RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Thank you Tankme, Adlav and Herman


The following posts are for the gun travel locks


This is the non extended Centurion gun lock, as seen on a Sho't Kal. For some reason, pictures of Centurion gun travel locks are rare, people seems to ignore it in their walk around. The Sho't Kal has a latch to keep the gun lock lowered, i am unsure it is present on a Sho't Meteor. Be aware that most Sho't Kal have an extension that raises the pivoting gun lock section.

Notice the locking mechanism with the two handles, one larger at the bottom.


While doing my analysis, i noticed that the late Sho't meteor have two gun travel locks, one on each side. I am not dreaming, this is hard evidence and quite curious. It is the only instance that i know of a tank that has two gun locks. I do not know what was the problem the IDF was trying to solve by having two on the late sho't Meteor... It is back to one only on the right side on the Sho't Kal.

You can see the two gun travel locks on the picture below.


And this is confirmed as a standard because it is also seen on other Sho't Meteor with extended hull. Here, we can very clearly see that the gun lock on the left side of the tank is raised while the one of the right side is lowered.

I therefore had to create two gun travel locks.


The gun travel lock provided by TONGDE is overly simplified, is not functional and too thin. It is easily broken. The angle is also not provided on the base.


After analysis, i made a plan on how to create these. I wanted them to be fully functional and authentic. A sketch was made to create shapes and check dimensions against references and the 1/16 gun barrel. I then drew it on a 2mm plasticard sheet. The part needs to be 3mm thick but it is difficult to carve a part in 3mm plasticard so i did in in 2mm plate, the missing 1mm is added later.


Basic shapes have been created, identical.


The parts are then glued to a 1mm plasticard sheet to add the missing mm to make it 3mm thick, then cut and filed smooth.


3mm brass strips and M1 bolts are used for the moving components.


The closing mechanism is important.
It is a modified M1 size Knupfer hook. I just filed the head flat to make it fit in the slot on the gun travel part.


continuing on following post

The bottom of the top moving part is made in 3mm brass for solidity.


The structure above it is made in 1mm plasticard for ease of construction. Superglue is used for glue and also as a putty when filing with a nail file. There is nothing better than drying superglue mixed with plasticard dust to create a perfect, strong and seamless joint. The nail files need to be replaced at one point anyway.


Core structure is made. I gave the top part a little edge as seen in reference.


Now, those little handles for the locking mechanism. There are two per gun travel locks. They have 5 grips each. I always had difficulty creating 5 point evenly spread out US stars so this is no different. I therefore used the stars on a Tamiya part label to help me. These are cut and glued against a 1.5mm plasticard plate.


Now i have my basic little stars as core for the handles.


And then refined with a knife and a nail file into a gun lock closing handle. I inserted a 1mm brass nut in the middle. Need to create 4, 2 small and 2 larger ones.


Closing mechanism is fully functional.


The bases are created and the two gun travel locks are ready to be installed.


Here is the late Sho't Meteor with its two gun travel locks


continuing on following post.

That was fun.

However, presence of the gun travel locks complicates the opening of the hull to access the electronics. Need to ensure the tow cables are always on top of the gun travel locks (like the real vehicles) and slowly raise the back a bit and push forward so that the base of the gun travel lock can clear the exhaust pipes below as they are raised.


Here is an overview of the gun travel locks.


The model as it stands today.


Regards, Louis

WOW Louis!

You work gets better and better.

Barry

Keep that up and I'm quitting the hobby. Great work as usual!

I mentioned in the Forum somewhere about Hayas Gun Lock and how with the use of a couple of staples it could be converted into a fully functioning model, I now have a Tongde Centurion as well as a Haya Which I bought from Dave (www.forgebeartanks.com) So I shall try to get hold of some Haya bits and pieces because the Tow rope when assembled is quite accurate complete with the two piece metal rope which has the loops built in, Hayas Sprues include some of the parts necessary for the proper location of the tow rope which certainly makes detailing much easier, But for all that I prefer the Tongde Centurion although it feels much flimsier.

Don't give up, Ecam, just do as I do: look at your work and that of others here on RCTW; bang your head on your modeling bench; bemoan your feelings of inadequacy.

Herr Dr. Professor wrote: ↑Wed Nov 01, 2023 6:20 pm Don't give up, Ecam, just do as I do: look at your work and that of others here on RCTW; bang your head on your modeling bench; bemoan your feelings of inadequacy.

OK, I'll give that a try and continue on.

Thank you everyone,

The following posts are for the driver's hatch.

I never thought the Centurion driver's hatch would be so complicated. It's an area difficult to study and there are variations. I had to spend a lot of time on the hatches, and also having to redo my own work, having done mistakes that did not pass inspection. It's limitless but i brought the hatches to a level that i wanted, and moving on to something else.

I spent a lot of time analysing pictures. There are a few in the WWP book that were extremely helpful but i do not want to reproduce them here. Many other from the web helped me confirm the specs i wanted to use.

1. Of specific interest are the periscope cover. There seems to be variations, some higher than others but the view below seems like a good basic one to use.
2. There is a thin curved guard on the exterior side of the periscopes.
3. There is a stop and a locking mechanism on the sides.
4. The periscope rotate and need to be rotated 90 degress to the sides in order for the hatches to open and rest on the stops properly.
5. There is a spring at the back that i tried to reproduce but it made the opening and closing of the hatches cumbersome and i had to remove them, and just forget about it for now.



These are the TONGDE driver's hatches. One thing is obvious, the height of the periscope covers are way too high, twice as high as they should be. I've seen something like that on a South African Olifant but not really elsewhere.

The hinges are inaccurate. There should be two fingers but i decided to live with these as changing this would require a complete redo of the hatches.



I purchased the Shapeways Centurion periscopes, a rare luxury on this build.

Any 3D printed enhancement part purchased on the market should always be viewed with some suspicion first because some are great, some are ugly and some others are terrible. I’ve seen a lot. It’s not because it’s available that it’s good or accurate. They usually have dimensional or accuracy issues, it depends on our expectations. For a river counter like me, everything needs to be checked and confirmed before use.


This is the material provided, pretty good in general and having these avoids a lot of time consuming scratch building. Study was required to determine how to best integrate them on the TONGDE model. For sure, the periscopes and covers are better than the TONGDE ones. The rounded guard is too thick but can be replaced by brass. The interior periscope parts are accurate and interesting but have very fragile areas that are an issue on a RC tank. The round base are too large to fit the TONGDE hatch and had to be discarded.


I decided to reuse the TONGDE hatches as a base, removing the ugly periscopes and preparing the base for the Shapeways periscopes. The inaccurate stops were later also removed and replaced.



After some work on the hatch holes, i managed to make the interior periscopes fit the hatches, and rotate. That is important in order for the hatches to open and rest correctly.



Looking at the AFV Club model for interior specs. I determined that the seal, head cushions and the locking handle needed to be reproduced for a good looking display. Notice the inaccurate hinges but it would have been too complicated to replace them. I have to pick my battles on this build and the hinges style were not deemed a priority.



Driver hatch parts are ready for re-assembly.


Continuing on following post.

Hatches were not closing properly, hinges too low and i decided to add a thin plasticard base at the bottom of the holes to raise them a little bit. It solved the problem.



Hatches are re-installed, resting flat on the upper deck. I removed the molded-on bolt heads on the hinges, to be later replaced by brass bolts. The welding seen in ref pictures was simulated, hiding the big gaps around the hinges at the same time.

This is the right time to redo and install the stops while the periscopes are not in the way. They have important and specific shapes and angles.



From what i could determine, the stops on the hatch should work like this when opening, resting flat on the deck and aligned with the large rectangular box on the sides. There is a hatch locking bolt mechanism in there that pushes a latch into the stop to lock the hatch open. I did not made it functional but added a large bolt head with washer on the outside face, as seen in reference.



Because i am not using the Shapeways round base, i had to remove the area of the periscope base that were going into the rounded base.



And had to rework the connectors and alignment between the bottom and top part.

During the analysis phase, i reconsidered using the Shapeways round base, reduce them in size and find a way to integrate them with the TONGDE hatches but i thought it would have been more complicated.



Periscopes are re-installed. I decided to redo the thick rounded guard in thinner brass trip.



Periscopes can rotate, this is important.



If periscope are not made to rotate, the hatches cannot open properly, the periscope cover hits the deck first and the angle of the opened hatch is not right.



As seen in reference pictures, it is standard practice to rotate the periscope 90 degress to the sides in order for the periscope cover to clear the deck, fully open the hatches and have the stops rest correctly on the deck.


Continuing on following post.