Roger that; there seems to be a fair bit on the www re the Valiant; I found these should, should they be of any use:
Anyway, for what it’s worth; keep up the good work - a very interesting project.
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Great pics, thanks!
Funny, I can see several variations of the additional armor and rear of the basic turret, and all these pics are of what I’m thinking of as the “early” type.
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Interesting to see this wagon and the influences of other tanks on it. A Chieftain mk5 NBC pack and what looks like a version of a Chieftain commanders cupola and engine decks and in some pics Centurion hush puppy tracks.
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Ed Zachary! And there you have, in a nutshell: how exactly do fittings and details on this turret!
I have a couple of decent pics of the turret on the Leo 2 hull, but only from the sides and front. SWAG is my friend.
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Another night at the bench! I used it well, getting both the loader’s and commander’s hatches set up. I fudged a bit, used a Tamiya Chieftain TC’s cupola and a Tamiya Cr 2 loader’s hatch. The sights are on, and I’m very happy with the fairing I made for the TC’s cupola and main sight. I laminated a few pieces, sanded a lot and cut the hole for the cupola.
Pen marks are where I’m probably going to put access covers and bin lids, bin lids at the very back. Also under consideration is which gun tube to use: I have the 120mm gun from the Osorio (looks French) and gun tubes from a Cr 2 and Chieftain.
Pics as of now:
IMG_4827 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4828 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4829 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
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Was it meant to fire the UK’s 2-part ammo? If so I’d think the ROF L11 gun from a Challenger would be the obvious choice - assuming it was meant for a UK market. The turret doesn’t look big enough for the one-piece ammo bins that would accompany a Rheinmetall gun…
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Stunning work there Russell, stunning.
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I’ll surely go for one of the UK’s guns that used the 2-part ammo, even though the interweb says the turret would also accommodate the Rheinmetall 120 mm gun and the GIAT 120 mm gun. Hmmm… If it was set up for the 1-piece rounds, maybe about 30 rounds carried? Also mentioned was ammo stored below the turret ring and adaptable turret ring sizes. Sounds like an interesting piece of engineering.
Or sales talk.
But on to the model! And my goof. Lots of pics I should have picked this up from, but I was in a frenzy of some sort, I dunno. Anyway, I totally missed the fact that the turret sides are NOT parallel from behind the hatches back. Oops. Thankfully it was no big deal to fix, just me and my Dremel, some sanding on a block and a bit more Evergreen sheet to get me back on track. First pic shows two lines drawn where the turret sides should be, from the middle-ish to the back, diagonally, based on pics.
IMG_4831 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
I tripped to this looking at pics of the rear corner stowage bins, did a quick forehead slap and got to cutting, coming up with this:
IMG_4832 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
Luckily I didn’t have to move anything else and only have to re-do the corner bins to get back to where I was. I even get to do the bins better, perfect because I wasn’t really happy with them as they were. All in all an easy fix, and I feel better now, thank you.
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Nice fix!
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Good save!
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I was leafing through a book yesterday and came upon the brief section on the “MBT 80”, and blow me down there were several nice pics of the turret roof. It looks amazingly similar to the grainy photos of the Vickers turret. I may have something to go to for details.
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Okay, bins are back on and I’m much happier now. I also am almost done with the mantlet. I added a piece to the top and where the gun goes in to square it up with the front armor. It just needs openings for the direct sight and co-ax.
IMG_4834 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
I thought I’d see what a Cr 2 gun tube looked like. I think maybe it’s too modern, but a Chieftain or Cr 1 gun isn’t in any pics I have either. I may end up doing something else.
IMG_4833 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
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Looking at grainy pucs and extrapolating from crappy renderings and re-touched photos gas gotten me this far in doing some basic detailing to the turret rear and roof. I doubt it’s accurate but it’s the best I can come up with.
And here’s the gun tube I’ll be using.
It will be a bit shorter once I have the bellows made up.
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Don’t worry Russel; we had a saying in Stonehenge Modellers (the display duo of me and my mate) “Who the f*** will know?” which is hardly an authentic approach to displaying models admittedly.
Some time ago, I was deliberating on how the side hatch in a Somua tank actually hung when open; I took the easy route, bearing in mind our unofficial mantra.
Whilst on display at the Belgian IPMS annual show, a French modeller ambled over from one of the clubs, scrutinised the model, and advised me that the hatch was totally wrong(!)
However, in your case, as we know, there is such a paucity of info, I really do think that no one will know.
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Bear in mind that even in real life there is the saying “Good enough for government work”… 
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Yeah, which these days - certainly in poor old Blighty - is a pretty low bar(!)
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Today’s work was lots of weld beads, lifting lugs and tie-downs. There’s about 14" of stretched sprue on it now.
IMG_4839 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4840 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
Antenna mounts, finish the commander’s cupola, the dust cover at the top of the mantlet, openings in the mantlet for the direct sight and co-ax… I’m running out of things I know it needs.
I have pics of the smoke grenade launchers on t he turret cheeks ala Cr 2 and the rear sides, more like the Leo 2. I think the later version had them on the back, I just need to gin them up.
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Loving the work you have done here Russel.
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That’s an impressive turret!
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