Challenger 2

[Woz]

Finaly got round to doing some more on this one-

BAR Armour added





The BAR armour is fixed to the upper hull and slots onto the rear brackets.

Got metal wheels and tracks coming my way so I'll have to start beefing up the lower hull.

[DNAR]

Great to see the original enhance armour you've depicted here. This is the first time the Chally was sporting the bar armour circa 2005 Iraq. Spot on on the 4 tile reactive armour on the turret.

[Simon M]

Top job chap

[Woz]

Thanks

I prefer the look on the earlier front armour but I also wanted something with the later BAR and turret armour.

[Woz]

Added metal wheels / tracks. It's got the DKLM wheel set and Lepoard (rubber/metal) tracks. I ordered some black steel gears from dingding-uk but they sent me the cheap zinc ones, so I've not been able to give it a test spin. Pushing it around it seems to run pretty smoothly but the tracks need breaking in.



I don't know how heavy it is but I nearly put my back out when I picked it up.

[Ad Lav]

Another nice looking challenger!

[Uncarina]

Very nicely done!

Cheers, Tom

[HERMAN BIX]

Love the Bar armour. I found that set for sale in Germany for the Leo, that was the closest Ive come to an MBT.
But in saying that, I never thought I'd do a T34 either !!

[Woz]

@Herman - I've never been that interested in the modern MBT's (models that is, I love the real thing). But after getting this I think I'll get some more. Just something about the size and how menacing it looks.

Anyway back to the build-

Decided to add bearings to the drive shafts. The biggest problem is that by fitting bearings to the hull of the tank it makes it difficult to get the gearboxes out so I've made removable bearing housings that slot into a fixed mount-

You can just about see the grey mount inside-




There are four bearings (with spacers) in the housing. The end is sealed so the don't come out.-


The housing sticks out a bit (but not so it fouls the sprocket) which'll help take the strain.


Took it out for a test spin (video to follow) and it works great. It's still got the nylon gears (still breaking in the metal ones) and was surprised how well the did. They ran faultlessly and didn't skip once in about 30 mins running around. I even had it doing 360's on carpet with out any problems apart from losing the odd track pad every now and again.

[Simon M]

I've always used the nylon gears in my tanks & never had a problem, saying that I only use plastic tracks, mine take quite a hammering as well, can I ask where you got the bearings from? I like that idea & may use it on my chally's