Chieftain Mk 5 AVLB

[Steve Hutchinson]

That is a serious bridge Chris

No wonder you need so much metal

It seems much more practical than the bridger I have on the bench

Nice one

Steve H

[Olivier Carneau]

That's a great project Chris. How will you reinforce the swinging arms to cope with the additional weight?

[Chris Smith]

Thanks for the interest guys

Olivier,

the Chieftain has Horstman suspension rather than torsion bar so no problems on that front.

The plan is to make the whole bridge deployment workable so that I can store the model with the bridge stowed on the tank and display it at shows with it vertical. I have a slight problem on that score, I broke a cylinder while drilling it out so I will have to wait for a replacement from AA to arrive before I can do much more on the deployment system.

Chris

[Chris Smith]

I had some time to build over the weekend and this is how far I've got so far.



I've left the launch assembly unfixed for now to make painting easier. There are two cylinders which attach either side of the drivers hatch, I drilled them out to the wrong size, big enough to fit the pistons but too big a diameter for strength and I'm stuck waiting for a reply from AA about replacements now. There are still things I can do while wating though.

Just realised, only 10 days until Scale Model Challenge, PANIC

Chris

[Olivier Carneau]

It looks really big even without the bridge itself.

[Adam Durrant]

That's quite an impressive amount of resin Chris!

[Chris Smith]

They took just over a week and a half but the replacement cylinders are here now Unfortunately with the kids away for the two week half term I am trying to get our bedroom redecorated, this week while still working, liuckily next week I have holiday.

Chris