Still dialing it in, but getting there. The shape of the bustle is now where I want it, and it looks much better with Mr. Surfacer on it now. The antenna locations are faired in, but bolt heads and pilot holes for antennas are yet to be done. The contour issues on the right side are fixed, too, and the oval hatch coaming and weld seam are finished. The oval hatch is stuck in with Elmers while I fabricate the tiny hold-down latch which sits smack on the turret shell/ bustle weld seam. Tricky contour at the bottom of the latch assembly there, and I wasn't terribly happy with my first two attempts. Third time will be the charm, I think. I will scavenge smoke dischargers from an EBR-10 kit and modify them as needed. Same goes for the muzzle brake on the gun, though I'm having an aluminum barrel drawn to my specifications and the modified brake will fit on the end of that. There are some casting numbers on the underside of the bustle to add yet, too. And I'm not done detailing the gun mantlet yet, either. Not much progress from post to post, I admit. But I've been distracted...She's got four wheels, a six-speed stick, and goes topless...and she'll grace my garage in a week or so.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
A little more progress. The lift rings are on, the clamp strips & bolts for the dust cover are done on the mantlet & trunnion box, the screw heads on the roof of the trunnion box are installed. I'm working on correcting the EBR-10 muzzle brake for a master, and have a crude sketch of the barrel out to a drafter buddy to be turned into a real engineering drawing that my local machine shop can use. Still to do are the smoke dischargers & latch hook for the oval hatch, and that last bit is a fiddly one. Not much time devoted to this lately, what with the arrival of a new-to-me car late last week and a big box-o-resin which I am sorting through...all the parts for the 60mm kit, so release is only about a week or so away now. The further along I get on this, the happier I am with how it looks.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Yes, for the most part. Two or three layers and sizes for the big seam around the bustle, a single smaller layer around the trunnion box/turret face seam. I used textured .015" rod for around the oval hatch coaming, since the Archer welds don't like to bend in that orientation.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Just picked up an '06 Mercedes-Benz SLK280 roadster; 228hp V6 and a six speed stick to go with our '00 C230 Sport sedan and '04 Jetta TDI. I've wanted a new toy for twisty roads& track days for a while now, so this fills the bill. It has a few squawks that I'll have the local dealer deal with, but it's is great shape for an eight-year-old sports car. One owner, before it came to us. An excellent heater keeps the cabin comfy even when the retractable hardtop is down and the ambient air temperature is in the mid-forties. We'll have a lot of fun with this one, whom we've given the name Sunhilde: German for Sun Warrior Maiden, because she's a German convertible whose Pewter Metallic color has the hue of well-weathered armor.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
I like it. Sorry to go off-topic, but my daily flogger is now a '91 Miata, my weapon of choice to get back into Solo2, and the wife's daily driver is an '08 E550. We may be gear-heads.
I like it. Sorry to go off-topic, but my daily flogger is now a '91 Miata, my weapon of choice to get back into Solo2, and the wife's daily driver is an '08 E550. We may be gear-heads.
Definitely gearheads! I won the local SCCA Solo 2 championships in 1998-2000 with a 190E 2.3-16 and in 2001-2002 with the C230. My SCCA membership lapsed several years ago (budgetary limitations), and I doubt that the SLK would be really competitive in C Stock against BMW M Coupe & Roadster and E30 M3s. Sure, not many of those in Oregon but still... At least the current rules don't allow R-compound tires (the C230 really would stick with those on!), but 140 treadwear this year and 200 next year. The Continentals I'll fit have a 340 rating, so I'd be OK. Are you a Mercedes-Benz Club of America member as well? We have been since we bought our first 190E back in 1996.
Go ahead and PM me or use my regular email (gtbuechler@hotmail.com) to continue the car discussion. Since it's my thread I'm happy to hijack it for a while, but I will get it back to the turret soon!
Greg
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Will do. I wore out a series of Datsun 510s back in the mid 80's through the very early 90s, won a couple of Divisionals, then thrashed around in different cars until we went off-road. Now that we've sold the off-road business, I'm wanting back into autocross. No current club affiliations. Back to M50s: I'm still undecided on doing the VVSS diesel M50. I'd like it to be historically accurate, but then again I think it would be a hoot to do even if it's not. Either way I'm holding until you get your turret available.
I agree the diesel VVSS would be cool, I just wish I was more sure that it was actually produced in quantity. I have no doubt that it was prototyped with VVSS, since only a few M1s and the first M51s had HVSS when the Cummins first arrived in Israel. By virtue of numbers available a VVSS hull was likely.
As for the turret, the shell needs a few details added yet but the bulk of the work is done. The oval hatch hold-down latch needs to be fabricated, and the smoke dischargers are getting the angles of their bases adjusted. The muzzle brake is looking good, and I'll have a drawing of the barrel done soon to send to the machine shop for a cost estimate. Might only be a few weeks now before I send it to Steve for mold engineering. The hollow shell will be a new challenge for him, so this will likely be an expensive piece of kit.
Greg
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
So, it's been a while since I've worked on this...too busy playing with 1/1 scale stuff! But I'm back at it and dialing it in. Here's where we are now. The shape of the bustle has been further refined, since the overhead view still bothered me a bit. The back of the bustle wasn't quite symmetrical, and while I know that castings aren't perfect mine seemed a tad too off-center. So some more epoxy putty work and I'm happier with it. I've drilled some divots to locate rods for the build-it-yourself grab rail, and fabbed up a hatch lock for the oval hatch. The fit isn't perfect with the hatch open, but it's close enough to allow someone to tweak it as they wish. Placement of those wasn't standardized. I've also added casting marks underneath the bustle, and unseen here is the drawing for the aluminum barrel that will soon go to the machine shop for an estimate. I'm still fussing with the angles for the smoke dischargers, but I have one dialed in and the others roughed in. A couple of weeks at most now before I send it to Steve R. for evaluation & mold engineering. Separate parts will be the oval hatch, blade vane sight, hatch lock, ventilator dome, mantlet parts, pistol port, smoke dischargers, and muzzle brake. And I'm also back at work on the Repotenciado masters.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Well, this is finally the end of the line, I think. I am happy with this, now that there's a coat of primer on everything. These images show all the turret master parts: Turret shell, oval hatch, pistol port, blade vane sight, ventilator dome, oval hatch lock, smoke discharger bases and tube, muzzle brake, and mantlet parts. The slight imperfection on the front of one of the discharger bases is already puttied and drying. Once that's done and cleaned up I can pack all this up and send it to Steve at Celticwerks for evaluation and mold engineering, and get a quote from my machine shop on the turned aluminum barrels. When will it come to market? Just a few months, I hope. There's usually some tweaking that I need to do based on Steve's evaluation before we get to a production piece, and lead time for the machine shop is usually at least six weeks once I pull the trigger on that...and that won't happen until the resin is ready for production. But it's coming...
Next up is a deviation from Shermans: A conversion for the Chilean M24 Chaffee Repotenciado with 60mm HMGS gun.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
I'll keep you all posted here, Rod. Anybody who wants one should contact me off-board at gtbuechler@hotmail.com so that I can get my customer spreadsheet going and get an idea of aggregate demand. Note that doing so doesn't obligate you to buy it by any means, but it helps me decide on how large a batch to purchase. Previous history tells me that about 75% of people who say "I want one!" beforehand actually follow through, and others inquire after seeing the finished item in photos or at some club meet or a friend's modeling cave.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Well, it won't be long now before I make a product release announcement in the New Products area. The first batch of turrets and parts should be in my hands by the middle of August, and I'll pick up the barrels from the machine shop on the 11th. Steve R. tells me the turret shells that are coming out of the molds look fantastic, so I'm getting really anxious to see the finished item. The only deviation from what has been seen before is that the lift rings will be separate parts, as that's easier to cast.