Canadian Ram Badger flamethrower

[Beekster]

Feb 8, 2020 13:25:51 GMT -6 JCON said:

In the photo it looks like the machine gun isn't on a mount, its just sitting there...

That could very well be the case; it could conceivably be attached to a tripod, too.  Infantry could swing it up out of the fighting compartment and blaze away with the tripod supporting the gun.  Not terribly accurate, but good enough for suppressive fire.  With respect to the flame tank, the tall antenna confirms the awkward arrangement.

At least the fenders came off cleanly and a bit of knife & file work cleaned up the mating surfaces.  Everything is drying off now after washing the debonder off the surfaces.  Later this afternoon I'll chuck up a small cutter in the Dremel and deepen the recesses for the little tabs on the hull to engage, and clean up with files.  Worst case, I make the recesses too deep and have to shim back up with strip stock.  But no collateral damage to fix, which is a pleasant surprise.

[JCON]

Good deal!!!

[ogrejohn]

I know this probably isn't the vehicle you are modelling but maybe something similar to this?
On this it looks like the commanders cupola  is behind the driver and the MG mount on the hull just behind the drivers vision port. 
I know absolutely nothing about this vehicle but I found this and thought it looked similar to what you are making.

[Beekster]

Yes, John, that's a well-known photo of a Ram Badger in a different regiment, and it shows the standard overhead cover kit that was fitted to most flame tanks (I have this photo in several publications). The Sherbrooke Fusilier variant I am building pre-dates this by about a month or six weeks. I seems clear that the Sherbrooke concept was correct, but the execution flawed, and it seems equally clear that their efforts influenced the eventual design standardized by First Canadian Army. The MG issue is one problem, obviously solved by the configuration in the photo you posted. The availability of the British all-around vision cupola is another; it was rare and normally seen only on Comets and occasionally a Sherman. Where the Sherbrookes scrounged it from in the first place is a mystery. Another difference will be the headlights; I know from the regimental census records that the two flame tanks assigned to the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment were among the very last batch of Rams produced, and the headlights were moved from where you see them here to just inside the final drive bulge and a little lower on the differential cover. Getting those evenly lined up will be a bit of work, too.

[Beekster]

You would be forgiven if you thought I had forgotten this one again. Not true, but in fact this one has had me rather vexed. Though I'm not out of the woods yet, I do believe I have a way forward.


The vexing problem is that the headlights I had for this build simply wouldn't fit in the space where they need to fit. I know that the Asuka differential cover is accurate, so the problem was the lights. It just took me a while to accept that. On the left you see the lights I originally planned to use, swiped from a Valentine kit, and my own brass mounts. Why this selection? Well, the lights on Rams looked to me like Valentine lights, and MLW built Valentines for Lend-Lease to Russia before starting in on Rams, Sextons, and eventually Grizzlies. The Valentine parts would have been readily available. But clearly they weren't the same, though they had a similar configuration. After trying to decrease the diameter of the original parts, and make smaller mounting brackets (which, as you see, are too fragile to survive much handling), I gave up on making those elements fit. Nothing for it but to build everything from scratch, and on the right you see the significantly smaller headlights in process. I've drilled out the center for a possible lens, but I will probably opt for making blackout covers like the original parts. The Valentine parts are about .257" in diameter; the new ones are fabricated from .188" tubing. I tested that size for appearance before starting down this road, and the proportions look better to me. I hope that as this moves along, I can go back up to a thicker brass rod for the mounts so that the solder joint will be stronger. If I can get this sorted, this one will be in the home stretch as far as construction is concerned. I still have some stowage to sort out, and need to make a big tarp out of epoxy putty into which I can embed some other items in a realistic fashion.

[JCON]

Looks good to this guy!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Who knew?

[JED]

More great work

[Beekster]

Sometimes, my own idiocy becomes blindingly obvious. Guess what? I have ready patterns to make headlights...SMH, very hard indeed, and several times over.

So why all the drama? Well, this project was acquired some years ago, when nothing else in the Ram family was available anywhere. The Valentine headlights were a best guess at the time, and since they were in the box they were the first things used. When they didn't fit, I started in on scratchbuilt lights as described above.

Did I bother to check my stash in the closet? No. Not until this morning, when it dawned on me that I had two Dragon Sexton II 25pdr SP howitzers in there, more recent releases than the Formations resin Ram kit. Sextons are Ram variants, of course, and use the same ancillary fittings. Gee, do you suppose there are headlights in those spiffy Dragon kits? Well, yes there are! Who'da thunk it? Obviously not me, for months and months...

So, I perused the instructions for one of the Sextons and found the part I was looking for. I then slit the clear plastic around a B sprue, and snipped off a headlight for examination. Sure enough, it ought to fit just fine. While I could rob the Sexton I don't really want to, so I will proceed with the scratchbuild option. But at least I have a proper dimensional pattern to work with. And I always have had that pattern, at least during the time that this Ram project has actually been under construction...once again, SMH.

[JCON]

Too funny!!! At least you found it in time to check your progress and accuracy!!! Onwards and sideways as always my friend!!!

[Beekster]

Deep breaths now...this is looking much better. I have successfully laminated, sliced, and sanded Evergreen stock to make the headlight buckets and made mounts from .020" brass rod. This is the first one, just friction-fit for now, with the Sexton part next to it:






This light has a blackout lens, which seems common on Rams and their variants in photos. For the other one, I will see if I can actually make a lens using styrene strip painted Chrome Silver, punched out to size and then hit with a big drop of superglue to make the lens. The Sexton part shows a light with a full cover, which probably snapped in place over the glass. There is a slight convexity to the shape, so if I want to show a non-blackout light I need to fashion a lens. I also have the option of showing the mount without any light in place at all. The right angle bend is there so that I can drill holes in the front of the diff cover and insert the mounts from straight ahead. This project looks like it might actually make it to primer before the end of the month.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Some fine Craftsmanship going on here.

[JCON]

Well done!!!

[Beekster]

And the lights are on!


Not too shabby, I think. The regular headlight lens didn't come out as I had hoped; the superglue didn't dry clear and it needed some sanding work to get the contour smoothed out. It will paint up just fine as a blackout cover so it's all good. How did I get them to mount relatively even? I used this:



I added material to an old assembly jig for something I can't remember, and created a drill guide so that I could get the holes at the same height and level. Once this has set up there will be a little file & filler work to blend in the mounts where they are inserted, but nothing major. I still have to make the brush guards from strip stock, but that's an easy task compared to the effort it took to make these.

[BUCKY]

Nifty drill guide!! Everything is looking good!

[JCON]

Looks good!!!

[Beekster]

Another milestone reached on this one; the light guards are done. I did this in stages over the last few days, when I wasn't out in the garage detailing cars (sedan is done, roadster starts this morning). I had one decent picture to go on for doing these. The position of the lights and the shape of the brush guards is a feature of the very last Ram tanks to come of the line, ostensibly from registration numbers C16002 onward according to Lucy's magisterial book on the subject. That appears to be the official introduction, but it wasn't implemented right away. Lucy's book shows C160007 with the older placement (and guards) atop the final drive bulges. Anyway, the two possible serials for this Sherbrooke Fusiler tank are later in the production sequence and while C160018 probably had this fitment C160125 certainly did. All this is simple .010" x .040" Evergreen strip, done slowly in stages to allow glue joints to fully cure: First the small bits on the final drive bulges and the arms welded to the bolt strips, then the arms on the body of the diff cover, and finally the main hoops.

[JCON]

Well done Beekster!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Wow! What a difference that made. Your detail work is once again, fennominal Beekster.

[ogrejohn]

Nice work on the light guards.