Armour Dreams

[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.

[Jonathan Moore]

To the right, is a lock which locks the visor closed.
This unit contains a spring loaded plunger that locates into the main shaft, ensuring that the shaft stays in the desired position.

[Jonathan Moore]

To the left, is the lever for opening and closing the visor.
This has three positions, closed, semi-open and open.
This assembly contains a vertical sprung loaded plunger to ensure that the lever can't jump out of position.

[Jonathan Moore]

The third method of seeing the road ahead, is through the two small holes above the vision slot as mentioned above. To achieve this one has to use a periscope that is attached to a rail bolted to the roof of the upper hull. As yet I haven't made the periscope, that's the next job but I have made the attachment rails.
And the blanking block that covers the vision holes when the periscope is not required.

[Jonathan Moore]

And that's all, until next time.



Jon

[David Dunlop]

Fascinating work as always, Jonathan.

Its not until you actually end up in a tank for a while that you truly start to appreciate how incredibly important teamwork and trust are among the crew members.

David

[Jonathan Moore]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Fascinating work as always, Jonathan.

Its not until you actually end up in a tank for a while that you truly start to appreciate how incredibly important teamwork and trust are among the crew members.

David

Evening David,

Just the thought of someone actually having to go into combat in a tank such as this fills me with horror. When you realise how cramped it is and how difficult it would be to abandon ship, especially if it caught fire, it sends a shiver down ones spine. I think those who had the courage, from which ever side, to ride into battle in such death traps deserve a great amount of respect.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening all,

I had a very nice message from a member enquiring how things were going, well in truth, very slowly. I seem to have lost all my energy and drive, my joints hurt and I blame the Covid injection that I had on April the 1st. I have always been physically hard on my body, so I have the odd aches and pains but after the injection, every joint hurt and at 55 you should be able to get off the bog without pushing yourself off the seat. Thankfully it's calmed down now and I am only having problems with my left knee but I feel knackered. That said I have made some progress with the tank but I find myself making silly mistakes which has entailed doing things twice to get it right.

Whinge over.

As mentioned last time, I have been making the drivers vision telescope. It's quite a complex little item and it took me quite a long time to decide what does what and how it all works. The pictures that I have, at first glance, hold very little information but if you stare at them long enough it all becomes clear.

[Jonathan Moore]

Basically there's a main casting, of course mines a fabrication.

The casting is attached to a top plate that slides into the location rails and is attached to the vision hole blanking block via a threaded bar.

In the location rail there are two location holes, one positioned so that when the periscope is not required the blanking block covers the vision holes and one that aligns the periscope with the vision holes. To release the assembly, so that it can be slid one way or the other, you press the lever on the side of the casting in, this lowers a sprung loaded plunger. The assembly can then be slid across and the plunger will then locate into the relevant hole.

Because our eyes are not the same distance apart, person to person, there is an adjuster that would allow the vision tubes to be adjusted to suit the user. This is attached to the lower part of the casting and contains a thumb screw attached to a threaded bar, one end is threaded with a left hand thread and the other with a right hand thread.
If the thumb screw is turned one way the adjusters move apart, if turned in the opposite direction, the adjusters move closer and when the vision tubes are assembled into the casting, this adjusts the distance between the eye pieces.

[Jonathan Moore]

Attached to the front cover of the assembly, there is a split boss with a tightening screw.
When the vision tubes are assembled into the casting there is a brow rest that fits into this split boss and the screw is there to lock, said rest, in place.

The last items of note are the two curved plates on the inside of the front cover, these act as springs and they hold the vision tubes in place when they are assembled into the casting.

That's all folks.



Jon

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Moore

.....

My favourite ww2 tank would be a late panzer iv but that could be a project too far.

Jon

You're not the first guy to have dreams. These guys are handcrafting a full size Mk IV with a modern engine.
https://www.panzerfabrik.net/blog/categories/panzer-iv

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi Jonathan

What's become of you?

I hope you are OK. More to the point though, how's the PzII?

regards
Darrell

[Niels V]

https://hmvf.co.uk/topic/35947-panze...e/23/#comments jon had taken a break but he is back here

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi Niels

Thank you for that.

Glad to see he is OK and here's to hoping he updates this thread as well.

regards
Darrell

[David Dunlop]

Two different surnames???


David

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,

Remember me, no i didn't think so. I decided that I should update this thread, so here goes.

I have had the sprockets cut and they now need to be machined. All the metal for the sprocket mounting hubs

has been cut and the centers machined to suit the final drive, I just need to weld it all together, machine the outer diameter and drill the sprocket mounting holes.

[Jonathan Moore]

Because of the limitation on the amount of pictures that we can post at one time I am going to have to drag it out a bit so sorry in advance.

I have made and fitted drives and radio operators seat cushions.

[Jonathan Moore]

If we go back to my last post, I was working on the drivers vision optics.
I have now made the vision tubes, I don't know what the originals looked like but this is my version.
It's a bit hard to get a picture looking through them but they do work. However at normal magnification you can see bugger all, I don't think that the originals 1.25X would make much difference.

[Jonathan Moore]

On the Tubes there is a little boss that locates in to a slot in main optics housing.
When the unit is assembled, if you turn the knurled boss, the split pins only there as a temporary measure, the vision tubes move closer together or further apart to suit the driver.

[Jonathan Moore]

As you can see the unit hasn't be set up properly yet.

[Jonathan Moore]

The next job is to get the sprocket flanges welded together and machined and as I do not have a lathe big enough, the machining will have to be done on a milling machine. I have a rotary table but I don't want to damage it, so I needed a rotary device that wasn't going to cost the earth and as usual my mind started to look at Land Rover components. I decided on a stub axle and hub from a Disc 1, it would need modifying but it would do the job.

[Jonathan Moore]

Rotation will be via my arm and a long 1/2" drive bar, a health and safety nightmare I know but I have used the method before and as long as a lot of caution is used, it works well. Bolt the whole assembly to a nice thick bit of plate, add some bolt down holes and all is ready. It also came in handy when I welded the plates together.
I then turned the bottom flange so that it runs true with the top plate just to make positioning it on the main plate easier before welding.
It's now all welded together ready for machining.

[Jonathan Moore]

The machining of the sprocket flanges went well but I forgot to take pictures when they were on the machine and by the time I thought about it, I had tack welded the sprockets on.
The sprockets should be and will be, bolted on to the flanges but first I have to machine a recess in both sides, so that the sprockets sit over the outside diameter of the flange. My cunning plan, is to drill the 60 lightening holes and 20 retaining holes in each sprocket but rather than drilling the retaining holes as clearance holes drill and tap them. Then by bolting from the rear of the flange I can utilize the retaining holes to hold the sprocket to the flange, then machine the recess in one side of the sprocket flip it over and machine the recess in the opposite side. Well that's the plan.

[Jonathan Moore]

I have been drilling flipping holes, I am even dreaming about the things. Next it's the fun job of machining the recesses.

[Jonathan Moore]

All the holes have now been drilled so it was on to the machining of the recess in either side of the sprockets. To start with I counter bored the flange and then tapped a number of the holes so that I could bolt the sprocket in place rather than just relying on my tack welds.
Again I used the modified Land Rover hub but by using a spring loaded stop I turned the whole assembly into a sort of ratchet. If you remember I am rotating the assembly by hand using a long bar, so if the cutter were to snatch, especially at the start of each cut, it would try to rotate the sprocket at the speed of the cutter (500 rpm) in the opposite direction to the one that I am trying to turn it, taking my arm with it and ending in a big bang. As you can see from the pictures, the stop rests against each tooth of the sprocket in turn, stopping it rotating in the wrong direction and as the sprocket is rotated the stop moves accordingly.

[Jonathan Moore]

First side finished.

[Jonathan Moore]

The tack welds now had to be ground out and the sprocket flipped over so that the recess now locates over the outside diameter of the flange and it is then bolted in place ready for the recess to be cut in the opposite side of the sprocket.

[Jonathan Moore]

I now have two completed sprockets so my next task was to make the sprocket flange look something like the real thing. The original has a nice curve on it where as mine is, well, rustic