Centurion 05

[Ian Collins]

I am new to this, I received my Cent in November last year. Once I had checked it and assembled some parts I striped it and sent it for plating. Aluchrom for the Aluminium and Zinc for the steel. It came back in different bags so I spent a few hours sorting it out, not tooooo difficult only two items I could not identify. Next I assembled it for painting, I am rubbish at painting so I sent it to one of my suppliers and had it powder coated in Deep Bronze Green, Gloss of course. Paint is BS381c Tint 224. Collected the beast in Jan. I chose the colour as when I was a young squaddie in Bulford Cents were deep bronze green in the one unit in support of 3 Div, I was in 3 Sigs.
Problems encountered.
1 Gun would not depress to meet the cradle so I trimmed off the base of the mantlet. It now works.
2 Rear shocks on both sides clash with the drive housing, no ans yet.
3 Loaders hatch rear does not fully open as it clashes with the commander's cupola. Live with it
4 Wheels and tyres 1.5mm gap needs filling talking to a adhesive manufacturer at the moment who I hope will resolve the problem.
5 some holes missing on the rear engine decks and bazooka plates. Drill no problem.

All my bins are riveted, interesting little exercise.

[mick whittingham]

Hi Ian,

WOW! that is one shiny Centurion. Bet the finish will be resilient though.

I had the same issues as you and have dealt with them as I came across them. The main one I can help with is the road wheel and tyre bonding. I had a gap on some wheels and very little on others. So I made up a couple of circular clamps using a length of leather belt and a toggle catch from a tool box. This allowed me to fit the tyre to the rim loosely and then use the clamp to close up the gap on the adhesive. I used Araldite rapid two part epoxy and it is a good glue for the job, setting quickly but allowing a bit of tinkering time to make sure each tyre was seated properly when clamped.

I did the glueing in batches so that as each pair of wheels was curing I could set up the next two ready to use the clamp from the two already cured and so on, like a production line.

The way I did it meant I was able to remove the excess glue in a semi cured state rather than letting it go off and set completely when its as hard as glass and hard to remove. I did try rubber reinforced superglue but ended up losing my fingerprints and sticking myself to the wheels more than the tyres. Too messy and no tinkering time for my liking.

I am going away tomorrow for a week but will send photo's of the clamp set up when I return if that would help explain it.

I made a set of hatch catches for the drivers and loaders hatches which would retain the hatch leaves in place not catching the cupola, referred to photo's to make them up by filing and milling.

I am doing my Cent in desert sand for the Suez crisis so it will look very different to the deep bronzes we have seen here so far.

Enjoy the rest of the build and we wil chat later I am sure.

Regards,

mick

[Jeff Gregory]

I agree with you about the road wheels,I glued mine on but expect them to come loose after low milage.

They would have been far better with rubber vulcanised on to the wheel, stronger and look better.

Armortek model havs many good features but the road wheels with the loose rubber are dissapointing.
Jeff

[Adrian Harris]

That is one stunning looking Cent

Reminds me of a Dinky toy - you know when things looked bigger when you were a child.

Wish I'd had one of these to play with 40 years ago

Adrian.

[Armortek]

Hello Jeff

We have just returned from Dortmund and I have seen your comments ref: the rubber tyres. To our knowledge there is no significant issue with the tyres on Armortek models, and builders have used several different solutions without issues. Vulcanised tyres would be lovely, they would also be very expensive.

Mark

[Stephen White]

I'd like to back up what Mark says. I've never found any issue with the roadwheel and return roller tyres.

I've used a long cable tie where I thought the adhesive needed a bit of support while it cures but have never had a tyre come off. You might like to look at the adhesives recommended on this Forum - Loctite 410 or Loctite 480. I believe they are very similar and Loctite's technical support people recommended them for bonding rubber to aluminium. They are basically cyanoacrylates with about 20-50 secs working time so you have to be a bit nifty with positioning but once on, they work well. They are black in colour, so no problem with small overspills and they retain some flexibility which is good for the use they get.

Regards

Stephen

[Dennis Jones]

Hi Jeff,

Nothing wrong with the tyre fixing. I use 24 hour Araldite and make sure the surface of the aluminium and the rubber is roughed up. Used this system on the Comet and the Panzer 111 and after many hours of running and punishment as in the photo below none have come off yet.

Dennis.

[mick whittingham]

Hi guys, just about to pack our bags to come home from two weeks in St Lucia so when I get back home I will post pics of my tyre rig and describe the method more thoroughly. Hopefully it will give you some ideas on how to tackle the issue in your own way. Hope the UK is not too cold as its 32 C out here today ! Ciao mick

[mick whittingham]

Hi all, a couple of images here showing the strap clamp I made to squash the tyres onto the Araldite adhesive coated wheel rims. Its just piece of old leather belt and a toggle type clamp to close up the gap and hold things till the adhesive cures. As I mentioned before if using the rapid araldite you can peel off the excess when it is semi cured and this makes things a lot easier. You just have to set your stall out to do the wheels in batches.

Hope this makes sense, I was a bit hesitant about making a start on the wheels but managed to do all 24 in one day of gluing and cleaning.

Best of British with your wheels if they are still to be done.

Mick

[Ian Collins]

I have now had all my road wheels and tyres back from a sub contractor. I had the tyres moulded to the wheels using a mould I designed, this allowed a 1mm gap either side of the tyre on the wheel. I was not confident enough to do it my self so spent the money else where. it was not cheap but I think looks the part. I have also added tac signs to the hull. These I hope reflect the Armoured unit forming part of 3 Div in 1963. The VRN is my month and year of birth which falls in the VRNs of the Cent. I could only find 04 ZR49 BARV and 04ZR89 ARV Mk2 so assumed 45 was in there some place as a gun tank.

[Stephen White]

So Ian, you're younger than you look...........

Your Cent will stand out in a crowd for sure. Great stuff. Following with interest. Sent you a pm.

All the best.

Stephen

[Ian Collins]

Stephen

I use to look young but I had a real task master in my last job!!!!

No PM found?

[Ian Collins]

Some progress, I ordered a Rotary Junction RBJ for the turret this will allow me to rotate the turret 360 degrees without winding up the wiring. I have had to redesign the Main Deck, basically follows Stephens but as a single item, hope you do not mind Stephen? I added support to the main deck for the Hull end of the RBJ wiring. I also had to re design the Turret internal base to support the RBJ.
I went a bit over the top on the RBJ it has 24 ways plus a Co-axial cable allowing me to route the Antenna cable from the turret roof to the hull. I also added a PTFE interface between the two rotating turret surfaces to reduce the friction.

[Kevin Hunter]

Great idea Ian
The tangled wiring problem had crossed my mind - I wondered about fitting a traverse stop of some sort but, then again, 360 degree rotation is pretty essential. Think I may have to make do with unplugging the turret loom and unwinding it after every outing. It's that or concentrate on remembering how many clockwise rotations are made so that they can be reversed!
Regards
Kevin

[Ian Collins]

Photo of RBJ