East-PAC

East Piedmont Armor Club

The turret for the 1/6 scale T34-85 project is complete. The turret master was built by Dick Bernier of EastPac. The turret was then cast in fiberglass resin. In the picture to the left, you can also see the aluminum ring to the top left of the turret. In this picture, you can see the top deck plate for the turret. I chose to use 1/8 aluminum. The pattern was taped to the plate and sawed out using a table saw set up with a special metal cutting blade. Once the rough cut was complete, a hand file was then use to finish the part to size.

In this pic, you can see the turret ring with part of the reinforcement panel installed. The light weight fiberglass turret would not be able to support the barrel and manlet assembly.  The turret will be able to rotate using a center bearing and shaft mounted through the support seen in the picture.

You can see just how thin the walls for the turret is. The turret is attached to the support ring through the wood panel below. This allows the turret to float on the ring instead of bearing weight.

In the picture on the left you can see the mantlet sitting on the turret top. The mantlet master was also built by Dick Bernier. The final piece were cast in aluminum with a final machining done to each. The mantlet weighs about 1 1/2 pounds and has been bored for the barrel. The round plates are attached to the mantlet are used to attached the mantlet to the brace seen here. This allows for up and down movement of the barrel. The wood braces will be replaced with metal as soon as the final fitting is correct.

Many details have yet to be added to the turret, but seen here is one of two  periscope housings located on the turret. This piece is the master and does not include the actual beveled glass yet, the glass piece will be cast in clear resin. The scope base itself will be placed in a spincaster producing the pieces in zinc alloy.

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Copyrighted 2003