Kiwidave4 Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 I have had two previous attempts at this thing, last was in 2015 and if your are interested a search will throw it up on this forum. To cut a long story short the AA kit was a BPOS, which given the high price caused me to get even grumpier than usual, which was not a good frame of mind for a successful build. Well last year I - unusually - did no modelling at all, so this year I decided that I had to tackle something to see if I was all modelled out or not. As my stash only extends to two tanks and two artillery pieces I thought perhaps I should drag this out and have been easing myself back into it over the last month or so. Knowing that the biggest problem with the kit was the unusable side skirts, side skirt brackets, and tracks I decided to start at the top and get some easy bits out the way first. I bought an Aber barrel intended for the Dragon kit a while ago. To make it fit the AA turret I had to turn an adaptor ring, and for my own peace of mind I also drilled out the barrel to accept a spigot which will distribute the load further into the turrets resin. Then I assembled the Fire Control Turret, including a scratchbuilt GPMG mount as I intend to complete the model closed up in the tank park. Unable to delay the inevitable any further I started on the side skirts. As the support structure is not really visible when the model is assembled I decided to use only the hull brackets to 'busy up' the lower hull, and have simply pinned the upper plates to the track guards. I will have to create some bracketry for the lower plates but it need not be anything fancy. So it looks like I am committed to finally getting this across the finish line at which point I will have to do it all again with my hybrid AA/Cromwell Models/scratchbuilt Mk1! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayprit Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 I built the Cromwell Conqueror a few years ago when I think resin models were in their infancy and it was a pig to build............I do remember the basket was very, very fragile, it was like pasta........kept breaking and I ended up using the parts as a jig for a brass replacement and soldered all of it.................. I have a few Accurate Armour kits, ideally I try to buy the multimedia kits, (Brass, white metal and resin) that i am interested in.........at one time Accurate Armour used to use a lot of white metal parts, but they are 100% resin now and a lot of the parts are so fragile and do not look anything like what they are supposed to be. With Accurate Armour Centurion bridgelayer, I ended up casting my own white metal parts, using the resin parts as masters...............i wish you luck, but you dont seem to need it as you appear to be doing fine.................its just the patience that you need to find.............some of these early resin kits I think are endurance tests................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted April 1, 2018 Author Share Posted April 1, 2018 2 hours ago, rayprit said: I built the Cromwell Conqueror a few years ago when I think resin models were in their infancy and it was a pig to build............I do remember the basket was very, very fragile, it was like pasta........kept breaking and I ended up using the parts as a jig for a brass replacement and soldered all of it.................. Thanks. Yes I have the Cromwell example, the basket is just a collection of resin shards! The headlight brush guards are the same. I got the Cromwell kit to provide the tracks for this build as the AA tracks are just a pile of scrap resin. Currently toying with the idea of making a jig for the basket so I can solder up some brass as I will need two baskets, one for this and another for my Mk1, but the AA and Cromwell turrets are different sizes so that may not work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gondor44 Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 I'm going to follow this as I know very little about this tank, or most tanks for that matter. Gondor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayprit Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 We had a guy on here last year doing a thorough build on a Conqueror Tank and I mean thorough............I am sure it was a Dragon, but, Grant was so particular, something may be of help to you by reading his build. I I hope Grant doesnt mind me passing on details of his build? Some pics maybe missing because a provider who stores photos insists you pay to see them now As for the baskets, I maybe able to help you here? The Mark 1 didnt have them!!!! It was only after trials that they realised they would need somewhere for all the bits and pieces, so they were fitted to the Mark2 Conq.......................now that you mention it, I do now remember those fiddly headlights, I ended up scratch building them, if they had been reasonable I would have used them, but if I recollect the strengthening bar that ran between the lower brackets was diagonal instead of straight and they also where in bits and pieces. When I was stationed in BAOR we had Conquerors on strength........they were never used as they continually broke down, we also had 2 x Conqueror ARVs, mainly used for recovering the Conqueror tanks. As they were never used they were immaculate, kept in the Hangar and only bought out when the sun shined and to blow the dust off them, they were then polished with petrol and oil, cleaned off with cotton waste and put back in the Hangar at the end of the day..........eventually when they were made redundant, majority of Conquerors in BAOR where all back loaded to Sennelager Training heath and stored in a big pack until they were required and dragged onto the training area as "Hard targets" where most of them were shot to pieces Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted April 1, 2018 Author Share Posted April 1, 2018 6 hours ago, rayprit said: As for the baskets, I maybe able to help you here? The Mark 1 didnt have them!!!! It was only after trials that they realised they would need somewhere for all the bits and pieces, so they were fitted to the Mark2 Conq.......................now that you mention it, I do now remember those fiddly headlights, I ended up scratch building them, if they had been reasonable I would have used them, but if I recollect the strengthening bar that ran between the lower brackets was diagonal instead of straight and they also where in bits and pieces. Thanks for that. My ref pics for the Mk1 are 50/50 with/without basket, and as most without are promo pics prior to service - Pathe and WD - I was thinking it should have one. I may just take your advice and just have tie downs on the turret rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valenstitch Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Nice work! Mine is still in progress! I might even get back to it if the weather improves! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 Slow progress this week. Started making the lower bazooka plates, and when I had finished discovered they were too short. The old adage 'measure twice, cut once' does not work when the measuring you are doing is in the wrong place! So I then had to start all over, and when I had finished realised that I had drilled the holes for the tie downs in the wrong place. Again, I had measured carefully but had done so from the wrong edge of the plates. Could not face making another set so filled the holes and hope a thick coat of paint will hide my sins! Been a rather grumpy old Dave the past few days!!! The kits bazooka plate brackets were unusable and as they cant be seen I improvised with some 60x100 thou styrene.The plates themselves are very simple providing you get the measurements right. The upper plates are fixed, but the lower ones are removable so I can paint behind them. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancisGL Posted April 12, 2018 Share Posted April 12, 2018 Impressive look!, very nice job, . Cheers mate 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted May 17, 2018 Author Share Posted May 17, 2018 Been a while since I updated this one. The AA kit has a small PE fret which includes the straps that the smoke discharger units fit to. I annealed these, then drilled a hole at one end of each strap and soldered in a brass pin to make it easier to locate the straps on the turret while gluing. Then they were bent to shape. The resin headlights were about 50% pour block so I squash moulded a couple of headlight shells from styrene sprue and recessed the front face to accept Little Lenses after painting. Spent some time cleaning up the Cromwell Models tracks, and made up a run for each side using two lengths and four individual links per side, and bent each end to meet sprocket/idler. About this time I also started to loose interest yet again - resin has that effect on me - so I dragged out my Mk1 build in the hopes of keeping some momentum going as it has more styrene bits to wrestle with. Will start a new thread on it, but here it is posed with the Mk2 on my workbench - so far leaving the two together has not resulted in a small scale Conqueror appearing! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripaman Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 Very nice scratch work Dave will look forward to your progress. Regards Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted May 21, 2018 Author Share Posted May 21, 2018 Thanks Richard. This one is now on hold while I work on the Mk1.....should have some progress pics of it next weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted August 24, 2020 Author Share Posted August 24, 2020 Well two years and three months later I actually have made some progress! A major stumbling block with this build has been the turret basket. Have never managed to work up the enthusiasm or get the inspiration necessary to tackle it. Did consider using brass but that was just too difficult so for a couple of years I have long fingered the build. Started poking it around again a couple of weeks ago adding some small bits to the hull to try and work up some enthusiasm, but really the basket was the thing that needed to be tackled. So I decided that styrene was the only practical solution, improvised a couple of crude jigs and over the last two days have managed to get a basket about 80% built! Perhaps this is the beginning of the end for this kit that has been on the go for over five years now. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 Excellent. That is really first class work. Nice one. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 (edited) Great idea and well done. Edited August 24, 2020 by Kris B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 Well that great leap forward did not work as planned! For reasons that are not immediately obvious but could be ascribed to laziness (!) I used the Cromwell Models basket base as the pattern for mine, while forgetting that the Cromwell turret is much smaller than the Accurate Armour one. The result was that there was no way I was ever going to be able to get my creation to fit. Fortunately my improvised jig was easily converted to make a revised version so here I present basket Mk2. I replicated the lower mounts and used brass rod to pin the basket to the turret and now just have to make the side brackets that attach to the turret. The new one on the left of the pic. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 Nice to see this one back on the bench, Your turret basket is a great piece of micro engineering. Looking forward to seeing this along side your other Conqueror's. Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 Why when you watch some guys scratch build looks so easy, but later when you try yourselves is not? Basket looks spot on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Kris B said: Why when you watch some guys scratch build looks so easy, but later when you try yourselves is not? Basket looks spot on. Thanks Kris. It does look a bit better in the photos than in real life, and the first one is better than the second one due to frustration, boredom and impatience! I have been scratching for over half a century which probably helps too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 Very impressive build and I agree that turret basket looks the biz! Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted July 31, 2021 Author Share Posted July 31, 2021 Well just eleven months after my last 'update' I have actually got some more work done on this! I have really lost the modelling mojo these days and this beast has been sitting abandoned for the third time since I started it about six years ago. I decided that if I have finally stopped modelling I should at least get this one finished as all the major work has been done, - and three Conquerors in the cabinet would look good! So I have been poking at it for the last three or so weeks, much time being spent digging through the bits and trying to work out what I had to do. So to ease myself back in I fitted the headlights! That success went to my head so I got stuck into the gun crutch. This had been in the too hard pile because of the poor casting. After trying to render the AA parts useable, I resorted to trying a mix of AA and Cromwell resin with some scratch styrene. That was not a success so I then went with the styrene parts from the Amusing Hobby kit. After some fettling they seemed to be OK although I was not happy with their accuracy. That solution came to a sudden halt when I found that the clamp portion was a bit oversize for the AA hull. So more 'mix and match' action resulted in a combination of AA and Amusing Hobby parts which will have to do 'cos they are all glued on! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted August 5, 2021 Author Share Posted August 5, 2021 Progress! After fiddling around with various bits I decided to concentrate on the turret, which I can then box up safely while I tackle the hull. The basket that I made a year ago had only been attached to the turret by two brass pins on the bottom rail so I got the bracketry finished off and the basket securely glued in place. The only parts that needed to be made for the turret were the stops for the shell eject door. These were easily fabricated from square brass stock and inserted into holes drilled in the turret. The smoke grenade launchers and the barrel just needed to be glued in place, plus some wiring for the launchers. I can now concentrate on the hull without having to worry about damaging the turret...I have already dropped the Fire Control turret twice during the build after forgetting it was not glued in place and turning the turret over! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Some excellent detail in there Dave, especially that basket. Great work. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vytautas Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 I second to @Bullbasket - really very accurate job Vytautas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Really great work occurring here! Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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