Ram OP |
| By Paul Roberts |
| Started: | Oct 16, 2003 | | Updated: | Apr 12, 2006 |
|
OK Here goes, my first BLOG. We'll all get to see how far I get and maybe it will encourage me to keep up my build pace.
As the title says, this will eventually be a Ram OP, which was the artillery observation post version of the Ram Cruiser tank. Over 80 of these were made in 1943 by Montreal Locomotive and they were built on the last version of the Ram Mk II chassis. This had all the mods introduced over the 2 year production run of the Ram tank.
While the gun tank versions of the Ram never saw combat service in that role, the OP was widely used by the self propelled artillery regiments attached to Canada's armoured divisions and army groups. With the removal of the main gun (a plain tube was welded on the outside to maintain appearances) and turret basket there was enough room inside for a crew of 6 which included the observers and operators for two No.19 radio sets. With the extra room and crew the OPs were highly prized by their regiments and further OPs were created on gun tank chassis at REME (RCEME?) depots in the UK. Like its cousin, the Sherman, the Ram was well suited to conversion to other uses and the OP was a perfect example of such a conversion.
|
|
|
|
| Chapter 21 - Ram Master Ready for Moulding | Apr 12, 2006 |
| A couple of people have wondered how my Ram II master was progressing, so here are a couple of shots of it from today. I have to take down the cast texture a tad and add the fuel shutoff valve holes to the engine deck plates, but then it's into the rubber they all go. |
| Chapter 20 - Turrret sides - close up | Jan 7, 2006 |
| A quick view of the turret sides showing the basic contours. |
| Chapter 19 - Turret | Jan 5, 2006 |
I've also been working on the turret, and finaly got the basic shape where I wanted it. Knowing I would want more basic turrets for different versions, I made a mould of it at this rough stage and made my first casting last night.
I have to add the bulge for the starboard side pistol port and... more |
| Chapter 18 - Back in the saddle | Dec 30, 2005 |
After a very long hiatus, the Ram is back under construction.
The hull shape had to be modified slightly when it was discovered that the drawings in the Hunnicutt book are, apparently, a little off. The hull, built according tot he drawings, will not fit with the Italeri lower hull allowing for air... more |
| Chapter 17 - Hull Casting #2 | Nov 8, 2004 |
| This is a closeup of the rear of the hull. The casting is hollow (although the walls are pretty thick in places) so I can put an interior in when I want to without too much work. |
| Chapter 15 - Hull Casting | Nov 4, 2004 |
| Because I know I will want to make more Rams and not wanting to start from scratch each time I decided to make a mould and cast the hull in its current interim state. I still have to add rivets and texture the casting and the like, but the shape and most details are good and I can start from here and... more |
| Chapter 14 - Drawing Board Part 2 | Jun 6, 2004 |
| Similarly, I have also scrapped the original narrowed turret I made. The roof didn't stay horizontal after I glued the two sides back together after the chop and I was adding too much putty and losing too much detail. I cast another turret, cut out the 1/8" and reglued it to gether in a night and... more |
| Chapter 13 - Back to the Drawing Board... | Jun 4, 2004 |
| After spending all that work getting the Lee hull looking good, I've scrapped the bloody thing. The extra .100" in width that Tamiya added for motorisation just throws out too many other details to recover from. I've used the old standard Italeri M4A1 hull with a CMD 3 piece front end. I still... more |
| Chapter 12 - Forward Hull Contours | Feb 15, 2004 |
This detail shot shows how the ball turret mount has been added to the hull to replace the auxilliary MG turret of the earlier vehicles. A new driver's hatch has been made that is larger than the Tamiya Lee door by about .030 all aound.
Just in front of the hatch you can see grey putty aft of... more |
| Chapter 11 - Hull Stern | Feb 13, 2004 |
A detail shot of the subtle shape changes over the rear hull overhang. Getting cast shapes right is a real pain but its pretty satisfying when you manage to capture the shape.
A new engine deck plate has been cut to match the opening seen here. I used my mill to ensure that the opening was both square... more |
| Chapter 10 - Hull | Feb 11, 2004 |
| This is the corrected hull with the fender boxes removed from the H&K kit. It gives some idea of the amount of work needed to properly represent his vehicle. |
| Chapter 9 - Differential Housing Detailing | Feb 4, 2004 |
| Close-up showing some of the work put into the differential housing. Note that this style housing had the later raised bullet splash lip in front of the mounting bolts. Next step is to add some cast texture with Mr. Surfacer. |
| Chapter 8 - Turret Surgery | Feb 3, 2004 |
An "after" shot with the turret narrowed.I actually cast a copy of the turret in case I messed up the only one I had. As it turns out it went OK. Not perfect as the work needed to correct some of the other slight inaccuracies was a bit much even for me.
As you can see I'm also rebuilding the... more |
| Chapter 7 - Turret Surgery | Dec 5, 2003 |
Just a "before" shot to show where the turret has to be narrowed. This still isn't quite enough to be accurate, but the turret hatch is only slightly out of position and even I'm not that anal. The barely-visible dark lines show the slice that has to be removed.
This part is easy, what I'm... more |
| Chapter 6 - Lower Hull | Dec 1, 2003 |
| Here is the lower hull, well along. The differential housing has had the casting numbers added, the suspension mount plates removed, rear idler mounts replaced with recast DML parts and a new rear plate made from a slightly modified DML M4A1 rear plate. Note that the DML/Italeri rear plate sits _inside_... more |
| Chapter 5 - Upper Hull Shape | Nov 19, 2003 |
| Here's the final upper hull shape. The basics are all here, but the details still need to be added. This stage involved widening the hull rear a shade, taking out the turret ring (in order to move it back .170") removing the drivers plate area and moving it back almost 3/8" and adding the hull ball... more |
| Chapter 4 - The Hull Underway. | Oct 21, 2003 |
Here is a closer shot of the hull. The plastic card around the rear of the hull is the start of work needed to widen the rear hull by .030" on each side.
The grey circle is the epoxy putty that I used to fillin the existing turret ring location prior to moving it back about 0.170". I'll also... more |
| Chapter 3 - The Real Thing! | Oct 20, 2003 |
| Here's a photo of what I hope to end up with. Note that the OP used the late hull with the ball MG mount and the hulls I have all come with the small MG turret. Oh the joy of reprofiling cast hulls! |
| Chapter 2 - Other Bits Needed... | Oct 17, 2003 |
As the OP was built on vary late Ram chassis, you will need a lot of parts from different kits to get this right. This includes:
1) A good horizontal trailing arm Sherman VVSS suspension system with the 5-spoked pressed wheels, the solid idler and drive sprocket. I have a set of the ABM suspensions... more |
| Chapter 1 - Oh, the Choices, the Choices! | Oct 16, 2003 |
Here is a shot two of the available Ram hulls. The one on the left is from Kit and Co. (also known as H&K 35) and the one on the right is the Resicast Kangaroo upper hull.
|
