Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

[kernewek]

Bringing this build up to the present day, this is how it looks with a couple of brush coats on the tank. Had a go at hand painting the numbers on the rear of the turret box. I chose 111 as one of the first Tigers sent to the Russian front bore that number, and also it was my Dad's old racing number when he rode motorcycle scrambles (that's motocross for the younger members) back in the early 60s, so it has special significance.

Tiger1 18.jpg (247.61 KiB) Viewed 382 times

Tiger1 19.jpg (258.35 KiB) Viewed 382 times

Tiger1 20.jpg (247.38 KiB) Viewed 382 times

Tiger1 21.jpg (212.86 KiB) Viewed 382 times

The Good Lady Wife gave me a pretty nice Facom compressor for my birthday so will pick up an airbrush in the spring to get the paintwork into shape, and attempt weathering, and a winter camo finish ... the painting is the part of which I'm most apprehensive, so will be asking lots of questions nearer the time.

In the meantime, the inside of the beast is empty, save for the Taigen steel gearboxes. Have pretty much decided on a TK7.1 board as the old crystal 27mhz set up is now languising in a box in the basement, and from what I read on here many of you reckon the TK7.1 is a fairly good compromise between cost and performance. Also need to create a speaker box for the Visiton unit I bought a few weeks back, and set about rewiring the Taigen turret. Onwards!

Craig

[Jofaur86]

Hello,
great job on your part! Regarding the paintwork, I suggest you read the "Painting and Aging" subforum of this forum. As for the Visaton speaker enclosure, it's possible You yourself with 3mm thick ABS, and exact dimensions of the Tiger 1 towards the rear of the tank.

[Jofaur86]

viewforum.php?f=96

[kernewek]

Merci monsieur, looks like I can learn a lot from that section of the forum.

As for the Visiton speaker, I found a surface mount electrical box that's just the right size, just need to create a backing plate and I think it will be an easy fix

[ColemanCollector]

A silk purse from a sow's ear if ever I saw one! Looking nice in it's early eatern front form.
Are you using servo recoil and elevation? If not, the HL 7.0 board will be just fine and quite a bit cheaper than the 7.1 that has the servo ports. Make sure to order a Tiger1/T90 board.

Mike.

[kernewek]

Thanks Mike. There's only a tenner difference between the 7.0 and the 7.1 boards so I reckon I'll get the 7.1 as I may be glad to use servos later on in this build. The Taigen turret already has recoil but from what I read on here that can be troublesome so a servo recoil might be a better option in the long term??

[Jimster]

I really like the Clark servo recoil and elevation unit. Uses two servos. Very smooth action and the movement parameters are fully adjustable with a good board and radio.

[kernewek]

I really like the Clark servo recoil and elevation unit. Uses two servos. Very smooth action and the movement parameters are fully adjustable with a good board and radio.

I'll check that one out Jim, and see if anyone supplies it here in Europe. I see that Taigen does its own servo recoil, dunno if that's any good?

[MrChef]

I see that Taigen does its own servo recoil, dunno if that's any good?

EDIT, They do sell it separately at RC tank.de-
https://www.rctank.de/Rohrrueckzug-mit- ... heit-Servo
But 44 Euro is a steep price IMHO.

When it is hooked up to a Taigen V3 board it uses a servo signal converter which I don't see them offer anymore, and even then doesn't recoil realistically. But as soon as I hooked it up to a TK 7.1 board and tuned the servo it recoiled with proper fidelity. If you can get it over there it's decent. I'm working with the Heng Long Metal Barrel servo & elevation unit right now. It has a robust albeit clunky design. The Smoothest unit I have is the custom Rich Johnson one. He just might ship to you since he's a small 1 person company.

[Meter rat]

Looking really good. For a Tiger disliker. I quite fancy doing one of these. But it would have to be one with the bins on the side of the turret, like Jimster’s example.

I’m off for a lie down, now after admitting that.