[Cold War] Conqueror Early Mk. 2

[Panzermechaniker]

Well since we have until next July and even then I doubt I finish it I will get the ball rolling and submit my Conqueror for the group build. Although I first got it in November 24 we had a month long mail strike that screwed everything for months and also it arrived missing a bunch of parts that I now have but I just haven't been motivated to get going on it in the summer heat. So here are the initial pictures. First delivered to long time RCTW member MichaelC who did all the internals(Clark TK22A board,servos,muzzle flash, IR battle system) for me as shown in the first image. Then 2 more of the mucus blob on the field showing most of the pieces unattached. I'm going away a lot over the rest of the year so will drip feed the progress I have slowly done on it over the next few months. So no 2 week Jagdtiger special this year . I hope Ian approves of the non WW2 project even if it was as ridiculous a tank as the KT was . I think it has one of the best looking silhouettes of any tank ever made. It's almost too good looking to be British

Conq brand new.jpg (399.7 KiB) Viewed 1862 times

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[Kaczor]

Such a unique tank. Thank you for being the first to post in this new group build!

[Meter rat]

I hope Ian approves of the non WW2 project even if it was as ridiculous a tank as the KT was . I think it has one of the best looking silhouettes of any tank ever made. It's almost too good looking to be British

I very much approve. Even if it still is outside of my personal timeline. A very unique piece of British history, which you will do justice too.
Even if it does look like the bastard love child of a French AMX-13, and a bloated PzIV.

[Panzermechaniker]

So one of the issues with these early Conquerors is apparently during this period they were issued in a parade ground almost glossy dark green not the deep bronze green you associate British armour with from this period. The crews allowed them to get as dusty as possible to counter-act this so you end up with this kind of a shade which was hard to replicate with spray bombs. it looked ridiculous when I first applied the green but I had never seen such a transformation in hue by applying Tamiya Matte varnish. Speaking of which the amount of primer and paint and varnish needed to even get to this stage was crazy. Much more than on my KT's and Jagdtiger etc. Here is an outside picture of the shade of green I am trying to replicate and is the same as the Bovington example.

conqueror colour.jpg (56.74 KiB) Viewed 1817 times

This what it looked like after the first coat with the main skirts off. The bazooka skirts and hubcaps were missing from delivery and the main skirts were an absolute nightmare to attach. They were supposed to slide in to grooves on the hangers but the printing didn't make that possible so a lot of hacking and grinding

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conq init rear.jpg (966.24 KiB) Viewed 1817 times

[Panzermechaniker]

A couple of shots of the engine bay with the hatches open. There is an amazing amount of room in there even with the HL gearboxes and speaker installed. I'm sure there are people here skilled enough to print a whole Rolls Royce Meteor M120 detailed engine bay that could be installed over the gearboxes and for once it wouldn't be a wasted effort as it would be easy to open up for display.

conq init speaker.jpg (946.42 KiB) Viewed 1815 times

conqueror motor bay.jpg (1.2 MiB) Viewed 1815 times

and the first outdoor shot of it with only a few parts and main skirts installed

conqueror first outdoor side.jpg (2.11 MiB) Viewed 1815 times

and after this the build pretty well ground to a crawl until the parts arrived and also some of the very flimsy printed parts like the headlight guards and turret basket that snapped into pieces even in transit. So will have to try and make some using brass strips

[tankme]

I printed most of the fancy bits in resin. I printed the basket, the smoke dischargers, and most of the accessories like tow hooks, etc. Resin worked well for the basket.

[Panzermechaniker]

Got out of my summer long funk of not doing anything on this tank and did the lower skirts, attached the cable reel and the 14 handles for the engine bay hatches. Still have to jigsaw the brittle broken pieces of the headlight guards and turret basket together and order a commanders machine gun and Brit tow cable loops and mantlet tarp and markings before I can start doing the finish and weathering . But I dirtied her up a bit and did a run at the field. For it's size and being 3D it's a great running tank. Just too big to be an effective main battler on our field but still a fun tank in my collection

new conq.jpg (1.71 MiB) Viewed 726 times

[Herr Dr. Professor]

You have a great Cold War subject, Panzermechaniker.
Not being familiar with post-WWII tanks, except a few books on contemporary MBTs, I had to look this one up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conqueror_(tank) . In the Wikipedia article, I immediately noticed the line "It was developed as a response to the Soviet IS-3 heavy tank." Oh, yes: how readily now I can see what was happening in the post-war 50s and early 60s.

[Panzermechaniker]

Decided after almost a year of receiving this tank to finally get off my arse and attempt the mantlet tarp. I received a voltage convertor from Amazon that came with this interesting packaging material so I decided to give it a shot as I have never done a tarp before and it needed to be strong and flexible and easy to attach and to look the part.

tarp mat.jpg (1.32 MiB) Viewed 207 times

Painted with Tamiya khaki really thinned down and then added some mud pastel to darken it and bring out the tarp material grain. 24 hours later and it works great during the gun elevation cycles so with this done I can now proceed with the fragile turret basket and try piecing together and re-installing the headlight guards which are in a half dozen parts each as they get knocked off every time I handle the tank.

nantlet tarp.jpg (844.77 KiB) Viewed 207 times

Not being able to find the 30 cal Brit gun anywhere with a suitable mount I've up-gunned the commanders MG to an SAS LRDG 50 cal. Finding the exact spot to mount is difficult as the only reference shots of it mounted in the field I've been able to find are from a fair distance away and I have to make sure it doesn't get hit when the commander's cupola is rotating.

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[Stormbringer]

Your tarp and 50 cal look ace good job mate