RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Louis, thats really outstanding detail work at your Sho‘t!!
I follow this very closely and love to see what is possible to build out of a standard kit with a lot of skill, enthusiasm and time!

Keep up that fantastic work!
Builds like these makes a kit designer happy

Cheers,
Freddy

Thank you Adam and Freddy,

Being a builder, the use of plasticard and resin is the right combination for me. These materials allow for modifications and a level of finesse that makes it possible to combine RC functions with scale modelling level accuracy. But it also makes models a lot more fragile. For guys who want a runner that look ok from a few feet away and want to send their tanks in the mud, against the wall or running for hours, they are probably better with a tougher and easier to manage 3D printed or all metal model.

Thanks Freddy for creating this basic kit. I would otherwise not have a Centurion to play with.

Regards, Louis

Hi,

Here is the Gun Recoil and dust cover, with a short YOUTUBE video of the gun in action at the end of the post.

The dust cover of the Shot Kal is not something you can find on the market. Its highly visible and need to be reproduced for an accurate tank. The task is also complicated by the fact that it needs to be functional. I counted 11 rings.
Desperately looking around for a solution for the accordion style dust cover, I determined that an inexpensive gas Siphon pump available at a car shop is the best option.
Example of the accordion material recovered from the siphon pump. The larger part is a good fit for the gun, a little bit small but it can be managed. Not that there are many alternatives.
Now you know why the gun mantlet needs to be removable.
After 4 hours of work, this is the pre-finished gun dust cover. 11 rings of accordion is squeezed between the front area that is a strait pipe recovered from the siphon and glued to the gun. The rear is also a strait pipe but glued only to the rear of the accordion and the ring of the mantlet, and is flexible. It slides over the gun barrel. The fit to the barrel was a bit tight so I sanded the gun barrel under it to reduce it a bit so that the accordion is more loose. Front and back area were then covered with 5 minute epoxy to give it strength and also reproduce the uneven canvas cover. It will be further refine later.
Because the recoil also need to squeeze the accordion, the micro servo of the DKLM needed to be replaced by a stronger, medium size servo. The rear mounting bracket needed to be removed to make room for the larger servo. The front bracket is solidly anchoring the servo, while a single wire arrangement at the back is keeping it in place. No need to over engineer this...
View of the gun mounted on the turret.
Side view of the extended gun dust cover.
Side view of the compressed dust cover when the recoil unit is activated
Short video of the gun recoil and dust cover in action

https://youtu.be/H1QBsYEtSz8

After a tough afternoon of work, Platon and I are relaxing while watching old Star Trek NG episodes on Netflix.
Regards, Louis

Hi,

This post is for the gun mantlet cover. For Israelis, depending on the region, its likely more a dust cover than a rain cover.

The Centurion mantlet is typically very large and the Sho't Kal dust cover is quite rough and is always present in all the pictures I have seen. It is also quite visible and is an item that must be recreated for an accurate Centurion tank. Take note that the Sho't Kal mantlet cover is different than British Centurion. It does not cover the whole mantlet and we can see that two strings were built within the middle of the canvas. Both cover extremities are held in place with bolted attachments points over a continuous strip of some kind, with little dots on it.
View of the mantlet dust cover with the Blazer armour plates installed all around it.
View of the AFV Club 1/35 mantlet cover.
As base material for the canvas, i have determined that light rubber cleaning gloves offer a good and resistant texture. Its elastic properties also helps a lot for the fit to the hull and mantlet. I have highlighted the area of interest.
The section is cut into a single rubber ring.
The ring gets inserted around the gun barrel and installed directly on the hull and around the gun mantlet.
The extremity is folded a bit and then superglued to the hull at the right location.
Two strings in 1.5mm brass are made to simulate the effect seen on the first picture above. Without these, the cover will not look good. They will be inserted inside the ring.
After a lot of dry run positioning, adjustments and patience, the brass strings are then glued to the canvas with superglue from the inside. This is not a Porsche convertible top so nothing should be perfectly aligned and it must look rough as per reference material. This gives the builder a second chance at hiding small mistakes. After that, the other extremity is cut to the optimal length, tip folded and superglued around the mantlet.
The attachments are made with 2mm brass strips and M0.8 brass bolts.
Continuing on following post.

And here we have the finished gun mantlet cover.
I think that both my gun cover and mantlet cover compare well to the 1/35 kit. Not perfect but quite acceptable considering the complexity involved. It's not easy to do. And of course, the gun elevates and lowers quite realistically.
Overview of the model as it stands today.
Regards, Louis

I think it looks much better than the 1/35 scale version. Very impressive modeling!

Amazing work and true dedication too getting it right, vertically impressive!


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What an extraordinary idea!!
Oven gloves
How well will the material take paint do you think ?
That’s a great idea for the tarp around StuG III mantlets

Brilliant solution Louis!

Looks every bit the part.

Barry

I don’t envy you - the Sherman mantlet canvas is a pain but nothing like that!

Job well done.