Building a 1/6th scale Valentine tank

. . . 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 . . .

. . . 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.

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 . . .)

. . . 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.

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 . . .

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!

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.

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. . .