Tank Restoration

[Stuart Galbraith]

Struck me we dont have a channel to exchange the best tank restoration channels online, so here is two of my favourites.

Oz Armour. They have an increasingly huge collection of armour, and seem to be rebuilding hard. If there is a disappointment, most of what they build are non runners, though they did some recent films on restoring a Grant to running condition which was really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/@ausarmour

Mr Hewes, whom mainly makes a career out of restoring Chieftains and Centurions of all descriptions. currently working on the tank museums FV4005, the 183mm tank destroyer on Centurion chassis.

https://www.youtube.com/@MrHewes

Mr Milo, whom whilst frequently indecipherable because he understandably speaks Dutch, being Dutch, has done some excellent restorations on T69II and a BMP1 ARV.

https://www.youtube.com/@mastermilo82

Someone connected with the guys at Battlefield vegas, whom have done some interesting restorations on BMP1, T55, T62.

https://www.youtube.com/@MilitaryArmamentsCompany/videos

 

Please add as many as you please.

[old_goat]

Do not forget Lottie, her channel is awesome! 

https://www.youtube.com/@lottiethetankwhisperer

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes, she is very good, I really should have remembered her. Lottie is truly the Centurion Whisperer.

[Damian]

@Stuart Galbraith My friends from Polish Military Technology Museum (Muzeum Polskiej Techniki Wojskowej), are also restoring vehicles, right now they are working mainly on ISU-122.

https://www.youtube.com/@patosruba263/videos

Obviously there are some other projects going on, like restoration of ASU-85, done by other group, and work on other vehicles. For example in museum they have around 18 T-34-76, T-34-85 and T-34-85M1/M2.

https://www.youtube.com/@MuzeumBorne

And here is YouTube channel of Military History Museum in Borne Sulinowo.

Edited April 11, 2024 by Damian

[Stuart Galbraith]

Thanks for that.

That reminds me, Tankhunters has had some good videos in it in the past.

 

[alejandro_]

The Museum of the National Military History at Padikovo (Russia) is also worth following. They just completed the restoration of a FT-17 tank.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/padikovo/

[old_goat]

Two more from facebook:

1, Flakpanzer (and Hetzer) restoration project, Canada. They are progressing, very slooooooowly but surely. There are posts on facebook irregularly, but the guys there are super nice, they answer most questions.

https://flakpanzerrestoration.com

https://www.facebook.com/FlakpanzerRestorationProject/

2, The Wheatcroft collection. They are quite famous for the large number of projects. Shermans, Hetzers (4 progressing very well at the same time...), Tigers, and lots of other stuff. The collection had a website in the past, but its unavailable now. Instead, they post almost every week. Kevin Wheatcroft sometimes appears in the comment section too, he is also a quite nice guy. 

https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Wheatcroft-Collection-100082679760890/

 

 

[futon]

Possibly the last post-war Ha-Go turned dozer.

 

[Erik1]

 

It will be restored to running, they're near the end of the work but progress is slow.

Edited April 15, 2024 by Erik1

[Coldsteel]

Possibly the Weald Foundation? At least I hope so, it'd be nice if the restoration process is documented and shared.

 

[old_goat]

3 hours ago, Coldsteel said:

Possibly the Weald Foundation? At least I hope so, it'd be nice if the restoration process is documented and shared.

They produce lots of content about restorations, but sadly the vast majority of it is hidden behind a paywall. They are also nowhere near as friendly on facebook as Kevin Wheatcroft, or the guys at Flakpanzer restoration.

[Coldsteel]

Well that's disappointing. Especially after they have Darrin on and praise him for freely sharing info with them, he's a good bloke he even took a few measurements of his LP1 for me so I could build a model or two correctly.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Am I correct in thinking LP1 had a mount in it so you could use it as a 2 pounder gun carrier? Or was that another development?

[Coldsteel]

Yeah, sort of. But you're not supposed to know about that one, so no.

They'd recognised the utility of the portee so like everybody else set about figuring out how to mount a 2 pounder on a tracked chassis. A whole bunch of ideas and experiments later, the end product was a longer new built hull using LP2 components and a custom drive line to put the engine up front near the driver, featuring a fully traversable 2 pounder gun on the rear.

Much the same hull was then also used to make a 3 inch mortar carrier, with the mortar sitting lower in the hull on a turn table to enable it to be fired from the carrier, and the sides built up for ammo stowage.

Which is a bit hard to find good photos of as it apparently was no longer an army requirement and all 400 are supposed to have been shipped to the Nationalist Chinese. The mortar is not drawn but should be on the circle behind the folding crew seat in the back

[Stuart Galbraith]

Im sure I remember seeing a video online some time ago of them restoring a 2 pounder carrier. I was amazed they managed to squeeze it onto a chassis that small.

 

[urbanoid]

Pz.IV being restored in Poland.

 

[alejandro_]

On 4/13/2024 at 8:44 AM, futon said:

Possibly the last post-war Ha-Go turned dozer.

Thank you, I was not aware of this project. 

I recommend ArkadiuszM Aki Tank (@ArkadiuszMolis1) twitter account to keep in touch with different restoration projects in Poland.

Edited September 13, 2024 by alejandro_

[futon]

42 minutes ago, alejandro_ said:

Thank you, I was not aware of this project. 

I recommend ArkadiuszM Aki Tank (@ArkadiuszMolis1) twitter account to keep in touch with different restoration projects in Poland.

Hello alejandro_,

That looks like a superb channel. I don't have a twitter X account though so I can't see the latest post though.

From the YT channel of the Ha-Go bulldozer, the latest is that the group has had the Ha-Go prop that was used in the series The Pacific. While a museum in Texas has a Chi-Ha. They are going to exchange the two items. The forming Japanese tank museum gets a Chi-Ha to add to their small collection while the Nimitz Museum gets a moving Ha-Go which would probably fit very well in their live battle demonstrations. 

The Ha-Go prop:

 

 

The Chi-Ha in Texas:

 

[old_goat]

4 hours ago, urbanoid said:

Pz.IV being restored in Poland.

Yeeeeeesss! And I guess with a bit of help from Panzerfarm   Always good to see some german stuff restored to running order. Restoring old ww2 stuff is always good regardless of origin, but in my opinion, german and japanese vehicles are a bit more interesting, simply because they are much rarer. 

 

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Someone is going to have fun...

 

[Tim the Tank Nut]

there's a lot there.  There's a lot gone too but it's a good starting point

[Mike1158]

Looks like at least a hybrid can be produced.

[urbanoid]

While not a tank and already restored...

 

[old_goat]

Also from Poland, a bit more info about the Pz.IVJ restoration.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Restoring the Samur Tiger.