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The turret top as it stands today.


Regards, Louis

Louis!
Looking Aces! I love detail and you bring it in spades!
regards,
Painlesd

That M2 looks spectacular.
Almost a shame to paint it !

Thank you Painless and Herman. Now that the bigger structural changes are done, i will be going into details of each area one by one.


Moving on to the glacis.


This is the typical glacis on a late Mk 5 Sho't Meteor, not a Mk 5/1. There are two larger headlights in the middle with a guard, replacing the small British headlights. There are two sets of spare tracks. There is likely a ration box on the right, they call it the biscuit box, sitting on a metal frame at the bottom. Two hooks at the tip and that's about it.


Of course, there are variations. This one has additional larger headlights on both sides, with guards. I also noticed variations in height for the middle headlights. The ones on a Mk5/1 with add-on armor on the glacis are usually a bit higher.


Let's start with the spare tracks holders. Notice the shape and the opening mechanism with a bolt on both sides.


View of the anchor. Removing the bolt will separate the frame from the base in the middle.


The TONGDE part is technically ok, dimensions are good but it has been simplified. The rods are square and there is no opening mechanism. With such track holder, there is no way to retrieve the tracks...


The main concern is that i need two, TONGDE only provides one. So, i am building new detailed ones in brass.


The rods are 1.19mm in diameter and seemed to be a perfect fit. They need to rest on a 2mm tube. As i did not have enough fingers, i created a simple jig to hold the rods in place while i concentrated on my poor soldering skills.

Someone with more soldering skills than me could separate the base tube in 3 sections and make the track holder functional. This was already stretching it for me.


Getting them on the 2mm tube was way simpler than anticipated, rough job done in a few minutes.


Then a few minutes to shape the soldering using files of different size and grain. Looking strait and sharp, that jig created in less than 1 minute did the work.


Putting on the traverse was more complicated. The trick is to measure the right lenght through trial and error to squeeze them in position so that they hold by themselves, then a tactical drop of soldering is locking them in place, then finetuned with files, one at a time.


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The track holder frames are ready. Can't believe i did that in about 90 minutes, most of it for the finetuning with hand files. Someone able to do soldering without creating a mess will take shorter.


For simplicity, i gave them a plasticard base.


And the two Centurion track holders are done. Connecting bolts are M1. I plan to scribe the separation of the base tube in 3 parts.


Now, moving to the headlights. View of the AA glacis as reference. In my views, they have positioned the bottom headlight a bit too high, even for a Mk 5/1. The bolt for the opening mechanism is strait against the headlight.


This clear picture for a Mk 5/1 glacis is interesting as it provides the shape of the guard, with the little base with bolt head on each side.


MATO Sherman headlights were used as a base component.


Stripped and cleaned up, i reduced the body in diameter a bit using a nail file, looks thinner and better.


Guards done in 5mm brass strip, with the support at the back soldered in place. In restrospective, the support at the back should have been on 4mm wide brass.


Headlights in position.


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These look simple but they are nasty little headlights, very difficult to shape and position correctly.

I will try different LED resistors and see if i can get something less blue.


Spare tracks temporarily in position to test fit the integration. These are the plastic spare tracks, i am planning to use the metal ones if i can get 6 of them.


At this time, the track holders are not glued to the glacis, they are just deposited over the spare tracks for look and feel analysis. Some adjustments will likely be required and they will only be glued in place after painting.


These spare tracks and holders are located on the front glacis, quite visible and worth detailing.


The model as it stands today. Next step is a two week trip to Spain...


Regards, Louis

Very nice work Louis!

Beginning to master the brass work.

Barry

Thanks Barry, once we start detailing tanks with brass, there is no way back. Need to continue in order for the model to remain consistent with itself. Otherwise, it would look weird.


Had a few hours today, here is the glacis with its fender supports and tow hooks.


View of the two fender supports at the front. It's a Sho't Kal but these are the same as earlier versions. These are made of metal bars with the large one in L shape bolted to the fenders. There are sometimes gaps in between the metal bars and the fenders, if there are any on the model, it’s no mistake.


Before adding stuff to the upper hull, this is the right time to scribe the lines for the skirts, just enough for dark pigments to go into during weathering to show the separation. I will keep the skirts attached, molded to the fenders and upper hull. It would otherwise weaken the model because the skirts are fragile on their own like the real thing, held by little bolts.


This is the large support bracket provided by TONGDE, the rest is molded on the fenders. The dimensions and the basic shape is accurate. However, the real thing is not a monobloc like this, it is an L shaped beam. I will not be using it.


Any molded on detail is removed from the front fenders.


The supports are recreated in thick 3mm brass strips.


The L shaped upper section is made of plasticard as it would be difficult otherwise.

I had also noticed earlier that the front mud guards were way too long. After creating the fender supports at the right location, it was easy to determine how much to cut them using the AFV Club model for specs, and confirmed by eyeballing Centurion mud guards in pictures.


Looks better


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Now the tow hooks, shown below for a Sho’t Kal but based on a Mk 5/1 with add on glacis armour.


We can see that TONGDE struggled with the tow hooks, shape and placement on the glacis. You can compare it with the AFV Club part. The TONGDE main bracket is actually the lower half. I think it is because this part is sitting on both glacis and lower hull. Making this part overlap both sections would make it difficult for most people to open the hull. Then what is weird is that TONGDE tells people in their instructions to attach them to the sides on the middle of the glacis. I vaguely recall seeing that in real life on some Centurion version but it must be really rare. Anyway, i will have nothing to do with it on an IDF Sho't.



This part is complicated to build and need two of them. I really experimented with it in order to adapt it to the hull. Using AFV Club dimensions, i realized at one point it was too small.


Eventually, i recreated something that looks like it. The hook is a DKLM 3D printed hook, leftover from the M60 build. For some reason, these hooks are rare in the after market.


But to attach them, i had the same issue as TONGDE faced, the upper hull needs to remain removable. So, this part cannot be solidly glued to the upper and lower hull at the same time. And we cannot simulate welding, at least not easily.


For now, instead of cutting them in half to allow the hull to open, the best thing that can be done is to attach them to the upper hull only, and the tow hook brackets act like a locking mechanism for the upper hull. It makes opening the hull a very specific operation where it needs to slowly and carefully slide forward at the same time that it is raised. Not ideal but it can be managed for a while, until I forget about it and break them… Before reinforcing it in place, i will let it sit for a while in case i have a better idea later.


I would normally have corrected the small gap there between the support and the fender but left it there because it is realistic.


The upper hull as it stands today. It's nice to be able to sit the upper hull on its skirts, it makes construction and maintenance a lot easier and the skirts won't fall anywhere.

I thought of separating the skirts from the fenders to make them independent and mount them as per specs. It would be easy and would look better. But as per my experience with the Sho’t Kal, independent Centurion skirts are too fragile for an RC tank. I want to be able to run this model anywhere instead of being paranoid that something will hit them and rip the skirts apart. There is a limit as to how many times they can be put back.


Regards, Louis

Awesome job with track rack For hedlight I recommend Tamiya No 9115122 spare part. It is widely available and improves the appearance of lamps.