[WINTER 23-24] Tiger I #822

[MrChef]

Now the best way to fix those holes is take some stretched sprue, and push it in til it's tight, then some solvent to fix it in the holes. Snip off the excess sprue and sand flush. Voila, holes filled!
You're welcome,
Mike.

Yes, yes you're almost caught up CC. Funnier though, I never really thought I'd be learning how to poke realistic holes into these things. Way back when I bought my Taigen I NEVER would have even considered cutting or damaging it in any way for the money I had spent.

[MrChef]

im calling that PERFECT
Really well done that Man

Thank you Very much. I am humbled.

[MrChef]

Yeah, clearly cheating. Bringing in an expert to do your welds is against the rules. Where are the protest forms?

You don't know how long I contemplated a way for one tool that would do a whole weld run at a time instead of the bit, bit, bit, bit, etc... I even saw some scale modelers talking about buying pre-fabbed styrene weld runs. Never could find them in 1/16. And after looking At Lot of real pictures noticed I began to appreciate the "hand made" look, sure there were imperfections just like mine but when it was good you can really appreciate it. I'm very happy I'm learning this. It really provides satisfaction when I sit back and look at the whole job.

[Meter rat]

Ok, Mr C, you are motoring along. That looks fantastic.

[MrChef]

Still plugging along. Skipping around a bit.

Here we are at one of my favorite parts of a build. Track prep, painting and weathering. Simple and mundane to some but I really enjoy it. So being that I was going with my own set of rules I downgraded to plastic tracks for two reasons:

One, I want to do several versions of winter tracks, 1 snow packed and 1 muddy and then my favorite, 1 blackened, weathered metal.
And
Two, ToucanRC had quite a sale on these plastic tracks $3.99 per set!

So I went over the tracks with the Chisel razor to clean them up. I won't go crazy because they'll be covered in snow, mud and muck.




That was a boring update right?

Just know that I had John Wick 4 on while cleaning 2 sets of tracks up. I could pretty much divide my concentration between the movie and moving a razor in my hands and didn't cut myself or lose track of the plot of the movie. Don't know what that says about the movie...

[MrChef]

OK, so here's my second official complaint. And I don't remember seeing anyone saying anything about it in my research.

The Heng Long Plastic Tiger I Wheels SUCK! I mean they're Bad. Both in casting and concept. I can almost accept the concept to save or ease cost of manufacturing but the wheel detail is HORRIBLE.

For Reference this is a Real early Tiger I wheel-



Here is a pile of the offending Heng Long plastic wheels



This is comparing the Heng Long plastic wheel to the Taigen Metal wheel



The only thing I'll be able to do is paint them. I mean I can extreme mud them to cover the rims but thats not how I usually like to do them. These are truly sad.

I mean compare them to the plastic Panther G/Jagdpanther wheels that people often complain about comparing them to Tamiya wheels-





If you're not too bored already. I mean in comparison the plastic Panther/Jagdpanther wheels are Not that bad-


OK. [/End Rant]


Following is a lot of just sanding. There were 2 mold injection points on every "tire",that required coarse and then fine sanding before sanding the rest of the tire.

The wifes collection of sanding sticks ranging from cheese grater coarse to smooth as glass fine were very helpful. I also completely used up a brand new contractors sanding sponge on these blemished bits.







Sorry to bore you but it's just gotta get done. Now I'll just do some fine wet sanding on the wheel face before painting.

Thanks for watching.

[MrChef]

Welds, welds, welds...

Practice makes perfect they say-




And, the daunting glacis plate. The weld has to be roughly 1/3 the size of the other weld beads. And it's right in the front for all to see first.







Sneaking it under the MG ball was a test of patience and my limited newfound skills.

[Meter rat]

In things to fix on your tank, there is an article about wheels , and how to improve them. Especially the dualing the wider ones.

[ColemanCollector]

An old welder friend of mine used to tell me, "If the line looks like chewed bubblegum, the guy's a hack. If the line looks like a roll of dimes on an angle then the guy's a pro".
Your lines are looking pretty pro, Chef!

Mike.

[Jimster]

Beautiful work! I never had the patience to attempt welded seams.