Blast, I gotta make it a habit to 'copy' a post before sending, getting more failures lately, and there is no other recovery method.

Basically: The turret traverse ring is an assembly that can be dismountedwithout dis-assembly. The central white ring that holds the bearing balls, and the upper and lower casing parts. Note that each has holes that go through without a crew grabbing them. ~THIS~ is how you can dismount it, and by picking the right set, you can leave it attached to either the turret or upper hull. What Pah Co did was raise the whole ring, but I suespect shimming just the back would havce sufficed if he didn't over-tighten the side-screws and warp the upper/lower black rings.

And to note, he could have used a smaller shim. Think geometry & triangles, and levers too. By Pah-Co's measurements, the ring is ~roughly~ 5.5" in diameter, or 14mm (mean of inner/outer measurements) So if he shimmed only the back edge of the ring at .75mm, then every 7mm further out (2.75") the lift would be 50% more (angle, guys, angle) and at 14mm out from the ring-edge, its lifted a good 1.5mm. He could have used a smaller shim to get the same .75mm lift at the rear of the turret to clear the grilles.

Pah co: Yea, those are the gun cleaning rods. Lemme look at the 'Stan pics to see what the Canucks did to theirs, if I can spot 'em. Back with an edit in a few, just gotta find the image CD's...

Hokay... all the major metal was left the dark green that they arrived with, even though most got 'lightened' with dust. The slat-armor was pre-painted in a tan/sand color, and some of the removable bits (grousers, spare track, etc) was pulled and painted sand. The wooden handles were left au-naturel, though they could have received a protective matt clearcoat. The shovels showed some rust where the paint must have worn off the blades, and the bare metal had begun to oxidize in the heat. I noted that the pick head was a matt primer red, though the handle was wood. And sadly, I couldn't find any images in my quick look that showed the cleaning rods. They may be stored in a bin now, or left at base, now that there is a WHOLE lot of crap on the turrets between the bustle-bins and the slat-armor. I'd say you'd be safe leaving 'em OD w/ a bit of weathering to match the hull, and a bit of oil-type residue (use a smear of cooking oil) on the ends where they thread/attach to each other (don't want rust there, and end up w/ rods that lock together, or won't go together at all, eh?)

WhiteWolf