Vickers 8" Howie pics as promised

Breech Block for 20mm chamber

Edited By bob gould on 19/04/2013 14:24:39

Edited By bob gould on 20/04/2013 22:35:29

Hello Bob,

Just had a look through your albums, and am very impressed with your work and attention to detail. I especially like the photo's of the Konigstiger. A late relation of mine was a commander of a MK 6 in ww2. You are correct about the over engineering, but once the inital teething troubles were ironed out then they became awsome pieces of gear. Although I am of the opinion that the Panther was overall the more effective weapon. So once again great workmanship in all your models.

Best wishes.

Donald.

The breech operating shaft and cam requires a 45 deg turn but the first breech was a 3 segment which uses 60 deg turn to unlock. New breech block is 8 segment so it will only require a 45 deg turn.

1. assembly

2. parts

.

Breech testing. Finishing required

Breech housing

Breech assembly

Handle in open position

Handle in closed position

Interesting to watch progress Bob,

Looking at your own achievemnts, I'm surprised you are getting a third party to do this for you!

Joey

Hi Bob, I fully agree with Joey, that you are more than capable of building the Howitzer with out needing any help from anyone on here. Is time the demon? are you engaged on another project?

I would certainly do the heavy parts for you, but as I don't make models I would be out of my depth with the small parts. The 6th panzer division certainly seen a lot of action ,as did the Black Watch. Lets hope that we never have to go through all that.

Best wishes,

Donald.

Thank you for your comments and confidence. I really cant do the precision stuff. The stuff i made was 1/1 and fractions didnt mater if you had a file!! Also i dont have a machine shop where i work now, just a basic one. I am building a Late tiger I at the moment and hope to complete it after summer.

I will carry one posting

Hi Bob, The late production Tiger will be a cracking addition to your collection. Are they from kits as in Armortek, or are they scratch built? either way they are very impressive. I have the engineering drawings from Henschel [copies] they run to 37 sheets of a size that would be about A1 in moden sizes. they are of the King tiger with the Henschel /Krupp turret.. I hope you will post some photo's of your progress with the late version Tiger Mk6, If i'm correct would that be the version with the Cast steel road wheels?

Regards,

Donald.

Hi donald

yes you're right the late tiger I had the all steel road wheels after allied bombing and blockades seriously diminished their rubber production. All my kits are armortek, there is no one else who does scale armour thicknes metal tanks in 1/6. There is plenty machining and work needed though as they are quite basic kits and don't fit together like a jigsaw. This is part of the fun in making them. They also stop short of detail so some cottage industries have emerged which do some after market parts. Then it's back to old fashioned make the parts yourself. All good fun and bloody fingers though and you get a fantastic quality tank. My king tiger can pull a 7 ton ups truck without much effort

The following pics are of the working breech assy. It needs tyding up yet. The handle moves the cam which rotates the breech block, and the arm swings it away. Operation is smooth.

functional

I like the WD arrow, just in case anyone doesn't realise a bloomin' great field gun might belong to the army!

Neil

I thought that was you you pointed the gun the right way

J

it just in case someone thought it was a civillian one!! hahaha

The old War Department stamped everything with the broad arrow , sometimes multiple times. It was intended to enable identification of stolen goods, perhaps to prevent theft ; this latter of course failed. Stealing an 8" howitzer however would stretch the ingenuity of even the wiley squaddie, so in this case I think it says "...we own this, isn't it great..."