Covenanter (digital model)

Bovington's Covenanter.

I'm in the process of building a 1:100 scale digital model of the Covenanter, the immediate (unsuccessful) predecessor of the Crusader cruiser tanks of WWII.

This is a tank of many, many angles, and modelling is not proving to be completely straightforward.

At the moment, the gun mantlet is giving me a huge amount of trouble. It's a casting, so all the component parts will need to be faired together, but first I have to get the actual profile right, and that's giving me a lot more grief than I thought it would.

I think I'll have to scrap what I've done on it so far and start again.

Later....

The lug you can see at the bottom of the turret is just to hold it to the inside of the hollow hull.
It won't be seen on the assembled model.

The mantlet is still far from perfect, but it's a million times better than it was, and certainly good enough for my purposes.

Now I've got all the bits and bobs on the turret, and hollowed it out to save on materials when it's printed, and I'll call it finished. Now I can move on to the next bit, which I think will be the various components of the running gear.

Next bit

We've got some wheels, and now I shall have to make some tracks to wrap around them.

And the next

It's starting to look a bit tankish now. I have the basic shape of the hull and trackguards, and the wheels in place.

However, I'm going to have to revisit the turret because I forgot about the cut-out beneath the back half which would allow it to rotate over the guards and other assorted clutter.

What a nuisance. Still, I have nobody to blame but myself.

Running gear is complete, and now I'm making a start on all the crap that clutters up the decks. Those things in front are radiator covers.

Things are coming along, and most of the rear deck clutter is done. There are still a few bits and pieces to take care of — hinges, fire extinguishers etc. — but the end is in sight.