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And then further detailed. A this point, i have a working idler adjuster. Just need some more finetuning.
I found a better bolt, a M2.5x15 with large head but i have only one. I will have to order more.
And some more details as seen in pictures are added.
The inside has a rectangular slot for the idler shaft.
The DKLM idlers are made to receive ball bearing on both ends. As the idler adjuster can take a 5mm shaft, i therefore ordered and installed 5mm X 11mm X 4mm ball bearings. The outside bearing needed to be installed further inside the idler wheel by drilling it in order to fit the idler adjuster and be aligned with the roadwheels and tracks. A notch on both sides of a 5mm 'thick wall' brass shaft, matching the idler adjuster, was created using a metal hand file.
Good fit that will lock it in place.
I temporarily mounted the right idler extension on the chassis to test the fit. All looking good.
The model as it currently stands.
Next step, complete the other 3 idler extensions and adjusters using the same method.

Regards, Louis

Just beautiful, careful and exacting work. A pleasure to see.

SCHWEREPANZER wrote:Just beautiful, careful and exacting work. A pleasure to see.

Your´r right.
A watchmaker could not do better....

Thank you SCHWEREPANZER and jhamm. I think it looks good but still far from perfect. That's my style.
Due to my RC and scale modelling addiction, my psychiatrist tells me that i should strictly aim for a 80% personal satisfaction rate on a build. First, i develop a vision as to how the model should look like, something exciting, and then i create small steps with specific objectives to get there. I like to work on a specific area for a couple of days, finish it to my liking before moving on to another area. Taking an area of a Ludwig basic kit that is about a 10% base and bringing it up to 80% within those 2 days is what i aim for. Getting the extra 20% would be difficult with the objectives, timelines and simple tools i use. Its very easy to make mistakes on such build. When i notice it, it is always an internal struggle whether i redo it, or live with it and move on. That's when the 80/20 rule comes handy.

Continuing with the build.

These are the rough Ludwig parts for the glacis coming with the kit. Designed for the Mk VII, it all need to be replaced for the Mk III.
I completed a bit more of the AFV Club 1/35 kit so that i can use it as reference for hull shape and dimensions. The kit looks accurate so far, i did not see anything obviously wrong on the technical side. Eyeballing pictures and using questionable graphs would be more risky. Besides, not a single Churchill still in existence looks the same with field mods, incomplete or with restoration work.
A new glacis is made with some modifications to the angle and dimensions to fit the 1/35 kit extrapolated figures.
View of the frontal armor plate as seen on Prime Portal.
I took measurements from the 1/35 kit. According to my calculations, that frontal plate needs to be 5.5mm thick, with a visible separation between it and the main hull. With the base of the glacis done, i can go back to the idler extensions.
A piece of work that is critical for success on the idler adjusters is to correctly scribe the bolt thread inside the flat aluminum parts made of two halves. Done by slowly inserting an M2.5 bolt through them as few times.
The four idler extensions are complete with their working idler adjuster, minus the main bolt on order for 3 of them. The inner extensions were lengthened at the bottom to match dimension i recently noticed on the 1/35 kit, correcting an earlier mistake the best i can at this point.
The inner idler extensions are fully installed with their reinforcement braces seen in reference, while the exterior ones are simply held in place with a couple of drops of superglue for planning purposes. The idler wheels need to be installed on their axle before the exterior idler extensions are permanently glued in place. Once these are glued, there is no way back.
Building these idler extensions by constantly checking their position and alignment was critical. It looks promising. That's a load off.

The model as it stands today.
Next step, building the tracks and installing the idler wheels.

Regards, Louis

This is going to be another work of art Louis looking forward to seeing it completed and painted

Cheers,Lee.

Thanks Lee, I am having a wonderful scratch building time with the Churchill. This tank was a bit of a mystery to me before this. Now relaxing with my pencil, calculator, plasticard sheets and brass strips... Once you start scratch building, skills steadily improve and there is no way back.

This post is for the Idlers and tracks.

As shown here on a Canadian Churchill without most of its track guards, the tracks are strait from the Idler all the way to the sprocket at the rear. It is important to repro this because my tank does not have track guards either. Any deviation would be a defect.
As shown here on a Churchill that was buried for a long time in Ireland, the tracks are running on some railing system that i found very difficult to get details of it. This tank shows the forward rail extensions that are not present on the Mk III at Dieppe.
After dry fitting the idlers, i determined the idler wheels were 1mm too high. The tracks were visually coming down after the idler. Having absolutely no interest in redoing any of the plasticard or idler adjusters, i cheated a bit here and reworked the idler axles to be 1mm lower using the same track adjuster end points.
Interim view of the new axle positioned on the adjuster end points. The ale is now a bit lower than before to lower the idler wheel and have strait tracks.
The 3D printed DKLM Idler wheels are installed.
Notice that the idler is not centered. Modifications were done to the DKLM idler to push it about 2mm towards the outside. This mod is absolutely needed to align the sprocket teeth with the road wheels and also have the tracks correctly positioned on top of the tank.
Building the DKLM metal late Churchill tracks. I am sure you guys are all jealous of my pink set of pliers.
Those tracks are really superb, flexible and smooth. There will run extremely well. Just wish these could be early model Churchill tracks but it is already a bonus to have these compared to what was available up to 2 years ago.
continuing on following post.

I built a railing system using an L shape brass strip and plasticard to get to the proper elevation.
View of how the tracks will be mounted on the tank
I had earlier adapted the width of the Ludwig 3D printed road wheels to match the DKLM Churchill tracks instead of the Sherman tracks they were designed to use. Runs well.
Next step, installing the motors and sprockets.

Regards, Louis

Well done so far. She will be a beast...

Excellent engineering and detail work Louis!!

Barry