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Hi All,

I have dry assembled the 6 bogey assemblies for the M7 and after a small amount of polishing on the castings and radius arms have nice free movement. At the moment I have only fitted the volute springs.

My questions are:

Will I need the extra coil springs as there is no metal upper deck or turret so I would assume a considerable weight saving over the full Sherman. IF I do are they fitted right down into the tight end of the volute spring and if so how do you get them in

Did the Sherman kit include slide pads or have people made their own, They don't appear on the parts list or in the instructions but did on one of the drawings. Or if they did I missed it and will go and stand in the naughty corner.

What adhesive do people recommend for the road wheel tyres.

On the sprocket hub cap some of you have fitted studs and nuts instead of the M3 Hex heads, these look smaller than M3, can someone advise on what you have used.

Sorry for all the questions but itching to get the thing on its tracks.

Cheers

Dave

Dave,

I am surprissed you have the time to think about these models at the moment, mind you they are also a welcome escape at times.

If I understand Your M7 will be static? If so it will be way lighter than the all metal model and you won't need the extra coil springs. If you do fit them you need to push them through the last coil on the volute. I also fitted a 3mm cap head screw into the top of the suspension block to act as a location for the top of the spring.

I used slow curing Araldite to hold the tyres on and have never had a tyre move.

The slide pads are not in the kit but the holes are drilled in the arms for them. I think adding the slide pads is a must as they are quite noticeable.

I used countersink screws on the inside of the sprocket to get more clearance between the final drive.

Hi Allan,

Its going to be a full runner Having said that space is somewhat restricted so its not going to have big batteries and the M7 top weighs next to nothing.

Mark and I discussed it when I started the project and again at the open day, by splitting the gear box and motor we can mount the motors under the gun deck and then connect to the gear boxes with new shafts. Apart from the two shafts running through the drive compartment at low level we have not had to compromise on any visible scale detail.

I had a look at fitting the coil springs but unless there is a trick I'm missing I couldn't get them into the last turn of the vlute spring.

Cheers

Dave[/list]

Hello Dave

That part is a tricki one but they do go in eventually. Try going in the coil direction therfore slighty reducing its diameter.

Lee

Hi Dave.

With the weight savings of your M7 hull, I doubt you'll need the inner springs but the way I found to do it was to twist them together such that the volute spring wants to open out. This should get you enough clearance that you can get the inner spring in to place.

As the sprocket hub is tapped M3, I think most people used M3 studding and nuts.

You'll also need some small hex heads to go round the idler hub, where there are holes but no fasteners supplied. I think these are either 8BA or 10BA.

There's a good discussion on the slide pad question here:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=212

Adrian.

Thanks for the replies, will have another play tomorrow.

Cheers

Dave

Hi Dave,
I've uploaded my slide pad, radius arm, and suspension arm drawings in PDF format to my Gallery, under the Sherman. Click on the "no thumbnail" and then "download document". It should get you the files for modifiying the suspension arms and making the slide pads etc. There's two assembly drawings as well.

As for tire cement I used rubber cement. Its holding well, but is a bit messy to put on.

On the sprocket cap I used M3 brass rod and M3 nuts to make the threaded studs in the hubcap. Don't forget to file round the teeth on the inside of the sprockets. It will prevent a lot of chewing up of the tracks.

Good luck, Bob

Hi Bob,

Many thanks, looks like the parts may back off to the Uckfield Skunk works for a little modification

Best Regards

Dave