The shock & awe of the fly spray dots was met with an equal retaliation of weak thinners & more patience than I thought I had.
Seemed to work. I assume that evaporation of the spray with help from the weak thinners & a soft make up brush did the trick.
Decided that the best way to provide securing points for the unditching pole was to make use of the front S-mine launcher redundant position, and to add a 'maintenance support troop supplied & fitted" tow hook type device for the rear.
Driving to do a rare but important school run today i had a thought that a 'D' shackle tipped on its side & welded to the radiator cover would have been an option, and straight after that the same shackle dropped into the grill above the radiator where the cavity is with the cover lifted up, & the shackle secured . Cover restored, the shackle would be able to be used as a tie off point for the rear of the pole without any rear echelon support to provide it.
However.................that option would mean that I would have to open him up again to secure the shackle.
HELLLLLLLLLL.............NO
The subject picture has little evidence of the method of securing the pole to the side, and the best pictorial unit histories that I can find (Tiger Im Focus for example) for this Tiger 100 from the 505 Abteilung cover everything BUT..............so its artistic licence .
'100' was apparently a survivour of Kursk, so that alone makes the subject picture even more of significance and by that time the crews would have well figured out the 'how-to's' of Tiger operations.
The chain I decided on for the front pole mount was just long enough to choke the pole & make the mount.
I found a pen that didnt work ( every house has ONLY those when you need a pen that actually works) and recovered the spring.
Gently fed the chain link into the spring end then clipped it from the rest.
Put one loop on each end.
For me it looks close to a welded loop that would have been easy for support troops to make up during maintenance.
Im assuming Tiger units at this time still had good access to supporting units being the cream of armoured developement.
Once welds are added to the mounts and the usual weathering of chains etc Im optimistic things should work out right.