Comet A34- Ludwig kit

[Ad Lav]

Cute puppy

Back to tanking, mop up the wee later

[Son of a gun-ner]

Just wondering, is the text under the photo a description or an instruction?

He looks lovely Roy. Can I spy an older paw? How is the old girl?

[43rdRecceReg]

Thanks Adam, Mick and Richard for the observations. Yes, well it's a case of wee by stature, and big wee by inclination. Midgie, whose supervisory, restraining paw does indeed appear in the pic is still hanging in there, Mick; doughty as any Scot can be expected to be.
But, it's hard work with a young 'un and palliative older one. One sleeps most of the day, and the other moves at light speed when it suits him.
As a linguistic incidental 'wee' and 'weeny' are related to the German 'Wenig'.
The Comet looks very inviting, but before I sort out a suitable mounting for the mantlet (the only puzzle remaining unsolved), I've many other things to catch up on.. The seemingly endless rain we've had up here lately has certainly put a damper on the toilet training...
Galoshes and sou'westers don't sit well with those much needed 'Good boy!" moments, especially when a life raft's needed to get back in the house.
Roy.

[Raminator]

Many, many thanks, Dan!! Great to see you posting again. By the way, I hadn't realised that you'd had a lengthy bout of ill health until recently, after catching up on a few posts. I did notice the absence of posts from you, however.
I sincerely hope that all's well now, and that the future will see you fully fighting fit.

Thank you, Roy. Fighting fit isn't exactly on the cards, but I'm certainly doing as well as I can (and loads better than I have!).

All the best with your puppers, I hope Finn isn't too boisterous for Midgie. I know dogs don't tend towards respect for their elders, my mum's geriatric (17 year old) Shih Tzu routinely gets bowled over by her younger poodle.

[43rdRecceReg]

17yrs old, eh, Dan? Well, that's pretty impressive. My vet once told me that he had t to 'euthanase' a local chihuahua, that had reached the incredible age of 25. By then, I guess, it had begun to resemble something that had escaped from a vacuum cleaner bag.
Thus far, the young one hasn't tried the bullying approach, and a friendly paw put down has shown him his place in the hierarchy- for now, anyway. But I'm on guard all the time.
Meantime, these Taigen Pz IV tracks have just arrived from rctank.de. Dominique was the only vendor with standard metal tracks in stock, at the time I ordered them.

Taigen metal Pz IV tracks

Finding time to fit them, is another matter.
I've also ordered some strips of brass with which to make some angle brackets. The brackets will be bonded to the (moveable part of the) Mantlet, and will pass through, and rotate in, some vertical slots I intend to cut in the fixed part of the mantlet.
The idea is to have the Mantlet pivot points on the edge of the Mantlet, as they are on the real thing, and not on the barrel sleeve, as per Christian's design. That's a bit clunky, and the alloy sleeve seems to be unobtainable anyway.

Comet Mantlet mounting idea

Brass rod will pass through the sides of the fixed portion of the Mantlet (as with the real deal), and through angle brackets entering the fixed portion through vertical slits (see pic) in the fixed section, thus anchoring them, and acting as pivot points. The angled brackets will be bonded to the inside of the moveable part of the Mantlet with epoxy (the front portion holding the gun and gun sleeve). A short section of tube will be bonded into the moving mantlet, and act as a retaining sleeve for the gun, whilst allowing it to recoil. Phew...if I had pics, I'd rather post them instead of the verbiage, but hopefully, this will all make sense in due course. Click to ENLARGE the photos, lads (and lasses, of course. We are inclusive here, after all.)


I

[Von Mooflesaaa]

Really coming along great, cannot wait to see the beast up and running.

[43rdRecceReg]

Really coming along great, cannot wait to see the beast up and running.

Thanks Much of my spare time is spent with building up a little beast at the moment (a Westie Pup ). Yep,when I take my eyes off him for a moment, he's doing something he shouldn't be doing, or putting something in his mouth (currently full of piranha baby teeth) that shouldn't be there. Even with a dog pen, this one needs watching 24/7 So, for the moment, build time is in short supply.
I'm still undecided about which RC components to fit. I have the Clark TK60 kit in my Cromwell, but would like to try an Elmod out for the first time. Thing is, with the outlay on the Pup, and a new iPhone 8 plus (for the improved camera, and also for that bigger screen demanded by my ageing peepers)...I'll have to pull my financial belt in for a while. It's easy to spend a King's ransom on one of these projects, once the build-fever runs roughshod over common sense, in the rush to get a result.

[43rdRecceReg]

Managed a few minutes away from the demanding Westie puppy, and cut a piece of alloy tubing to make the gun tube for the Mantlet.

Making gun tube for Mantlet-A

Here's the tube I ordered. It's almost perfect for the Comet gun. There's just a bit of relieving needed, with emery paper. Part of the conundrum here for the builder, however, is working out how long the gun tube should be.
The tube has to be long enough to support the barrel throughout the recoil motion, without inducing drop or wobble. I'm guessing that the typical recoil travel length, at 1/16, will be between 10-16mm. depending on the model and the recoil unit used. Any additional info would be welcomed here, by the way.
Anyway, I cut it to this length. Only time will tell whether it will work, or even fit, properly.

Comet mantlet-gun tube cut to fit

The next stage is to fix the tube in place, keeping orientation (0 deg azimuth and elevation alignment) in mind. I used Milliput Regular to bond it into the Mantlet.

Tube bonded with milliput

As usual, clicking on the pics will ENLARGE them.
Final adjustments were made using the barrel for guidance, when holding the movable section of the mantlet against the fixed body.

Gun tube orientation using barrel

[43rdRecceReg]

The black marks on the Mantlet parts indicate where pivot arms will be fitted to the mobile mantlet. The arms will pass through slots cut into the fixed body, and will be pinned from the side with brass tubing for pivot pins. This will echo the arrangement in the actual Comet.

Comet Mantlet provisional pivot positions

The other day, when all was quiet in the Doghouse (three here currently), I managed to fit the tracks. These are Pz 111 metal tracks, which will also fit the Pz IV and the Comet/Cromwell when extra links added.
For the Comet, I added 9 extra links per side. They look about right for now. One problem, is that the weight of the motors at the rear is causing the suspension to sag a wee bit there. I did think that the springs were a tad on the weak side. Well, we'll see.

Comet tracks fitted

Comet- mantlet update

Got to go...the whelp is awake and looking fit to spring a leak- or worse. The Problem with housebreaking puppies, is that it requires good weather, time, and a big garden. Hmm., I have the garden, but time spent out in the gale that's building up outside, means I'm going to get wet for the third time today. It's a dog's life.

[43rdRecceReg]

...just a little update to the Mantlet solution. Finally, I've found a few spare minutes to cut the slots for the elevation arms. These will allow the moving mantlet (that now holds the gun and gun tube) to pivot around the static part of the Mantlet housing.

Comet-the pivot for the movable section of mantlet

The thing I didn't like about Christian's design, is that the pivots are attached to the gun tube, and retained on the inisde of the fixed section by two semi-circular shaped resin lugs.In any event, the alloy guntube
doesn't seem to be an option with him these days. At least with mine, (if it works ), the trunnions/pivots will be, in principle, the same as those on the actual tank.
This is Christian's trunnion solution- the part that allows gun elevation and recoil (highlighted with the red arrow). Yes, it's simple and elegant; but unobtainable, and actually wrong in reality.

Comet- gun mounting kit from Christian Ludwig

Slots for elevation arms. Pic A.

Slots for elevation arms-gun trunnion

Comet gun mantlet- cutting elevation arms. Pic C

Here, there's an idea of how the arms come though from the two parts of the mantlet. Also the arrows indicate where the two brass rods will enter the Mantlet sides, and act as a pivots for the arms.

Once the two brass arms a securely bonded to the mantlet/gun tube, I can round them off and drill holes for the pivot rods. Right now, I'm just getting an idea of the overall length needed. Length will, of course, dictate how much the gun can elevate; so, it's important to get that right before final assembly.

Front view of elevation arms.

Here you can see that the brass arms follow the profile of the outer mantlet. I'm just about to fill the gaps with JB Weld, and thus to fix the arms in place. Time for a cuppa...
I'm using JB Weld (metal) to bond the brass arms into the outer mantlet. It takes a long time to cure, but really does have a lot of strength, when it does.