Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

It took a lot of welding and fiddling to get it right and then a good few hours grinding but in the end they didn't look too bad.

[Jonathan Moore]

The original cover was a one piece casting, unfortunately to get mine to fit around the final drives mine had to be cut in two. This is however to my benefit, as now to fill or drain the final drives, all I have to do is remove the front half of the cover which reveals the filler and drain plugs of the final drive units.

[Jonathan Moore]

The driveshaft cover from the gearbox to the steering box. It can't be an exact replica of the original, because the end of gearbox protrudes into the crew compartment in my version. Eventually the dummy gearbox will cover the remainder of the driveshaft.

[Jonathan Moore]

The storage plan for a panzer ll shows a fire extinguisher attached to the driveshaft cover, personally I think that is an excellent idea, especially as I will be driving the tank and the thought of a fire concerns me. It would be nice to get an original appliance but I would rather have one that works. I have made the bracket to suit a modern vehicle extinguisher and will tart it up to look the part later.

[Jonathan Moore]

a few more.

[Jonathan Moore]

I spent a couple of hours tarting up the fire extinguisher, it would never pass as a genuine item but I think it looks quite convincing. An original is shown in it's holder and then there's my attempt.

[Jonathan Moore]

Looking forward a bit I need to start thinking about casting the polyurethane tyres on the return rollers and the road wheels. This process is new to me so I have done a lot of research, talked to those who should know and I think that I have a plan that should work. I am going to start with the return rollers and have decided that a mould that forms the outside diameter and the front angled face to finished dimensions would give the best results and reduce the amount of post casting machining.