RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Thank you guys for your encouragements !

This set of posts is for the turret core.

Before this build, i did not know much about the Churchill tank, specially the Mk III with the early welded turret. I had to thoroughly study the 1/35 AFV Club turret from all angles. The turret has an asymmetrical design, but with flat armor plates and simple angles so it makes it easier.
Mantlet and gun mount features.
There is a pistol port on both sides, roof slope down to the mantlet.
Rear plate, nothing complicated.
A special feature to properly repro is how the top armor is resting on the side armor. Also notice the angles on the side armor and general aspect.
There is nothing better than extrapolating all the measurements and taking the various angles directly from the 1/35 kit. It any cases, the 1/16 model will have the shapes of the latest 1/35 kit of a major manufacturer...
All the facets are created in 2mm plasticard. In order to achieve the armor thickness and simplify the creation of the angles of the side armor. Two layers of 2mm plasticard will be glued together on all sides. The base will be a simple 2mm card, while the roof will be a 2mm support base with a 1mm overlay protruding on the side armor a bit as seen further above.
Assembly of the first (internal) layer with side armor resting on top of the base.
Assembly of the second (external) layer covering the first layers from top to bottom. A 45 degree angle is given to it on top and bottom.
View of the asymmetric turret tub.
continuing on following post

View of the AFV Club gun mount for the QF 6 pounder and 7.92mm Besa coax machine gun. Pretty simple design to repro.
The barrel for the shapeways Besa broke before i could reinforce it. I got clumsy and walked over it after it dropped on the floor. I replaced the plastic barrel with hand shaped metal tubes that is actually a good enhancement. I should have done the same thing with the bow machine gun.
The gun mount base is created. The gun recoil sleeve is a 9mm aluminum tube.
The finished gun mount.
The gun mount with the recoil sleeve and the modified barrel that Chris sold me for the Mk VII. I cut the muzzle brake and reworked the tip. My calculations indicate that dimensions are very good to represent the QF 6 pounder of the MK III. Even the hole of the tube is actually much closer to the 57mm of the QF 6 than the 75mm of the QF 75mm .
Creation of the mantlet. This is how is make hollow centers prior to using hand files.
The finished gun mantlet with the side mount braces that are actually coming from the Ludwig kit, the only thing reused for the turret. They needed to be shortened later.
Mantlet installed.
Roof top base support added. It is made removable to access the turret electronics.
Comparison between the 1/16 and 1/35 models. Notice the pistol port at the rear.
Continuing on following post

The 1mm thick exterior overlay is created for the turret roof top. Dimension are directly copied from the interior base part and made 1.5mm larger on all sides to allow for some margin of error and finetuning.
Overlay installed. You can see how the roof top will rest on top of the side armor, like the real thing.
View of the completed turret core.
Gun elevation was thoroughly tested and finetuned.
View of the turret core simply deposited on top of the chassis for a first look at the shape of a 1/16 RC Churchill Mk III, surely a rare sight.
Maximum elevation
continuing on following post

Maximum gun depression.
Close up of the mantlet
Turret hatches and pistol ports will be made functional.
View of the turret interior, ready for the creation of the gun elevation and gun recoil mechanisms.
The Churchill Mk III as it stands today.
Next step, the turret electronics and installation on the chassis.

Regards, Louis

Louis,

Fantastic hinge work on the hatch!!

Barry

About the mg, I have snapped the barrel off one of mine for cromwell so have ordered some more, what is the tube size you used?

pffff, I am speachless, so beautiful work.
awesome even doesnt come close.

Absolutely great work!!!!

Thank you Barry and Jee, such encouragements are much appreciated.

Exhibitedbrute wrote:About the mg, I have snapped the barrel off one of mine for cromwell so have ordered some more, what is the tube size you used?

I selected the tubes from my loose reserve, mixture of metric and imperial sized tubing gathered over the years. I do not know exactly the specs for them. The machine gun barrel is made of a small aluminum internal tube that seems to be 1/16 in diameter. A thin 0.5 to 0.75mm fibre optic fits inside. The barrel is made of what seems to be a 3/32 brass tubing that i cut in three parts, matching the shape and size of the Shapeways part that it replaced, the small aluminum fits perfectly inside. Shapes in the brass were made with a nail file and then polished with a nail polishing file. Hope this help.
Regards, Louis

Hi,

The following 2 posts are for the weapons and associated electronics, including a short video of the weapons in action at the end.

In similar fashion as my custom builds of the part year, the recoil unit is home made, consisting here of a 9mm aluminum tube with a slot on both sides for an M2 bolt with pull rod connector linked to the gun barrel.
Close up of the recoil area. After a polishing and a good work out to make sure the recoil is perfectly smooth, it is greased and made ready for installation on the turret. The secret here is to make sure that the bolt is perfectly at 90 degrees with the barrel, ensuring that when the rod is pulled, the barrel recoils strait and is not pressured on a specific side that would create more resistance.
The recoil unit is installed with an eMax servo. It is small, clean and efficient. There was a time when i would purchase a 3D printed unit and try to fit it in... With small turrets, it was a real problem and taking way too much space anyway even when it fit. This home made recoil is real simple and cheap. I think vendors could make these metal recoil units matching various barrel sizes instead of their one size fits all 3D printed bulky plastic.
Elevation unit, kept real simple.
The 5mm LEDs are drilled into their lenses to match and plug into the alumimum overlay tube of the fiber optic of the Besa machine guns.
Overview of the final turret electronics arrangement; Main gun recoil, elevation and flash with Besa coax machine gun flash.
Turret rings are prepared for turret rotation
It is made of the internal roundels part previously cut, glued together. also providing a good weight at the bottom of the turret. Notice the decreasing sizes matching the inside diameters of the layers of the outer turret ring. This was done for the purpose of holding the turret in place when the bottom of the turret is installed on its base.
It is inserted from below after a good greasing and manual testing.
The internal side is equipped with a metal rotation unit at the front under the hatches, offering much better torque and smoothness to the rotation. It kept the back of the hull free for a smoke unit that i plan to install. The rotation unit turns a large Vex Robotics gear attached to the bottom of the rotating turret base.
continuing on following post.

The electronics for the bow machine gun. A 5mm LED connected to the fibre optic aluminum tube, and a micro servo installed under the glacis that activates the machine gun left and right in some uneven (desired) movement.
The advantage of having installed my modelling work bench in the verandah with another desk just outside for the dirty business allows me to get rewarded every night by sunsets. I always do my modelling outside as much as possible.
And here is a short video of the weapons in action during the testing.



Regards, Louis