Moving on the the turret itself.
The next step was to modify the turret to accommodate the new breech and, as I suggested earlier, to provide as much room as possible for at least the semblance of a turret basket and hull floor. In this picture Is the turret base plate that the gear ring attaches to (below the plate in the picture). What I did here was to remove all the material inside the circumference, including the original mounting points for the gear ring, leaving just enough to provide for four new mounting points (see pic) which I planned to do with the gear ring too. The Plate before the mod is in the inset picture.
To the left of this image is turret base plate with the now similarly modifies gear ring. Much of the inner material has now been removed and the four aluminium posts with matching bolts provide greater rigidity than the original three point fixing. I also provided extra depth for a slip ring to be placed between the turret and upper hull deck when all is assembled.
To the right is the lower section of the turret shell with the elevation servo now in its new forward location. This had to be relocated to make room for the new breech recoil and shell ejection and, besides which, it helps hide the elevation servo too.
Here is the lower turret shell with the new bottom plate and gear ring assembly in place. The arrow in the image points to one of the three metal gear ring bearings which I later decided to remove - a case of form over function on this occasion, as it was visually too distracting behind the breech even though it didn't limit function in any way.
Next up was a review of the ready racks. I wanted to provide a better interpretation of the tubes that hold the shells so set about fabricating some parts to extend the them a little.
Here the extensions are now in place. The racks themselves also had to be re-positioned a little further apart as the gap between them left by Mato was too narrow for the shell casing to easily fit (this was the reason for the gap, for ejection and loading of a 3 foot long shell). Also the lefthand (loaders) side rack had one less tube (at the bottom) to allow for easier manoeuvring of shells so a bit more chop, chop was needed. The old Mato servo mount, seen in the behind the racks, I placed there to add a little more counter-balance weight and, more importantly, as a backstop for the ejecting shell casings.
And now with the lower and upper halfs of the turret shell back together.
Ready racks finished and painted.
The next step was the one I was really putting off, getting the complete cannon and breech back into the turret. I knew I had checked and re-checked, and then checked again my measurements so was sure, in principle, it should fit but you know, what they say about the law of the sod......
However, a tight fit it was, but fit it did. Notice the now re-positioned elevation servo at the front left of the turret. Having connected this to its new fixing place on the cannon I was pleased this too worked as I had hoped. This was aided by a very well-balanced cannon fulcrum that was a fortunate side-effect of the additional hardware building the new breech.
And, thankfully further testing showed the breech to work as well in place as it did before without any snags.
Next is the faux turret basket and Hull floor, etc.
). The breech can be opened with the operating handle, or by manually pushing down on the block. The recoil distance is a tad farther than scale I think but I don't plan to play with it further. There were problems with barrel 'stiction' and the recoil cylinders and sleeves needed a lot of re-working and tinkering. I few adjustments initially but it now functions reliably. The tricky bit was to come - how, in this quite modified state, I was going to get it back in the turret!
