draganm

not strange at all, "Bog tanks" are time capsules because there is no Oxygen. The ones they pulled out so far look like they sank a few months ago instead of 70 years ago. They are perfect time capsules, wooden boxes, paint, cloth, everything is perfectly preserved. Stug 3 in Russia was like that, A Sherman Firefly in that condition would be easily worth a millon Euro IMO, probably more.

the chassis is admittedly universal carrier, the drive sprocket is a little too far back, but something else about it didn't look right. Took a while but I finally see it. If we accept the one in Samur, with battle damage, as an original and compare. There is a slight downward slope to the bonnet, not much , maybe 5 degrees. the one in the US is almost horizontal to the ground. Here The Werfer tubes look suspicious and the support frame is too bulky. Front fenders looked fab'd for sure, wrong headlight brackets/lights The 3rd one in Russia looks to have a lot of reproduced parts as well. I'm not knocking the work done, as a reproduction it's well done, but the question is how much, if any, of it is original. For all intents and purposes, IMO I would consider this a replica that might have some original parts on it and people should bid accordingly.

I don't know for sure but they look brand new http://www.staman.nl/ appear to be Modeled after the VVSS T48 style tracks http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/tracks/vvss_tracks.html must have cost a fortune to retool and manufacture

last update from November Since the TV people are now running the show, and they don't like rolling out all their gear and film crews just to film in pouring rain, I would expect this to commence sometime late May/ early June? April seems to be 50% rainy days , but then again so is May and June, drops to 45% in July :-D Rick any interesting "bobs" to share? A turret would be nice

wow, 35 tons at 55kph on rubber tracks.

so non-original power plant? that would certainly kill the max value, but isn't the trailer alone worth a nice chunk of change? any idea what's under the tarp, looks too small to be a tank? :-D

may 12th, 2017 Indiana, USA . from what I can tell most /all of these vehicles are from the Victory Museum in Auburn Indiana, which auctioned off a lot of vehicles in 2012. Not sure who owns them now but they didn't see to have traveled very far? Like the last one though, I would expect this one to bring international bidders According to Shadok-surving panzers the Mauliter15cm Panzerwefer 42 and Marder-3 AusfM chassis' are not original, still the maultier is one of only a handful of armored rocket werfers known to exist. despite that some of the estimated prices appear low. Maultier at $50K, maybe a full reproduction would go that low? The Diamond T with tank transport trailer looks really cool. $15K to $25K, well that would make someone really happy 1941 Krupp 88mm flak 36, $75K to $125K ? 1944 White M16 with Quad mount - $120K , high? http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/all-lots.cfm?SaleCode=AS17&grouping=Featured%20Military%20Lots&category=

looks like the Panzer Farm in Poland is starting a Tiger 1 resto. Don't know why they would go to all that trouble instead of just pulling one out of the river but it's a cool project none the less :-\

LOL , thanks, I think that clears up this story rather nicely :-D

surely it's not possible that no one here knows this guy as a collector in the UK right? video of discovery , although it looks like a recreation https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tank-restorers-strike-gold-145639375.html they look bigger than 5kg no? 10 I would think edit, they weight them , about 5.5 kg each

That's a good point too, most people don't give much to much attention to duty cycle but if you exceed it the chances of blowing something go way up. Here the standard cycle is 10 minute intervals. So 35% duty cycle rating is 3.5 minutes on, 10 minutes off, 3.5 on etc. oddly enough of the 2 units discussed above the inverter has a higher rating @200 amps , 60% vs. 35% for the transformer. Which makes sense as transformers generate a lot of heat while switching power supplies are way more efficient, run cooler .

looks like £1449 (inc VAT) for the TEC-TIG 225 amp. Add the foot pedal, torch, ground cable and clamp, gas regulator and your going to be back up approaching 2K . To me personally, the R-tech 200 amp inverter machine for £1378 complete package is a better choice, but to go inverter or transformer is a personal choice. I would also ask around on a UK forum specifically for welding discussion

IMO the basic essential features are all there. They don't specify on a couple, like AC frequency control but......... that is not an inverter based unit , it's transformer based The transformer units are generally longer lived and more robust, but yeah all that Copper makes for a bigger and heavier chassis. I don't think that's an issue, I want my welder to look like a welder, not a toaster :-D They're warranty is a little disingenuous IMHO short of a lightning strike, the transformer is never what fails. What's the warranty on the rest , control board, etc.? They don't say how much are they asking for this thing? keep in mind that the torch and pedal are options too

not bad, only $1700. US including VAT , comes with Torch and foot pedal + plenty of modern features and 2 year warranty. http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/tig-welder-240v-ac-dc-200amp/ I paid a hell of lot more than that for the Miller , 4X times more and the pedal was extra and I used my old torch

not sure what Ally is , if it's Aluminum, 200 amps will let you weld about 1/4" thick using AC , maybe a little more if it has balance control. I just got rid of our old Transformer based machine because even though it went to 320 amps and was water cooled, with no balance control and 60Hz default it really struggled on thicker AL . Unstable Arc and unable to get enough heat into the weld. To give you an idea of what the modern units do, my New Miller Dyansty 350 is AC balance Default setting at 75% electrode negative and 25% electrode positive at 400Hz. Reason for the first one is you don't need that much electrode positive cleaning action for freshly machined AL bar sock and at 400Hz the Arc does not wander, much better focus on the arc puddle. Second, you didn't say how thick of stainless. Our old unit was good down to about .06" thick sheet. I have to weld much thinner than that sometimes and then I need the machine to be stable down to 15 amps or less in straight DC mode. The old transformer based units are dirt cheap used and run forever , our LTec (ESAB) was wired single phase 400 amp service. Our new Miller is 60 amp 3 Phase. If you don't need the extremes like I do of really thick AL and really thin stainless then your choices are much greater and cheaper. There are small budget inverter based units which are much smaller than the old transformer types but I have never tried one. A friend bought one for a few hundred dollars and he had no complaints on typical stainlesss tubing and schedule 20/40 pipe he welded up for his brewery. I don't think it had AC or HF arc start, DC with scratch start only. I would strongly recommend a water cooled torch as well. A commercial cooler can add hundreds of dollars in cost, but I think it's worth it if you plan to do a lot of welding.

I hate reading about these types of things, but I guess it happens in certain places http://www.newsweek.com/moscow-soviet-tank-contraband-kazakhstan-571757

looks like fun, show and swap inside the (now air conditioned) factory that made airplanes in WW2 and then tanks and AFV's from 1952 until 1972, Including the M41, T-195 - T196 howitzers , M-114 APC's, and finally the M-551 Sheridan. http://www.ixclevelandtankshow.com/index.htm the event center, 2.2 million square feet,wow http://www.ixcenter.com/en/About_Us/History.aspx

something to hold you over til the 2nd half of S2 airs. A tour of his private collection, Two 251 pioneers under resto, and the AAAM Panther . very cool, as good as the best of the regular episodes. Live feed cuts out at the very end due to connection problems but still 38 minutes well spent if you like really rare miltaria

i've been afraid to ask lest I jinx the process. fingers crossed for good news , and an inspring pic of the first one, you can actually see the chain attached to the tractor towing it off the farm . Pic from Dorking Heritage Museum

yes indeed and it makes more sense now, half the stuff they were promoting last year hasn't been shown yet. amazing panzer treasures, cool locations and resto's, can't get much better than that :-D Episode 5 was really good though, can't believe Bruce is jumping with WW2 era technology para gear at his age, safer than what the Germans used but looks dangerous at any age really. Couldn't ask for a better spokesperson for this hobby IMHO

little vidi of him on the AAAM FB page riding on their new Leopard, straddling the cannon no less ARRRrrghgh, possibly the only show in history that went up in popularity and down in the number of episodes. I guess it's up to Mr Wedlock to entertain us now , he better start practicing his Cockney Slang before the filming starts.

I agree, it's his likeability that carries the show , there's been other similar shows here and they were pretty bad , ended after 3 or 4 episodes. Last nights was interesting, little jaunt around italy , got to see one of the Sdkfz 251's, possibly 251/7 pioneer? little visit to Militracks-Overloon. still waiting for the Panther episode

here's something you don't see every day https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/5995443629.html

wow, that's practically free. We've spent close to that on wrecking yard motors here for big V8's you guys are such fastidious record keepers ,:-) sure is helpful though when old kit turns up

new (refurbed) meteor V12's on Milweb today for a little under 10K pounds. Wow, that sounds like a helluva deal . A brand new Chrysler Hemi 7 litter V8 is $15K. , this is literally 80% cheaper liter for liter One of those rare warehouse treasures I would think, if I was in the UK I would almost certainly grab one and then look for an AFV to put it in