Conger Carrier restoration, Overloon The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Guys,

It’s been over a year since I posted the last update on the Conger project. Last year the Overloon-Conger was moved from the workshop to the exhibition area along with a G13/Hetzer tankdestroyer and a Renault FT-17 to inform visitors about the restoration projects on hand. This did however mean that no welding and grinding could be done on the Conger. Meanwhile, the path of reproducing the missing parts was activated. A few repro-parts came in, but sadly they didn’t match the drawings we made based on research of the Operating instructions and the available period pictures. The decision was made to redo the parts, but before we were ready to start this stage, Nigel Watson found another, very important, bit of Conger information…….the drawings which came with the operating instructions!
This gave us some new insight on how some parts were attached to eachother and to the carrier. I translated the new info to the CAD model, which also enabled us to place overlays on original pictures to determine the exact positions of bolts etc. After the drawings were done, some of the 8mm sheetmetal was ordered outdoors, while other parts were cut from 8mm plates indoors, to “cut” costs. Below you will find some pictures taken last weekend, which show the mounting for the rocket-tube and the doghouse; the armoured construction to protect the nitro-filled tank.

There is also some new info on the "standard" rocket used by the Conger, but I will post that in the Conger rocket thread.

Alex