Christian Ludwigs new Tiger-Chassis for HL-Tiger I

[birger]

Hi everybody,

and now something completely different....... or not????? Ähhhh!!!

Well, doesn´t matter.

What new project are we talking about?

Christian wanted to create a Tiger-I-Chassis that eliminates most of the known constructional mistakes of the HL-Chassis, with a kind like scale armor thickness.

So we started to create something. The measures are almost equal to the Aeromate-Chassis. It is not a rip-off. It is created to upgrade the old HL-Chassis. Well, you´ll see.

Just follow the report about the first prototype and form your own opinion. And, of course, you can post this opinion. I´ll be glad to read it.

Let us begin:

All mistakes which will appear while building this model will be eliminated in construction. So the production model should be without mistakes.

Let´s staaaaaaaart:

What´s that? Oh, it is a HL-Tiger. Let´s do some magic.



What are we going to use??

A lot of poly:::::::



Let´s start with these parts.



Here we rip off the first plate. Left side.



Next plate, lower front armor plate.





All parts need to be prepared. Why?

Well, all inner angles should be 90°.

Because of using a 1mm chamfer, those angles have an arc diameter of 1mm.

So there is a little bit of adaption to do.

Than all parts should fit perfect.

Don´t glue the parts together, yet. First all parts should fit.



Now the upper front plate.





As you can see, there are two prepared holes at the inside of the plate. If you want to use the HL-spare tracks at the front, you need to drill them through (2mm-drill).

Otherwise you should leave them as they are. In this case, I want to use them. So drill it.







Now the second plate can be prepared.



Next Part: The back plate.







So far, so good. Rip off second plate (right side) and prepare for assembling.







Everything needs to be disassembled. Than you can assemble again with glue in the same order as before.

The small back plate follows next. Rip off, prepare and glue.







The next parts need to be prepared the same way. Rip off, prepare and glue.









One part left side, one part right side.







One part left side, one part right side.





On the next pictures you can see the actual thickness of the plates.





To be flexible with spring tension, you have the choice of three different mounting holes.



That´s for today. Report will continue.

Greetings
Birger

[birger]

The next steps are preparing and mounting the track covering. Same procedure, rip off, prepare and glue.



















Now we will assemble the front, upper hull. This one is removable.





Well, here you have two possibilities. First Tiger with mud flaps (left part) or without (right part). I use the version with mud flaps. The other one doesn´t fit anyway. It is mirror inverted. Will be corrected.



















Here come the side plates of the upper hull.









Here you see them assembled.





Till this step I need to say, all parts can only be chamfered on one face. That means either one side or the other. According to this fact, there will be no miter at the cut edges.

As a result, most plates have a little gap to the next one. Also there won´t be chamfers on both faces. See next picture as an example. On one face you have an offset. There for the welding line to the front plate is missing. Second example, the chamfer at the top of the front plate is also missing.



Nobody is perfect. We really try our best.

Report continues.
Greetings

Birger

[birger]

Next step.

During this report you´ll see different accessories, which either are necessary or optional.

This one is a must have. Because we need the sockets and the screws. Why? See the pictures.









And the next parts.





















Now we assemble the additional armor for the transmission.









Next part is the ground plate for the gearboxes. There should be four of those spacers. I just found two. Two are missing. So I have to make two of my own. Will be corrected.























Will be fixed later.

Now the lower hull is almost finished. Lets switch to the HL-Tiger.

Change the spare tracks.



Additional Transmission armor needs to be fixed. This one is under construction and will be part of the kit.





Change the shackles..



And now, change the chassis parts. Springs, arms and wheels. Shit, the spring holes are 2mm to small. Well, I make them bigger. Will be corrected.

After correction, springs, arms and wheels were fixed on the left side.



And now the track tensioner from Henntec. It is all prepared for using this one. It is a must have.





Report will be continued.

Greetings

Birger

[Red Devils]

Thanks for the post Birger, Chris does excellent work, a true craftsman. Now, can he do something about the HL Panther G?

Derek

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
AAAIIIIEEEE! What's wrong with the HL Panther G (other than the fact that I am 'working' *loosely termed* on one)? The build components on this Tiger chassis are amazing! It's as if the factory built one out of scaled down rolled plate.
regards,
Painless Wolf

[jarndice]

I sometimes have my doubts about these builds for I am in constant danger of drowning in my own dribble. How does he do it and rather more to the point why cant I? MAGNIFICIENT!!!!! shaun

[Red Devils]

Hey Painless,

Ref my comment about the HL Panther hull, they're actually are some minor details that are wrong with the hull. Jeff1101's Panther build corrects them but with Chris's abilities, he could make a structurally sound hull with the correct details. So we're O.K., the hull is not that bad, I just like have to reinforce the lower hull. That's it. I'm going with it...with Jeff1101's work as my template...

Derek

[PainlessWolf]

Good Evening,
That's good to know, RD. I know Jeff added the track control wheels up by the sprockets and moved a molded on suspension down. *laughs* I was envisioning something along the lines of cutting up the Tiger 1 deck and turret to fix the turret overhang or somesuch. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[birger]

Ok, just to make it clear:

This is not a Scale-Tank. The dimensions for the lower hull and the upper hull were taken from an Aeromate-Tiger.

The dimensions for the suspension were taken from a HL-Tiger, of course. Also the dimensons for the engine deck and the rest of the accessories.

The meaning of this kit is to get a Tiger with almost scale armor thickness to be completed by a HL-Tiger old style that so many guys have sleeping on their shelfs.

It also corrects the most known model failures from the HL-Tank, including the turret center point. Just keep on watching.

Greetings
Birger

[birger]

Now the gearboxes. You fix the ground plate with the four screws connecting the HL-hull to the chassis. The holes need to be copied to the plate. Than drill them with a 2mm drill. Now screw them.





Insert the gears and fix them. Than mount the drive sprocket.





Here the view with the upper front armor.



Now put the Tiger on his tracks.



The next steps are a little work-intensive.

Let´s handle the back plate first.

Remove all screwed parts and mount them to the new plate.







Rip off the two frames and glue them to the back plate.









Remove all glued parts and mount them to the back plate. They might need a little adjustment. Leave the lifting jack. That one we need later.





At last cut off the shown parts, adjust them and glue them to the back plate.





Now there is a small highlight. It is a functional jack bracket.

Rip off parts and adjust them.

Remove about 1mm from the middle of the big parts and about 1mm left and right from the small parts (as shown by the pictures). Adjust both parts and connect them with a 1mm axis.

















Prepare the lifting jack as shown.









Connect the jack to check.



Report will be continued.

Greetings

Birger