Building a 1/6th scale Valentine tank

Nearly finished!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0100

You know I'm really bad at updating this blog. The last thing I showed you was an improperly sized picture of one of my suspension bogies so the next series of videos might come as a shock!

Comments

Suspension

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:23:43 +0200

Work continues - albeit slowly.

Next up; Suspension. Four bogie units have now been assembled. They look like this;

All have to do now is fit them to the hull.

Comments

Set backs . . .

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:27:36 +0200

Nothing is going to plan right now. I went to pick up my new hubs today and found that they'd only made one.
"But you only left one sprocket!"
Well that's true but I thought it obvious that a tank needed two tracks! Mea culpa. I should have been more explicit!
On the plus side, the hub that they did make was a beautiful bit of machining and I'm very pleased with it.

Comments

Tracks

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:38:25 +0100

Have a look at these;

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t6/pureteenlard/track1.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t6/pureteenlard/track2.jpg

New tracks and sprockets - cost me an arm and a leg but well worth it. Weigh bugger all and tough as old boots.

Shouldn't be long now until I get her up and running.

Comments

Power!

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:04:12 +0100

Look what I found in the scrap today - three telephone responder (or possibly sector switch . . .) battery shelves. "Jackpot!", I thought, since each shelf carried two 12v 17Ah SLA batteries. I dragged 'em out and tested all six. Alas! three of them were duff but three gave me a pleasing 13+ volts so I liberated them.

Three freshly scrounged batteries with neat little battery trays too. Sorted!

I'll give one to Neil for his leopard but I'm keeping the other two. Add them to the two batteries I found last week and soon I'll have enough to run the Valentine for a week - assuming I ever finish her, of course . . .

Comments

Suspension and things . . .

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:25:20 +0100

It took me a long time to work out how the suspension on the Valentine works. Anyway, here's a bit of video I found on youtube that shows it rather well.

As for my little Valentine, it's still coming along although a severe shortage of money and the inability to get into my garage has slowed work to a crawl. The suspension components have been made, drilled and, in four cases, bent into a reasonable facsimile of the genuine slow motion suspension. Wheels have been bought and I've just started constructing my tracks - three hundred odd 65mm steel butt hinges - and drive sprockets. With the sprockets I had a real stroke of luck since the 125mm diameter wheels I'd bought just happened to exactly mesh with the hinges. All I have to do now is fit 17 spikes to each of them and I think I'll use M6 security nuts for the purpose

Comments

Despite appearances Things Have Happened.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:53:22 +0200

OK, I haven't updated for an age but I have been experiencing stress at work the like of which I haven't encountered before. This stress manifests itself as a middle-aged man with a flat-top haircut and a small moustache. My boss. He's an arse.

Anyway, after much cajoling by Neil, I sat down and did some detailed design work on a new hull for a Valentine. The Centurion has been scrapped as we decided the turret ws just going to be too difficult to fabricate. So, back to a valentine - with a slightly enlarged hull this time to allow the motors to sit comfortably. Click on the thumbnails, gents.

Actually, these pics aren't up to date because there is now the skeleton of a turret in view too. And the speed controller, motors and switch panel is installed. I am awaiting my suspension arms which are being fabricated by a local firm (Joltek Engineering) although they aren't rushing and I'm thinking of looking elsewhere.

Comments

The real thing!

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:45:26 +0100

If you have been reading the comments left on this blog by visitors you will know that a very nice gentleman called John invited me down to have a look at his full-size Valentine IX DD.

After many weeks of difficulty in getting my e-mail account to accept Johns E-mails we finally made contact. And here's what we've all been waiting for;

After he had removed the tarpauline from the Valentine I was left to crawl over it as I pleased. Now I am, well, a bit of a bloater and I could just about get comfy in the gunners seat but the commanders postion required me to enter the turret hatch at a 45 degree angle with my arms in the air! Just how anyone fought in the tiny space available is a wonder to me. I didn't attempt to get through the drivers hatch - it looked way too small . . .
After a while, John joined me in the turret and explained the operation of the breach (I was curious about how the ejection system worked) and showed me the ammo storage and an inert 6pdr round. Getting one into the breach is not easy, let me assure you, and it would probably take about a year of training and a wartime diet to slim me down to the point where I could be comfortable in the commander / loader's position.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to thoroughly exlore Johns collection (he also has two Saracens, a Saladin, a Ferret, a Dingo, two FV432 variants and other, rustier vehicles) and I shall have to presume on his good nature and beg another visit. The vehicles, by the way, are stored in a farmyard which doubles as the lost Morris Minor graveyard where old moggies go to die . . .
John, in addition to having more armour plated vehicles than any man can conceivably need, is also an extremely knowledgable and friendly chap. Top man, indeed!

Comments

Update. things have been done and I haven't told you . . .

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:27:28 +0100

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . well, a month or so ago somewhere near Stockport I spent some more time with the honorable Neil-san. The end result was mounted motors.
To beef up the hull where the final drive is bolted to the sideplate a 10mm ply doubler was added.

As you can see from the underside view, the doubler has been keyed into the hull bottom to add a bit of strength.

There will now be an aluminium mount added inboard of the sideplate with a bearing for the rear axle and a locking mechanism to hold the motor in place.

Comments

Hands that do dishes

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:51:36 +0200

Look! I can now thumbnail pictures to enhance your blog-reading experience, or something . . .
So, what has been going on. Well I have bought some cheap RC truck shocks - four quid each, which is very reasonable considering that they come ready built and oil filled. However the less aid about the colour of the springs the better. . . luckily they'll be hidden away on the finished tank!

And I've gone back to my own design of return roller but I have used the bearings from H's old skates.

On a hand related thought, may I suggest that if you want to know if an air vent is blocked, it may not be a good idea to put you hand on it . . .

Comments

More on return rollers.

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:48:23 +0200

I have scrapped my prototype return roller NOT because it wasn't a good design but because I have just found H's old roller skates under the stairs. The wheels are the right size and they're ball-raced.

And it will only take me a minute or two to get them off the skates rather than the hours it took me to build a roller from wood. Hey ho . . .

Comments

Wheels . . .

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:07:04 +0200

. . . well, actually, return rollers. I've made a prototype and I'm quite happy with it. Two hole saws, a 10mm drill, a drill press and an old camshaft drive-belt. Took me about two hours to make the first one but I'm hoping to knock the other seven out much faster now I know what I'm doing.

I've also ordered my sprockets.

Piccies when I get some batteries in the company digital camera . . .

Comments

I forgot to mention . . .

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:19:40 +0200

. . . while I was at Neils, we tested my motors on 12v. As before I think they were too slow. So we tried again with one of Neils many battery drill batteries. 14.5v made it whizz around in fine style so I think over-volting them to 18v should be adequate. 24v may be a bit too much.

Comments

One Centurion AVRE . . Hold the Valentine

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:24:31 +0200

Ok. The motors I bought were too big to fit the Valentine's hull if I wanted it to stay in any way scale-ish. So what to do?
Well, being me, I decided to procrastinate, vacilate and generally do bugger all. Until one day, Neil - Neroc1, to all YouTube users - made me an offer.

"send me the cutting instructions and drawings and I'll cut you a hull".

So, eventually I did. And then, today, I went up to see him and I found a few things out.

Basically, if you want to make one of these . . .

. . . instead of one of these . . .

. . . then get one of these . . .

. . . that turns into one of these!

And then, most importantly, get one of these. A Neil.

Then he can turn these . . .

. . . into this!

Thanks to Neil (no praise is too high) I have a hull that my motors will fit.
Unfortunately I now have no excuse for doing nothing . . .
More soon as I get back from London (or festering expensive cess pool, as I like to think of it . . .)

Comments

Have you died, Pete?

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:23:34 +0200

. . . well, no. I've been working and the front of my house is falling down. I've needed to raise £1500, pronto! OK, it's not a huge amount but it's certainly cut into my 'toys and pastimes' budget.

Anyway I have done a bit. The hull is complete. OK, I'll have to take it apart again to drill it for motors and suspension but the basic structure has been cut, assembled and found to be nice and stiff. Phew!

I have also tried my motors out. On 12v, they are way too slow. I will have to over-volt them to get some speed.

Finally, there's this for anyone who has never seen a Valentine. Enjoy.

Comments

REAL progress

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:09:47 +0200

Julia has made me start work on my hull. She insisted
Also, I think I have worked out how to use my new motors. If all goes well I will have some piccies tomorrow. Cross your fingers, folks . . .

Comments

Progress - of a sort.

Fri, 11 May 2007 00:12:37 +0200

OK, so I haven't done as much as I had hoped BUT I have just ordered some motors - 12v 180w with built in gearboxes which should save me time and space. See them here

I have also acquired a circular saw, a work bench and a bit of time for myself. You never know, things may start happening.
The problem now is that I really fancy building a Crusader rather than a Valentine. Arrrggghhhh! Must stay focused!

Comments

So what have you done, Pete?

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:15:01 +0200

Well, actually, not a lot.

I have taken a decent three-view diagram of my subject and scaled it to the correct size. I've also worked out that I can use 100mm and 120mm commercially available wheels and still remain scale-ish. Cheap wheels cost between two and three quid apeice.

I have drawn up scale plans for my side panels, bulkheads, nose and tail sections and floor plate. On the original Valentine the floor is boat shaped to deflect mine blasts. To ease construction (and because I'm not expecting to encounter mines) my floor is flat.

Wood cutting begins on saturday - so long as I get an undisturbed weekend. I'm not on call but I wasn't on call this weekend either and I ended up going out on jobs. Well the overtime payments will, hopefully, buy me some motors.

Comments

Making a start

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:57:10 +0200

Well this is it. The first weekend in god-alone-knows how long when I'm not working and, more importantly, J has no jobs around the house and garden for me to do.

However, before I can get to grips with making my hull, I have to get rid of some of the crap stored in my garage. This is made easier by the company giving me a new company car. It's a Nissan Navarra - roughly the size and weight of a full size Valentine and rather more difficult to park. It does have a big load bay though.

I shall post the URL of this blog on the mail list of RCTankcombat.com so that members can read it and put helpful comments up (such as "Why haven't you done anything for SIX MONTHS, Pete?).

More to come. . .

Comments