British 105mm Tank SX689 Practice Flash Shell Restoration

[peregrinvs]

Previously discussed on here. Made at ROF Patricroft in either April 1968 or 1969. I've been slowly fettling it back to approximately it's original appearance and thought I'd post some progress pics.



I'm trying out an idea I had for making a lookalike upper driveband: cutting and shaping a suitably sized piece of rubber strip. I've since glued it in place and am planning to conceal the join with filler and paint the whole thing copper. I've also made a stencil for the body markings which I haven't done before, so fingers crossed it works.

Cheers,
Mark

PS. Still after a nose plug...

 

[Weasel]

Very nice, i look forward to seeing how it turns out.
Best regards Weasel

 

[peregrinvs]

More progress... I've stuck on the copper painted rubber 'drive band' and attempted to use the stencil I made. Alas the latter is a fail; the shell is slightly hour glass shaped (possibly some sort of hydraulic force thing between the flash charge and the HE substitute when it was fired) and I couldn't get the stencil flat = most of the characters are blurred.:tinysmile_cry_t2: An attempt to re-touch with a small brush merely resulted in it looking slightly less awful (I don't have a steady hand). So on to Plan B: I'm going to try the 'reverse masking' method using half-inch vinyl letters. Wish me luck...

 

[gravelbelly]

More progress... I've stuck on the copper painted rubber 'drive band' and attempted to use the stencil I made. Alas the latter is a fail; the shell is slightly hour glass shaped (possibly some sort of hydraulic force thing between the flash charge and the HE substitute when it was fired) and I couldn't get the stencil flat = most of the characters are blurred.:tinysmile_cry_t2: An attempt to re-touch with a small brush merely resulted in it looking slightly less awful (I don't have a steady hand). So on to Plan B: I'm going to try the 'reverse masking' method using half-inch vinyl letters. Wish me luck...

The slightly "pot-bellied" look is seen on many armour piercing projectiles which have hit armour plate. If they do manage to penetrate then the copper driving band is usually sheared flush with the diameter of the projectile or ripped off entirely. Perhaps some similar trauma befell your shell.

gravelbelly

 

[peregrinvs]

Thanks, but I'm fairly certain it's not impact damage as it's a thin walled shell and would be a lot more distorted if it had hit something solid like armour plate. My theory is that the bursting charge in the base (which also partially shattered a concrete ring into which it was set) pushed the HE substitute forward with some force - bulging the case and blowing out the nose plug. The lower bulge also caused the upper drive band to break and fall away.

 

[tomsk]

nice paint job wot colour is the blue paint please
Tom

 

[peregrinvs]

I ordered a 400ml spray can of matt BS 381 113 Deep Saxe Blue (NATO standard colour for practice ammunition) from this outfit:

http://www.arcritepaints.com/matt-military-paint---choose-size--colour-788-p.asp

Select 'choose your own' and you can add the details. Pictures I've found of original ones look slightly glossier than mine, so you may wish to order satin rather than matt.

 

[peregrinvs]

Finished! Compare and contrast to when I first got it.



As mentioned the stencil didn't work out, so I tried the reverse masking method with stick on letters. The character alignment isn't as accurate, but otherwise it looks a lot better. The matt deep saxe blue paint proved very easily marked so I finished it off with a coat of satin lacquer and I'm very pleased with it. I was using the one here as a model, although for the hell of it I decided to add the 'SX 689' design code as I've seen other projectiles marked in this way.

http://www.jcmilitaria.com/ordnance_artillery_ammo.asp?Start=30

Now need a correct British 'RW 242' marked 105mm TK case to go with it as well as a nose plug.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[hangarman]

Very respectable restoration. I like the drive band, I'm doing one in copper and its a pain in the watsit... Stenciling looks good too.
Cheers
Gary

 

[peregrinvs]

Very respectable restoration. I like the drive band, I'm doing one in copper and its a pain in the watsit... Stenciling looks good too.

Thank you. There are various imperfections if you look closely, but overall I'm happy with it. My next project is a fired 105mm TK SX 411 BE smoke shell that I acquired at W&P. It's currently with a friend, so I don't have any pictures. It has some cosmetic rust and a bent ballistic cap, but overall looks a good candidate for restoration. (I'm going to conceal the cap with a fuze cover) Stay tuned...

PS. Good luck with your new copper drive band.