Al,

this look like a realy nice build some nice progress, As you are most likely aware there is a Grant on display in the Imperial War Museum london , I go down there relatively regulary so if you need some reference photos drop me a line of the details you require and I'll try to get some shots for you , my next isit should be sometime next month.

Best wishes

Jerry

Hi Chas,

That's the one.



Cheers

Al

Hi Gerry,

I have a bunch of pics of Monty's tank, been down to the Museum a few times. However, if you get the chance to get any interior shots, especially of the LHS stowage bins, they would be most welcome.

Many thanks.

Al

Hi Guys,

Some more work on the interior, made some bins and things for the LHS, added 2 x .45 Thompson MGs and some additional kit. Next will be the 37mm ammo on the rear hull and I need to think aboutn doing the drivers periscope. The layout is not exact but more representative of a British Grant.

Some pics









Some more rivets and the lever for the drivers hatch:









Top view:







Any suggestions for the drivers periscope most welcome.

Al

Lots of lookers but little encouragement, support or advice guys!!

Anyway on with the project, the WE 210 tracks arrived from Panda Models this morning. I have to say that even in the packing they look good. I believe a little alteration on the drive sprockets will be needed.



I test fitted the basket and upper and lower hulls last night. Whilst the warp in the lower hull causes a bit of a fit problem I thnk this can be over come but taping the two hulls when I get to joining them. Only alteration I need to make was sanding down the .30 cal ammo storage box I fitted. It was way to thinck anyway as this was never designed to be shown without a lid.

There are a couple of 'plastic blobs' for the inside of the basket, I'm not sure what they are meant to represent but if I find out I may replace them.

Al

I'm considering the build on the lower internal hull done, unless anyone has any stand out issues I need to correct? Just a small amout of painting and weathering to do.









but, there's always a but I had made a jerry can for the rear of the fighting compartment, there is clearly one shown on the pics I've looked at on the LHS below the ammo in the corner. Not sure if this might interfer with the basket so I haven't added it yet



Next: Upper hull. I've made the .30 cal MGs. The plastic in the kit is quite crumbly and I haven't managed to drill ouot what I consider a decent batrrell, however as the ends sit inside the tank I can probably live with that.



The biggest issue is the drivers periscope, I will have to route around and see if I have anuthing that comes close. Question? I assume the armoured glass was a removeable feature so there is not need to add it?

On to the turret: I've made part of the basket and started to clean up some shells for the inside. There will be some fiddly work here as ther are a couple of fittings that sit on top edge of the basket that need wired up in at least a basic fashion.







Finally the 75mm main gun. According to Terry's review the short 75mm M2 Gun is too long by about 4mm. I've been looking at the reference pics I have and it would appear to me to be about the right length. I'm baseing this on the position of the barrel end in relation to the front RHS fender. Very scientific lol, lol.



Does anyone know the correct length of the barrell from the rotor to the tip, in mm? What is going to be difficult here is fitting it as it sits on two swivel holes one in the upper hull and one in the lower hull. Given that considerable pressure and force will be needed to get the upper and lower hulls to mate correctly, due to the warp, me thinks I may have to choose the gun position and glue it into the upper hull before hand.

Al

Greetings on-lookers.

Some more updates:

I wanted to use teh M2 75mm gun with the short barrel and no counter weight. These seem fairly commmon on the early British Grants as best I can tell.

The kit barrell is 4mm to long, this is pointed out in Terry's review on PMMS, so I cut 4mm off No ill effects here, the remainder fitted fine as far as I can see.

The mechanism is fairly straight forward but be aware of parts D16, D38 and D18. If you follow the instructions they are shown sitting the wrong way. Also I found it necessary to trim a bit of the arm of D38 to get the wheel to sit closer to the gun mount and not knock the driver off his seat lol, lol. There is not a lot of room here so check alignments and fittings first.

Anyway some pics:

Here's a pic of the plans, you can see the parts on the second one sitting in place:





Here's a pic of the real thing and you can see the difference:



Here's my effort







Not a technical expert but this looks more appropriiate.

Al

Alan, you did a fantastic job! I see that you even made the Thomson with the separate buttstock. That vertical wheel for the 75mm gun almost drove me crazy at the Lee kit, vecause I had no references and there are no obvious join point. One question: the basket will be this rust-colour? Wasn't it white?

Hey Al,
Can hardly wait to see the finished product !
But what's taking you so long ?
It's been three weeks since you started this build log and it's not complete?
The way you've pounded through builds in the past, I'd of thought you'd have had an entire Grant squadron built by now !!!
Are you slowing down or are you taking it easy and going nice and slow?
Cheers

jjumbo

Hi Laao,

The 75mm had me stumpted when I built it as per the instructions lol, lol. The pic (thanks Rick) helped a lot.

The basket has just had an undercoat, it will be white like the rest.

Do you know id the breach of the 75mm was brass? Just spent a riveting afternoon adding some rivets to the top lol, lol,. also added some wiring that hangs down from the control panel. Only thing left to do is some more work on the interion of the upper hull. I'd like to fashion a periscope or at least the round bracket it must have cliped into and I'm also looking at the wiring for the radio connections, but that's all a bit vague so may just go with what looks right.

Thanks for the feedback, thought I was posting to myself for a while.

John,

It's an illusion that my builds are fast, it's just that I normally have 4 or 5 things on the go at the same time and conseuqently they finish wihtin a week or two of each other lol, lol.

Don't have as much bench time as before, work and life to get on with too. There is still a reasonable amount to do inside but it's getting nearer to starting to look like a tank.

Will post a few updates when I finish painting the 75mm and add the radio conections and wiring.

Cheers guys

AL

Alan-- you are doing a great job. Superb work.
DJ

Hi DJ,

Thanks for looking in, comments much appreciated.

Al

Hi folks,

Here's the last of the internal work. 75mm is painted and I'll mate the 2 hull this evening.









Well providing I remember to mount the MG's!!!!

Al

Your doing a beautiful job The interior looks great Bob

Hi Bob,

Many thanks for the comments, it's stating to look tank like.

Cheers

Al

just caught this... i lurk on HF mostly

cracking build... i have a weak spot for interiors in tanks......

will follow your progress from now

mark

Hello Alan,
I did not know that you were building this project, I have not enough time to enjoy all the threads in each forum. But now I will stick on this one ! I like your interior and the way you painted it. The Academy kit didn't come out that well in the critics, but you will succeed ! May the Force be with you my friend ! G.

Hi Mark and Guy,

Thanks for dropping in. It's a fun project, the kit has a lot of fixes needed but it's a big improvement on the old Tamiya kit.

Cheers

Al

HI Al

About the driver's periscope, my guess would be that was a lot like the one mounted in the turret hatch, the armoured covers look similar anyway.

All the best

David

Hi David,

Thanks, some more updates with my effort on the periscope!!

Firstly, a little work on the basket:









Mated the upper and lower hull together last night. Went together better than I hoped given the warp, some masking take held it in place until the glue dried and I filled in and major gaps. A little more sanding is required on the underside of the sponsons on the LHS.

It's looking a bit more tank like. fashioned a periscope and gave it a first coat of paint.











Al

Alan looking really good so far. Keep it coming that interior looks super.

Making some great progress with this one Alan, particularly like the details you've achieved with the ready rounds of ammunition.

Hi Bill and James.

Thanks for looking in, comments appreciated. Slight moment of panic as I thought I'd double check the basket inside now the hull is glued. lol, lol but this time it just clipped the edge of the bin I made on the RHS and wouldn't fit . That extra shove to get the rear hull aligned must have done it.

Got the bin out OK and took a couple of mm off the size and it's refitted now and all works fine so that was lucky. Always hard to judge the size of things from a picture diagram.

Got a little wiring done on the firing mechanism (at least that what i think it is lol, lol).

Al

Alan-- what brand camera are you using? Absolutely great detail work.
DJ

Hi DJ,

I have a small Olympus FE-100 4.0 megapixels, didn't cost very much as the range had already been up graded.

Al