a month or so ago i modified the suspension arm mounting points on my Tiger, so they were pointing in the right direction, as per the real thing, and i thought i would show you all how i did it.
i had been thinking of this modification for quite some while, since a friend of mine, nigel pointed out to me that the HL tigers suspension arms were wrong, untill recently i had not done this mod' because i could not find a glue strong enough that i could trust to do this job with, (my Tiger weighs 11lbs). until i had i chat with nigel, and between us we came up with a mega strong glue.
the first thing i done was to get a spare lower hull, then i cut out the right side suspension mounting, then on my hull i cut out the exact same, but out of the left side, at this point by mistake i partly cut up the suspension piece that i was to glue in . thankfully i managed to rescue the situation . anyway i then glued in the rescued suspension mounting point giving the "glue" about 24hrs to dry fully, when i was happy with that i pieced
my Tiger back together slowly, first to go back in was the aluminium strenghening plates, after i trimmed a little piece out to clear the gearbox and drilled new holes for the springs. what i had not taken into account was that the suspension on one side is different to the other side, what i had to do was use everything from the same side that i cut the mounting point from, luckily i had a spare set of metal suspension arms, once the strenghening plate had been sorted, everything went back together fairly easy. one other thing i did while i was in there was to make a gearbox brace, the 'boxes do flex abit, so making the brace was a good idea, the following photos will show you how it is done.
why did i do it?, i have been asked this many times, the wife thinks i have lost my marbles, "because you dont see it", may be i have lost my marbles , but as i pointed out to the wife and other people, i wanted my Tiger exactly right in detail even if you dont see it often, plus i believe it is the first time this has been done on a HL Tiger. was it worth doing?, in my opinion YES, it works aswell as a standard HL Tiger, not better, but it does give you an added bit of authenticity. plus, for me it was an enormous amount of fun doing it, and proving you can be a tightwad and do something like this on the cheap.
if you have any questions about this modification or opinions, let me know
Tony
ps, this show how well the home made glue i make works, it has to support an 11lb Tank
, anyway, its a mod', that does sound daunting, but if you have a good glue, (i made my own)and know how to measure and cut accuratly,which i know you can(ive seen your tanks.mmm)then it is fairly easy to do, give it a go!!!
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