Leopard 1A4

[sparks]

Sorry for double post

[sparks]

THE CLEANING RODS
Due to the colour of the rods on the real tank(see earlier pic) I bought some 1/8 aluminium rod and cut to size.

Using the Dremmel as a makeshift lathe, I used a file to reduce the size at one end and cut a M2 thread onto it.

At the other end I drilled and tapped a M2 thread.

Repeated the process 8 times. (The Tam kits moulded rods only show 7, but from the size of the PE holder, and studying the tank pics, I think there are 8.If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.) I then used some fine sand paper and my Dremmel lathe to make a bit of detail at each end.

Without a proper lathe, it was difficult to drill the holes dead centre, but some of them came out ok.

Sprayed up the holder, and loaded up the rods.

Still waiting for the wing nuts and will wait for them before I fit the assembly to the hull.

[Red Devils]

Awesome work on the cleaning rods...and the tank as a whole, well done, sir.

Derek

[sparks]

Got the little wing nuts.

[sparks]

Got round to finishing off the hinged side skirts, looking at the real tank, they have a double catch arrangement holding the skirts together,(one latch each side).

So I bought another set of catches from AFV, removed the rod and drilled a small hole in its place.

I then drilled a very small hole in the skirts so the first sets rod was a nice tight fit and placed a 3mm brass washer over the rod on the inside of the skirt as a spacer, and soldered the new catch to the rod of the outside catch.

That gave me the desired effect of the two catches moving together, a swift coat of paint, and thats another bit done.

[sparks]

Painted and fitted the tools.
Had to make some minor adjustments due to the larger size of the PE cleaning rod holder.

[sparks]

Have been spending some time making/adapting and fitting the tow cables and associated hooks and supports.

[sparks]

Turned my attention to the canvas cover between the mantlet and turret top.
Used the old faithfull speaker cloth cut to size. At first I cut it the same shape as the rubber kit part, but looking at pics of actual 1A4's the canvas is more rectangular, so thats what I went with.

I used small cable to make the attaching bar and fixing loops.On the underside I fixed some thin styrene strips to help with the fixing.

Because the turret top needs to be removable for possible replacement/repair of parts in the future, the canvas will be permenanty fixed to the mantlet side, but on the turret top I have set some 1mm nuts flush into the surface so that side can be bolted down into place, also had to fill and paint the two holes that were meant to locate the original rubber part.

Here are a couple of pics of the "canvas" in place. Once it has gone on for the final time, I will paint the tops of the bolts.

[sparks]

After test running the other evening I noticed that the cables coming through the turret had twisted quite badly and thought it wouldn't take too much more to damage them.
Remembering I had seen a post somewhere about sliprings, I searched the net and came up with this.

The post I found had something similar but the problem was it only had 6 cables. This little beauty has 24 (I have 23 cables coming through my turret) and cost about £14 inc P&P from HK, they also had 12 and 6 cable versions for about £7 each.
My one is quite small at 32mm Dia flange, 12.5mm Dia tube and 39.7mm long, and should fit in my Leopard nicely alowing me to do 360 degree turns all day long
It should arrive early in Jan and I'll probably have to pay some duty but not much. So I'm holding fire on the build till I fit this, once its done I'll report on how good (or bad) it is.
If anyone wants details of where to get them, just let me know.
Happy new year to all
sparks

[sparks]

Well, slip ring arrived today , they said early January, so you can't ask for much better. No duty by the way, marked as gift and low value.
Here's a pic of it sitting on top of the turret just to give an idea of the size.

Well, lots of soldering and heat shrinking to do so will report back when done.