RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi,

It seems to me that the WW2 Allies get a ignored in the large scale models. Most of the 1/6th scale stuff is German and the occasional Sherman.
Amortech did build a Cruiser tank but that model is not made anymore and there are a few Russian models made by others.

The idea of buying or constructing a large scale model made from resin or plastic does not appeal as a powered model would not have sufficient mass to emulate the dynamics of the original.

I wanted to get away from the main stream stuff so I decided to have a go at scratch building.

My tank of choice is the Cromwell and the rare ARV version and my main theatre of war of interested is operation Overlord. I decided on an all metal model as I have a garage/worksop set up for this type of work.

This is a mega long term project, some 3 years or so seems reasonable. In the last 12 months I have build the hull, made the road wheels, hubs and suspension arms. The Sprockets hubs are complete with a revision of the cog wheels needed.

One of the components that needs a lot of repetitions are the track links. These have taken a long while to get right.
I bought a 3D printer and taught myself to use 3D cad to generate prototype versions of the Links that look and perform correctly.

Now I have progressed to getting the links made. Owl Castings have been very helpful and produced high quality castings for me.


One of the most difficult parts of the project is the research. The Tank Museum has been useful and many books have helped particularly the Dave Fletcher written item. If anyone has engineering drawings of the Cromwell or its sister tanks please let me know.

I made a boo boo .

Awesome you're right we need some diversity (says the guy building a 1/6 Sherman) lol.
Keep us posted and plenty of pictures.
Cheers out.

Interesting that you have found someone to cast the links.

I tried to find someone who would make different links for an Armortek Sherman and no-one would touch them unless I wanted several thousand

Adrian.

Owl castings are making the track links, you are right about the cost. I intend this project to be my swan song. So I’m pushing the boat out on this one.
The method for casting the track link uses investment casting. This produces good quality and a relatively cheap tooling cost. Scaling the links means some of details become very thin. A careful choice of materials resulted in the links being cast in bronze.
Initially I though aluminium would be suitable but the crystalline structure provide to be a problem on the spuds.
The links weigh in at 15kg for the tank. The all up weight is going to be over 200kg.
My next target is the suspension units. Trying to find coil springs with high enough spring rate in such a small space.

Progress is slow but I’m getting there.

this sounds like a real cool project.

But for this kind of project I would like to see pictures