Steve,s Chieftain rebuild

[Steve Norris]

Over the last few weeks I have started with my Chieftain rebuild, this is a tank that I bought ready built a year or so ago.
The plan is to do a complete strip down and rebuild.
Being somewhat behind other builders allows me to see where the necessary mods and upgrades are needed which reduces the amount of research required.
I have initially started with the turret and been working on it when progress on my Panther build stopped while waiting for parts.

I have added the gun mantlet dust cover and mg port. Weld detail has been added for the ranging gun blank and a dummy gun trunnion blank. I have also modified the smoke discharger mounts

On the right side I filled the gun trunnion mount hole and repositioned it further aft. Wiring harnesses were also added to the smoke discharges.

The commanders stowage bin was also upgrade and the TUAAM was lengthened

I will get into the build properly when the Panther is finished.

Regards
Steve

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi Steve.
Pleased to see you have manage to source the hinges for the storage bins.

Be careful that turret is very heavy, even half loaded. I share this, don't put the turret traverse cog on until you fit the turret. Why, as a novice I have bent the bracket holding the turret motor whilst fitting the turret

There is only going to be a limited amount of bending before something gives. Just a heads up.

Cheers
Charles

[Steve Norris]

Hi Charles.
Thanks for the heads up, as it stands just the basic turret casting and a few small details add up to a good work out .
Lots more turret parts to do, I will try to keep as many parts as possible as sub assemblies and only bring it all together at the end.
Regards
Steve

[John Clarke]

Liking the mods on the turret Steve, you seem to have smoothed out the casting lines on the left side too. Looking good
Your not wrong on the extra detail that can be added to the turret. Especially if you've brought the Armorpax kit, I think the turret becomes a mini scale model all on it's own, a weighty one too!
That's really good advice on turret placement Charles, I take it with the turret turned to the rear deck, access to the traverse pinion is accessible.

[Steve Norris]

Some further Chieftain work carried out

Mounting blocks added for the commanders bin, the lower dummy mounts have also been added. The upper dummy mounts will be added after the bin is finally fitted.

Detail work on the new searchlight door, there’s some more detail to add yet

The searchlight door is now full rc driven by a micro servo, there’s a bit of tidying up to do around the actuator arm hole but that should be fairly simple. The light lens will hide the gubbins at the back

Slow progress at the moment as I have been completing another build for someone ( cannot say at the moment who and what but I guess it will feature in its own thread very soon)

Regards
Steve

[Steve Norris]

Almost done with the searchlight, just some weld details to add.
The door will be functional via rc along with the light which I will leave as white light.

Search light door almost 90 degrees open, I cannot quite get a full 90 degrees but it’s very near.

Door closed.

The rear also needed detailing.

The searchlight assembly took a lot longer than I expected but it was worth the effort.

Regards

Steve

[John Clarke]

Looks great Steve that''s a really heavy lump even with the big hole down the middle.

[Steve Norris]

Gunners sight made

Plastic card and lots of glue

Still got to add the lens

On to the muzzle reference light source next

Regards
Steve

[Vince Cutajar]

That looks great Steve.

Vince

[John Clarke]

Very nice, is it made from "meckle", looks like a lot of pieces.
There's no comparison with the supplied part I have below, which might find its way into the spares bin.

gunners sight1.jpg (96.57 KiB) Viewed 3628 times

[Steve Norris]

Hi John.
Unfortunately I don’t have the skill or patience to make it out of metal so plastic and had to do, It turned out very sturdy and hopefully should be survive.
I don’t really like using anything but metal but when you think about it many add ons are either resin or 3D printed plastic.
Regards
Steve

[John Clarke]

It looks fantastic, very impressive, is it bigger or smaller than the original supplied? I'll be having a go at it in metal so your pictures are most welcome.

[Steve Norris]

Larger all round, not sure what tank Armortek were looking at when they drew up the gunners sight plans.
Regards
Steve

[Steve Norris]

Next up will be the MRS light housing mounted next to the gunners sight, this item has been completely missed from the kit ( if it has the mirror at the end of the barrel it should have the light projector.)

The MRS light projector

Regards
Steve

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi All.

Any use Steve?

Cheers

Charles