do to the lower hull. As others have identified, it needs a lot of work to get it right and No 20 was no exception?

Thoughts and Prayers to you and yours!!

Later Tim

My thoughts are with you Richard, I have also had chemo this year which has left me with problems with hands and feet especially when handling cold metal. It has put me on the back foot building my Leopard. It does fade gradually over time so hopefully you will be able to get back to your build soon. Stay strong and keep fighting this terrible disease.
Regards
Steve

Gents, thank you for you kind comments. I was just trying to inject some humour into the forum with the wooden kits but again your comments are very much appreciated.

Steve, hopefully the chemo has done what it needs too. If you wanna chat, PM me.

To everyone else; if you have the opportunity to donate to Cancer Research, Macmillan nurses or any Hospice, please do so. Not that long ago, 1:4 would face the Big C during their lifetime. That figure is now 1:2 and climbing rapidly! Treatment centres are maxed out.

Right, lets get onto the Sherman's lower hull or as the instructions call it, the 'basic hull' As we all know, its key to get a good base on which to build on and our tanks are no exception; the basic hull is our base! This is how I went about putting it together, am not saying its the right way, rather, it is my way

Before I assembled anything, each panel was checked for flatness. You wont be able to make anything square unless the parts your putting together are flat. Note, its assumed they are the same size! Side panels were treated to the old foot massage utilising two blocks of oak and my right foot. The floor pan needed a little more encouragement and therefore a lump hammer in conjunction with an oak block was used. With all everything that needed to be flat, now flat, assembly was started. Firstly, I attached the floor pan to the front casting and then the sides to the front casting ensuring that the leading edge of the side aligned with the casting edge as shown below:
Another element to assembly is to ensure that holes align where panels join together! In this instance, it means the bottom pair of bogie mounting holes which go through both the side panel and the floor plate. To this end, M3 bolts were put through the holes and lightly tightened to allow a little movement for alignment purposes. However, it was noted that the front bogie holes could not be aligned and the bolts securing the floor pan to the casting had to be loosened off to allow the these bolts to be inserted. A spacer piece was therefore needed between the floor plate and the casting. The pictures below show before and after insertion of the spacer:
The back of the floor plate was then adjusted until it followed the contours of the side plates and the bolts tightened. All other bolts were then gradually tightened ensuring alignment remained where needed.

With all bolts now tight, its important to check that our assembly is square and level. On the Sherman, i measured between diagonally opposite corners as shown below to ensure both measured the same. Any difference would require one side panel to be loosed off and moved slightly to correct any error:
The floor was also checked:
Having identified the importance of having holes aligned where needed, it is also necessary to ensure that holes that a part uses to bridge two panels also align for example, idlers! The idlers were mounted on the side panels and hole alignment on the back panel checked. Hopefully you should be able to see from the photo below, that the holes (circled in red) didn't fully align and that further adjustment was necessary:
The back panel of the floor plate clearly needs to go further down but this would then make the floor plate lower than the sides therefore is was oak block and lump hammer time and the appropriate bend as indicated below was targeted:
Once the holes were aligned, the floor plate was also subjected to a little persuasion to bring it back into line:
Any gaps between the floor and the sides will be filled with JB weld to ensure water tightness.

It is also worthwhile checking the fitment of of any large items to castings for example the glacis plate. Mine need the casting to filed a little on the corners to fit and its easier to do now whilst most parts aren't fitted than it would be if they were:
On that last picture, you can see a strip of metal which seems to be part of the casting. The other side also has something similar. Does this need top be removed or should it stay there? I can't quite make up my mind Any advice?