Landships II

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

1/4 scale 'Little Willie'

plastic fan · General

Looks really good. Are you planning on putting a motor in it?

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

plastic fan wrote:

Looks really good. Are you planning on putting a motor in it?

Initially it will be powered with an electric motor on each track for simplicity.

I like the idea of using a 4-stroke industrial engine, but that has practical problems when it comes to transporting etc.

bigtank · Major

But it will be a big brute

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

bigtank wrote:

But it will be a big brute

Yes, and heavy!� The hull is approx 1.2 x 0.550�x�0.380mtrs as seen in the photos.

Ironsides · Legend

"It is a little-known fact that a flabber was actually a small, furry animal that resembled a skunk without the stripe. A person who had been gasted by a flabber would often stand stunned for as long as ten seconds, and require a hard shove to be woken from the spell. Sadly, flabbers went extinct around 1784, largely due to the influx of hungry rat terriers (and oversize house cats) from European colonist ships.

Flabbers rarely were gasted themselves."

Marty · Sergeant

("It is a little-known fact that a flabber was actually a small, furry animal that resembled a skunk without the stripe.)

You just described my first wife.

(Yes, and heavy! The hull is approx 1.2 x 0.550 x 0.380mtrs as seen in the photos.)

This is going to be a prize just to see it when it is done.

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Chassis

Ironsides · Legend

RE: 1/4 scale 'Little Willie'

Paul H · Major

It looks good but How will you make the tracks?

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Paul H wrote:

It looks good but How will you make the tracks?
�

Hi Paul, I've not finalised that part of it as there are a number of ways to make the track.

There are 2 elements to the track, the track plate and the 2 track links.

The track plate is reasonably straight forwards, they can be pressed to shape, my 1st attempt came out quite well but the ends of the Toblerones are squeezed in a little too much at each end, see attached photo. That will be remedied with the new tooling.

The links are more of a problem, ideally lost wax cast (bronze?) links would be used. But there is a bit of a cost penalty, there are about 120 track on Little Willie therefore there�are 240 links, if the links are �10 each that's �2400 for the lot! the �10 each is a pure guess, they could be more than that.

Machine from solid, done it for 1/7th scale.� Works well but a lot of work and when scaled to 1/4 scale, approx 9mtrs of 120 x 15 HR strip would be needed. 75% or more would be machined away.

Machine from angle iron and press the hinge�jiggle in it.� Cosmetically not so good but functions well.�

That's my thoughts at the moment.

�

�

-- Edited by LincolnTanker on Saturday 8th of January 2011 07:54:00 PM

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Got a bit more done this weekend, machined a sample porthole cover and hinge set, eyeballing it with photos of the original gives me the impression the covers are a little small.

Ironsides · Legend

Hi LT do you have a supplier for lost wax bronze castings for the track links? if not you might try Barrett and Jarvis..

Cheers wink

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Ironsides wrote:

Hi LT do you have a supplier for lost wax bronze castings for the track links? if not you might try Barrett and Jarvis..

Cheers

Hi Ironsides, no I've not looked at any lost waxers, the expected cost has put me off, I'll contact Barret and Jarvis to get some idea of the cost.

Thanks�

�

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

I've replaced the covers, they look correct now.�

The hinges are made to scale 3/8" (9.5mm) thick, but look too thick. I'll skim them to scale�5/16" (8.0mm), 2mm model size and see what they look like. The next size down would be 1/4", 1.6mm model size, which I think can not be right.�

The assemblies are screwed together for now so all the parts can be replaced as sizes are confirmed.

Paul H · Major

Nice work on the Hatch.
What do the links look like???

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Hi Paul, here's a link to a link, and plates.

http://files.activeboard.com/12351?AWSAccessKeyId=1XXJBWHKN0QBQS6TGPG2&Expires=1296086400&Signature=UsB%2F6me9PpVIX6cCvJhSA38h60s%3D

The attached photo shows a fabricated link on show at Bovington, the originals were cast and have more features.

Paul H · Major

I see what you mean. Not the easiest of parts to make. The welded version I don�t think would hold very long so that is out of the question . I was thinking maybe a weld would work but it is a bit compilcated as it�s at the wrong angle to the track movement.
I am thinking

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Paul H wrote:

I see what you mean. Not the easiest of parts to make. The welded version I don�t think would hold very long so that is out of the question . I was thinking maybe a weld would work but it is a bit compilcated as it�s at the wrong angle to the track movement.
I am thinking

What has to be condidered when thinking how to make the track links is the mathmatics of the problem, as there are 240 links you have to do each element to make one unit 240 times.� So if it takes 10 minutes to do a particular operation, ie weld the parts together that op will take 2400 minutes/40 hours for the lot.

A welded link made from lasered parts�should be perfectly servicable,�but there again there would be�at least 5 parts per link therefore 1200 parts, so the cost goes up.�

The welded link�in the previous post looks like it was intended to be used, nodoubt the MarkIV and V are running on some�fabricated links

I'm not sure what you mean by 'wrong angle to the track movement'

Tracks are an interesting problem, the way one�solves the problem depends on how much patiance you have and how deep your pockets are�

Keep on Tankin'

�

kieffer · Commander in Chief

Great work Chris, inspirational too!

regards Kieffer

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

kieffer wrote:

Great work Chris, inspirational too!

regards Kieffer

Thanks Kieffer.

I've a Works spreadsheet to convert Imperial fraction dimensions�to Metric, it can also give a�scaled output.

Sample below, if�anyone would like a copy PM me.�

-- Edited by LincolnTanker on Tuesday 1st of February 2011 07:43:52 PM

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

The files have attached this time.

MK1 Nut · Hero

Hi Chris

I was at Bovi today getting measurements for my own project, and took some photos of the drivers ports for you. I'm afraid some were to fuzzy, but did manage to get four reasonable ones for you. Hope this helps.

Lovin your project! <3

Helen x

ph0t0art · Sergeant

Hi, link below to photograph of the interior of LW. Taken a little while ago before it was moved to the new hall at Bovington.

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

MK1 Nut wrote:

Hi Chris

I was at Bovi today getting measurements for my own project, and took some photos of the drivers ports for you. I'm afraid some were to fuzzy, but did manage to get four reasonable ones for you. Hope this helps.

Lovin your project! <3

Helen x

Thanks Helen,

your photos are just the job,�� the fixed�hinge detail is particulary useful.

But it's back to the drawing board!!� I had started making hinges 1.5mm thick but thought they looked too flimsy, so I made them 2mm thick�but then�I thought they looked too chunky. So it's back to a tapered 1.5mm.

You may also have answered something that has puzzled me for quite a while,�you can see�on your first photo that there appears to be rivets on the inside face of the covers, your photos�shows that the covers maybe laminated from 2 plates confuse

�still puzzled.

�<3 ???� is that marks out of 5 or 10?

Hope you got all the photos you wanted,

Chris x

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Thanks ph0t0art,

luckily I did get some interior photos before LW went on the turntable, but not as well lit as yours.� I've attached 2 other views in case they are of use to you.

Chris.

airdave · Major

Did you get any further with this Chris?