stevehnz Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 I like what you've done there Dave, even if it isn't quite kosher. From a mechanical view point, the concept of taking the revs of a turbine & reducing them to tank speed must have involved an incredible reduction gear train, I guess the same problem the Abrams tanks have. Parsons would have been familiar with taking steam turbine revs & reducing them to ship speed, so perhaps not such a big deal for them, I'd still love to know, lost to the mists of time no doubt. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Lovely amount of detail there. I hope that it's still visible when it's finished. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 1 hour ago, stevehnz said: I like what you've done there Dave, even if it isn't quite kosher. From a mechanical view point, the concept of taking the revs of a turbine & reducing them to tank speed must have involved an incredible reduction gear train, I guess the same problem the Abrams tanks have. Parsons would have been familiar with taking steam turbine revs & reducing them to ship speed, so perhaps not such a big deal for them, I'd still love to know, lost to the mists of time no doubt. Steve. Thanks Steve. The rev drop would be similar to turbo prop ratios and I would guess an epicyclic may have been used - would be compact on length. The fuel consumption and huge thermal signature strike me as the main negatives for turbine power. I dont know what the real purpose of this beast was or how it came to be. There were people better placed to make the engine - Rover already had experience on vehicle applications - and it is obvious from the 'naked' photo of the turbine installation that it could never have been made into a gun tank as the engine and fuel tanks pretty much occupy the entire hull. It lasted about five years in 'trials', and then converted to conventional power and the MoD pursued the gas turbine no further. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 16 minutes ago, Bullbasket said: Lovely amount of detail there. I hope that it's still visible when it's finished. John. Thanks John, it won't really be visible, but it should look better than just a void under the mesh - at least that is the plan! Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Impressive work mate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted March 27, 2019 Author Share Posted March 27, 2019 Now this project is nearing the end I am having to tackle all the 'too hard' bits I have been leaving. There is a large gauge mounted on the front right hand bin by the drivers hatch. I am guessing it is a typical industrial gauge of the period and would therefore be brass. So instead of making a styrene one I decided to make a brass one which I can simply leave in its natural state. Got the basic gauge built, just need to sort a face for it. Also made the two 'fins' that are in front of the co-drivers hatch - possibly windscreen mounts? 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Getting Old Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 Such fine detail, excellent work Sir 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noeyedears Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 now theres a build you dont see often (ever). great idea and its looking the business. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuggerDeFano Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 (edited) Lovely job Dave. You seem to have all the detail spot on as far as I can see so you must have some decent reference material. Do you have the book "Conqueror" by "Rob Griffin" ? As that has a whole chapter on the gas turbine Conqueror. There's also a Tankograd book with some decent photos but it doesn't look like you need any picture references. The new Mk2 kit that's not been out long does have the splash guards so anyone wanting to model the Mk1 would be better off buying the Mk2 kit as it has all the MK1 bits plus a few Mk2 bits. Still seems like a better kit than the Dragon effort a bit finer, workable track and much cheaper. The boxes as you say are diabolical. Currently building a Mk1 but it looks like the kit is mostly Mk1 but with the Mk2 boxes though even for the Mk2 they're wrong. John. Edited April 3, 2019 by BuggerDeFano typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 3 hours ago, BuggerDeFano said: Lovely job Dave. You seem to have all the detail spot on as far as I can see so you must have some decent reference material. Do you have the book "Conqueror" by "Rob Griffin" ? As that has a whole chapter on the gas turbine Conqueror. There's also a Tankograd book with some decent photos but it doesn't look like you need any picture references. The new Mk2 kit that's not been out long does have the splash guards so anyone wanting to model the Mk1 would be better off buying the Mk2 kit as it has all the MK1 bits plus a few Mk2 bits. Still seems like a better kit than the Dragon effort a bit finer, workable track and much cheaper. The boxes as you say are diabolical. Currently building a Mk1 but it looks like the kit is mostly Mk1 but with the Mk2 boxes though even for the Mk2 they're wrong. John. Thanks John. I only have the ref material that I found on-line - about a dozen stills and a couple of Pathe newsreels. Fortunately they give me all four sides and the top so I might not have every last rivet but I am happy with the detail I can identify. Have not seen Robs book, or the Tankograd one. I have not seen the Dragon offerings 'in the flesh' but the reviews dont flatter. I guess the AH kit is fine, it certainly is for what I am doing. As you mention the centre boxes are wrong, and cant be fixed without altering the hull/trackguards. It was my intention from the off to not bother too much about the inaccuracies, concentrating more on the conversion. Of course the anorak intervened but I have only limited my corrections to those shown above. I am sure there are a lot of other things I have missed. Currently the hold up is the four ladders that are mounted on the trackguards. I am waiting for some railway PE to arrive from the UK in the hope that it will help me with this. Regards Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuggerDeFano Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 14 hours ago, Kiwidave4 said: Thanks John. I only have the ref material that I found on-line - about a dozen stills and a couple of Pathe newsreels. Fortunately they give me all four sides and the top so I might not have every last rivet but I am happy with the detail I can identify. Have not seen Robs book, or the Tankograd one. I have not seen the Dragon offerings 'in the flesh' but the reviews dont flatter. I guess the AH kit is fine, it certainly is for what I am doing. As you mention the centre boxes are wrong, and cant be fixed without altering the hull/trackguards. It was my intention from the off to not bother too much about the inaccuracies, concentrating more on the conversion. Of course the anorak intervened but I have only limited my corrections to those shown above. I am sure there are a lot of other things I have missed. Currently the hold up is the four ladders that are mounted on the trackguards. I am waiting for some railway PE to arrive from the UK in the hope that it will help me with this. Regards Dave Hi Dave there's a whole chapter in Robs book about the gas turbine with a few pictures and there are some decent pictures in the Tankograd book too. I'm very new to this forum so I'm not sure what I can post in the way of pictures etc. As the Tankograd books are really about the images I'm not sure it would be right to post any of the pictures but maybe that is acceptable ? As for the other book I could maybe email you the pages if i took a few photos ? Cheers John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 3 hours ago, BuggerDeFano said: Hi Dave there's a whole chapter in Robs book about the gas turbine with a few pictures and there are some decent pictures in the Tankograd book too. I'm very new to this forum so I'm not sure what I can post in the way of pictures etc. As the Tankograd books are really about the images I'm not sure it would be right to post any of the pictures but maybe that is acceptable ? As for the other book I could maybe email you the pages if i took a few photos ? Cheers John. I'd be very careful about posting from books because of copyright, but you could always attach them to a PM. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted May 6, 2019 Author Share Posted May 6, 2019 Been a while since I posted an update as I have reached the stage where the only things left are the really hard bits that I have been putting off doing. A major worry has been how to create the folding ladders that are fitted to each corner of the track guards. Although I model armour these days I am always on the lookout for stuff I can use from other genres. Once more railways came to my aid when I found Peters Spares stocked a PE signal ladder kit made by MSE. (As an aside I recommend Peters Spares for great service - they also supplied the Markits carriage handles I used on the engine decks.) Although the ladders are HO scale, around 1/76th, they have stiles that are near enough to the dimension I need, and the rung spacing is easy fixed by only using every fourth hole! This is what they looked like out of the packet. The fret is supposed to provide an assembly jig but the distance between stiles was only 4mm and I needed 8mm. My initial plan was to use the jig to solder the rungs to one stile, then cut the other stile off the fret and move it out to 8mm. This plan was so cunning it had to be aborted immediately as the heat of the soldering iron distorted the stile. So after much fluffing around, de-soldering and straightening the stiles I abandoned the project while I worked out a Plan B. After some thought and a medicinal Scotch or two I decided to CA glue instead of soldering. I made a hi-tech jig out of scrap tree wood and styrene and proceeded to assemble two ladders which looked like this. I then had to cut the ladders into sections, three different sized bits being needed for each of the finished ladders. Here they are with my assembly jig. And a closer view. Then the bits had to be assembled to form the folded ladders, thus. And finally they were fitted to the model, with some styrene details added. They are not actually finished yet, I have to make a tie down for each one and I am still thinking about that. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 Well the construction phase of this one is complete so I just had to hang all the bits onto it for a photo shoot! Will have quite a bit of assembly to do after painting, but for now the scratching can stop! The final job was the headlight brush guards, which I initially intended to be brass, but after a couple of tries I decided to just go with styrene. Hope I dont knock them off while painting. So heres a final pre-paint look at the beast. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 The scratch work here is immense. It really starts to come together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Brilliant work there Dave. Those ladders and the brush guards are exceptional. Nice job. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Outstanding engineering there, looking forward to seeing it in paint although it seems a shame to cover up all your hard work and attention to detail! Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenoz Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Just stumbled upon this build and superb work... outstanding scratchbuild... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 8 hours ago, Hamden said: Outstanding engineering there, looking forward to seeing it in paint although it seems a shame to cover up all your hard work and attention to detail! Roger Thanks Roger. thats how I feel every time I finish build - compounded by the fact that painting is the bit I really dont enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Looks brilliant Dave, I'm as keen as to see it with some paint. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 26 minutes ago, stevehnz said: Looks brilliant Dave, I'm as keen as to see it with some paint. Steve. Thanks Steve. Do my painting in the garage so bad planning on my part to have a build finished at this time of year. Usually the builds I start around Christmas don't get to the painting stage till the following Christmas when I can rely on higher temps! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noeyedears Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 looks more amazing every time. so much to see.😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niallmhor4942 Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 :The only picture that I've seen of the GT Conqueror on trial was it crossing a a Baily bridge. Your model is a work of art , the details are fantastic. If you ever get the chance there is a book called The Tank Factory by William Suttie: British Military Vehicle Development and The Chobham Establishment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwidave4 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 Well to celebrate the New Year I actually got some painting done! First time I have seen it in a single colour after months of patchwork 'mixed media' so thought I would share an image or two. It is actually white but the light today does not suit my camera (phone!) so it looks greyish/pink, and is just the undercoat/primer for the silver. I have yet to paint the running gear and the lower side skirts which will be DBG. The bad news is that while working on my Mk1 build I realised that the side skirts I had made for this model were wrong so had to make yet another set and hence the paining has been delayed. Given that I have a demonstrable ability to scratch build stuff it is amazing that the three Conquerors I am working on have each had to have three sets of lower side skirts made before they were correct - items that are basically just 12mm strips of 20thou styrene. Seems that the simpler it is the harder I make it! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Oh! I'm glad to see this one alive. The primer brings out all the lovely detail. It really is stunning. Can't wait to see it painted. Kristjan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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