Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,

I have been trying to finish the turret, all the little fiddly detail bits that I didn't have enough information for.

There's a marker attached to the hull just below the turret ring to show when the turret is facing the front that needed adding.

Whilst I had completed the wiring up to the slip ring in the base of the hull, I hadn't done anything about the wiring in the turret. The wires run from the slip ring up the leg of the commanders chair and into a square junction box attached to the turret ring behind the commanders seat back rest. Here they split, the power goes to the turret light and power socket while the wires for the intercoms continue into an adjoining junction box where the head phones and throat mike plug in.

For the life of me I couldn't find a blanking plate for the larger box so I had to make one and the plugs in the comm's box are not the correct ones but they will do for now. I tried to buy the P clips to save time but I couldn't find the right sizes so I made a little bending jig and made my own.

[Jonathan Moore]

I ran a single wire just to illustrate where the wires run.

[Jonathan Moore]

The last item for now, is a box that would contain cartridges for a flare gun, again it fits behind the commanders seat but on the opposite side to the junction boxes. The picture below is from the Tank Museums Panzer ll, it is clear from another picture of the same box that it has been bent forward and originally would have been in a more upright position as in the second picture.

That's all for tonight.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening all,

Well, I have finished the last two items, so apart from painting and final assembly, the turret is officially complete!

One of the final items was a second internal handle for turning the turret by hand, I knew that there should have been one but I couldn't be sure what it looked like or where it went, until I rediscovered this picture on my pc.
So it was out with a hammer, a piece of bar and some heat and it was time to hit some hot metal.

[Jonathan Moore]

The second item is a strange one. Situated on top of the turret was, in theory, a periscope (circled in red) for the gun sight but in actual fact it did nothing and was there as a decoy to drawing fire away from the real gun sight that was in the center of the mantlet (circled in blue).

Obviously it served it's purpose as there are several pictures showing the results.

As the commanders head was very close to this area it must have been a very uncomfortable, if not fatal experience.
I could have just left it off but what the hell. So it's on to projects anew, like finishing the rest of the final details on the chassis.



Jon

[Mike Cecil]

Congrats on reaching a very significant milestone. Great job - well done. I've enjoyed seeing each stage as it was posted.

Mike

[Jonathan Moore]

Thanks Mike I have enjoyed getting to this stage.

Evening All,

I have now turned my attention to finishing the detail in the upper hull. I may of mentioned that I had never intended making the whole tank, hence my upside down approach to the project. As such I never really paid that much attention to the upper hull as it was only supposed to be a stand for the turret to sit on, consequently I have made a few errors that I have had to revisit, not major problems but still time consuming.

I am currently working on the drivers vision area and how anyone could drive it with only this small area to see through is beyond me. There are three ways for the driver to see out, the first is with the visor open, the second is with the visor closed looking through a small slot and third through the two small holes above the visor. This is the only picture that I have of this area in an early clam shell AUSF C so this is what I am attempting to recreate.

I also have this drawing of the visor area but there is not enough detail of the glass block retainer, so at present I am going to leave the glass block until I can find more information.

The first two vision options are controlled by the levers to the left and right of the visor.