Challenger 2. Operation Telic.

[Meter rat]

Annnnd I broke it.

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So much for my confidence and optimism. Forgot that the rear wheel station next to the sprocket was loose. This caused it to de-track, ripping off an already weak bit out. I had neglected the repair to the wheel station, to concentrate on the Tiger. I will have to whip out the gear boxes, and upgrade the fixings.

[Meter rat]

24h After it all went wrong. The beast is repaired. And the rear wheel station has been upgraded, with 3mm bolts, in place of the original 2mm bolts. The sussuspension has also been smoothed out with gentle filing. The front was repaired by glueing on the damaged part. This was then reinforced with my favourite glue, by filling all the voids with said glue. Over the next week small aluminium fillets will be made, and installed. These will virtually invisible when painted over as they are hidden underthe front armour.

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[Meter rat]

Heaven maintenance day on the Ya Bassa, the Challenger. A motor failed so replacements were obtained. Gearboxes removed.

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Replaced motors, due to the failure of the left side one. Minimal clearance between the right motor and left gear box. New tape fitted over the end of the motor.

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Both motors and gearboxes reinstalled.

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Sprockets were installed back on the drive shafts, with a washer between each half, which helps retain the tracks, and means that the guides can be removed from the centre of the wheels. I hope.

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And finally, the outer sprockets had new spring washers fitted.

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All works except the barrel smoke and flash.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Well that's realism, Ian! The tank sees some action and is back at the depot for major maintenance. Yep...quite realistic.

[Meter rat]

Started converting Ya Bassa, the Challenger to a Clark board. TK50 ain’t plug and play. Managed to get it to go forward, backwards, left, and right.

[Pavel]

Maybe it was just me who was so "lucky", but my gear wheel had the wrong pitch and did not always hit the tracks.
Proxon's work corrected this error.
At first I did not pay attention to it...
Look at the movement of your tracks.
A characteristic feature is that the track rises onto the gear teeth at a certain moment...

[Meter rat]

Oooooops. Due to clumsy driving.(Too much red wine ) I managed to break the barrel. No big deal, I used thin plastic for this reason. Used some copper water pipe to replace the connection between the recoil and the barrel. This had the advantage of giving better interface in the gun mantle.

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Did think about leaving the copper pipe as was, and reinstating the BB mechanism for shooting around corners.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

I'm trying really hard to imagine how you bent the brass, Ian. Did you fall on your bu--unh--barrel? Was the brass inside the plastic barrel at the time? It seems from the photos that the plastic is not broken at all. Lordy Mordy, you must have been having fun.

[Meter rat]

Installed a Clark board in Ya Bassa. Lost a few functions from the Heng Long 7.1 board, but unit is worth it for the sound.

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[zooma]

Your Challenger 2 looks like it has been a nice simple straight forward and trouble free build experience Ian (!) - it must be nice when everything goes to plan - so they tell me.

....I think I must be developing the Challenger 2 sense of dark horror humour - now I really am looking forward to working on my older version Challenger 2 with some enthusiasm..........NOT !