a serious question .. canadian leopard 2a6m

[mcevoyi]

hi all

time for me to be serious !

as many of you know when it comes to kit bashing .. i dont hold back ... ..i have for a about 6 months been planning to build the canadian leopard 2a6m .. thats in service in afganistan
so that would mean going the whole hog and creating the bar armour .... ( ho s**t )

well i have been chatting to a mate of mine .. that ownes his own model boat company ..and i am off there tomorow ( thursday 10th ) to have a very good chat about different ways of makeing the armour .... we have a few emails and phone calls and have several ideas ....

one is to make the armour with photo etch .... the problem may be the depth of the etch ..as most photo etch supplyed in kits ..is flat and you bend to shape .. that would be ..one hell of a night mare ..and some great skills with soldering would be required ??
what do you all think of that idea ?

the second idea is to have the armour made out of metal .... that is i would have to scratch build the armour ... and then have it cast .... it could be done in resin... but we feel that would last about 30 seconds on the rc tank battle filed
again i need your imput ...

and last but least ...h how may of you would actualy be interested in buying a ' kit ; of bar armour if we could get it right ?? the problem may be the price .... whats a reasonable price for such a kit ??

hers the tank for thouse that may not know what the heck i an chatting about

seriously folks .. need to know your thoughts ...as were also looking at doing several other projects ....

[Saxondog]

The picture is from my Gate. The mesh is 15mm square,their are other mesh sizes available as small as 1mm square.

Just a thought but this would be easy to shape or use as a template for a resin mould?

Sax

[[ICE]monkey]

the trouble is sax the mesh is round where the bar armour is flat
cliff

[mcevoyi]

i looked at ' chicken wire '

and as pointed out .. its round ... on a 1/16 leo .. the flat of the bar is 2.3mm deep and the height of the bar is 1.00 mm
and there so may complex angles .. and cuts in the bar armour .. it would be almost impossible to make form chicken wire ..
..
a master has to be made for each pannel form evergreen plastic strip... as no two pannels are the same !

[Saxondog]

I did not realize, sorry for the mistake.
Saxondog

[mcevoyi]

sax ..

your imput is always very helpfull .....

its the armour is a right swin to make ... and as the rctanks are so ' big' .. the wrong look would stand out a mile .

and as you know .. i like my stuff to be right .....

[Saxondog]

I understand Iain, I was not making light of the situation. But my knowledge of the modern tanks is very limited and I have learned something new about the Armour on the Leopard. I have been working with resins lately and the mould would be very difficult to make due too the small lines and achieving even fill certainly would be difficult. The impression of the mesh would be square on the top surface but the flow of resin would be very difficult to distribute evenly.

I am sure of one thing,you will figure a way to build the armour correctly. On the real Leopard this type of armour is designed to be lighter than solid sections? And does the mesh create enough resistance to cause the shells to explode before actual contact with the Tanks hull?

Best of luck with this project, and do post the method of assembly you chose.

cheers Blake

[bubbajoexx]

hi all

time for me to be serious !

as many of you know when it comes to kit bashing .. i dont hold back ... ..i have for a about 6 months been planning to build the canadian leopard 2a6m .. thats in service in afganistan
so that would mean going the whole hog and creating the bar armour .... ( ho s**t )

well i have been chatting to a mate of mine .. that ownes his own model boat company ..and i am off there tomorow ( thursday 10th ) to have a very good chat about different ways of makeing the armour .... we have a few emails and phone calls and have several ideas ....

one is to make the armour with photo etch .... the problem may be the depth of the etch ..as most photo etch supplyed in kits ..is flat and you bend to shape .. that would be ..one hell of a night mare ..and some great skills with soldering would be required ??
what do you all think of that idea ?

the second idea is to have the armour made out of metal .... that is i would have to scratch build the armour ... and then have it cast .... it could be done in resin... but we feel that would last about 30 seconds on the rc tank battle filed
again i need your imput ...

and last but least ...h how may of you would actualy be interested in buying a ' kit ; of bar armour if we could get it right ?? the problem may be the price .... whats a reasonable price for such a kit ??

hers the tank for thouse that may not know what the heck i an chatting about

seriously folks .. need to know your thoughts ...as were also looking at doing several other projects ....

the best way to make the slat amour is to use 3/32 flat3/64 thick brass make a wooden jig with slots the correct spacing then cut half way though the brass where the upright go and cut half way through the uprights where they intersect the slats the using solder imbedded paste apply the past to the joints then hit it with a torch to activate the past and solder and your done the past can then be washed off and your slats are done

[Saxondog]

Am I correct in my observation that this armour is designed to be light weight yet prevent the explosion from impacting the hull itself? Just curious now,their is always some well thought out method to these unique designs. Will let us know how you work this out Iain,cheers Sax

[BigPanzer]

If I was going to make something like that commercially I would try making a master in brass the way bubba suggests. Pear wood is quite heat resistant if kept slightly damp (its used by glass blowers) and it would be quite easy, but time consuming to mill out the required grooves in the wood.

I think the only way you would get strong enough copies off the master would be centrifugal casting in nickel silver. Even then it would probably have to be cast in quite small sections.

Peter