[WINTER 23-24] Tiger I #822

[MrChef]

Me thinks young Skywalker has achieved enlightenment.

Great work Master Chef!

There is no try, there is only do.

Thanks Eric I appreciate your support.

[MrChef]

So the crazy days have passed. I ended up working Christmas eve and Christmas day helping a friend cook at his restaurant. NOT what I really wanted to do. I've never worked on the eve or the day before and I don't plan to again.

Anyway I mentioned earlier that John at East Coast Armory came through earlier than expected with the lagging part of my order. YaY... Time to work more on the last Big part of my build, the Turret.

So I had showed that i had opened up the Rommel box where the turret lifting lug goes. That's the easy part. Next I fabbed up a deeper box with some scrap styrene for the lug to fit.

Ugly as sin on the inside-





but more than pulls it off on the outside. So far this is the only mod that I didn't like doing much.



Note in this pic the Lug is just set with a spot of PVA glue to guide me through building the ugly box. I used PVA for the lug, placed the styrene together and used quick set Tamiya Extra Thin cement.Then when it all looked right I used CA glue to secure it all.

For reference is Tiger 131-



I didn't mess with the turret bin as I noticed it was pretty close otherwise to the real Tiger.

In the end I applied thinned Tamiya Standard putty in the hole and on the lug to level it all out.

[MrChef]

Details that I hate on the Heng Long Tiger I.

Others may hate the Heng Long Bug/Frog Eye lights...

I loathe the Turret lug Detail and the Side Turret Vision Slits. So East Coast Armory to the rescue again. I just gotta hack some more cancer plastic away. The Razor saw is much more precise for this procedure.




With these nubs off I proceeded to wet sand the whole turret assembly.

The round halos are just a guide for where to place the new ones. Now, in my readings I had heard that the vision slits weren't exactly opposite from each other but I leave that kind of stuff for guys like Louis. So these are a quick fit,just measure and mark the center of the vision slit, tap a pilot hole, drill a regular hole, add the new piece, just pops right in. A little CA glue and we're on our way.

[MrChef]

Tonight ends up with most of the turret detailing getting done.

I didn't take a pic of adding the Commanders copula because I thought that was self explanatory and I had mentioned it earlier. The only thing of note is to make sure the hatch opens to the correct angle and the Commanders vision slit is facing forward as well. A little CA glue and were good. For the Taigen metal piece there's not much to worry about, just face the vision slit and hatch correctly and it's all good. If I was using the Heng Long hatch I'd have to disassemble the copula further to have both of those to match up properly.

I have applied a slurry of Tamiya White putty and airbrush cleaner as armor texture, to hide any flaws and to fill gaps.









I'll let all that dry and glue cure overnight and I'll do some finish sanding tomorrow, then weld beads/seams then it's time for primer.

Prepping the recoil cannon, plugging the extra hole in the gun mantlet. Sorry forgot pics of that.

[MrChef]

Gun mantlet adjustment.

Filled the extra hole. Some light texture with Thinned Tamiya white putty.





A little sanding when it dries and good to go.

[MrChef]

Ok weld beads. I used Tiger 131 for reference-



Some of mine came out rather well others were a bit off. The hardest part was where the Rommel box mates at the back of the turret since it doesn't provide a full edge or lip, I had to make do and form it.



The Commanders copula was also a challenge to make with the edge, I'm not sure how happy I'm with that part but I did it.



I think the're a little heavy but I do know how they blend in when painted.





A little sanding and then it's off to the primer.

[Meter rat]

Fantastic work Mr C

[MrChef]

Fantastic work Mr C

Thank you Mr. R.

Now I'm going to take a page from Mr. Painless Wolf and am going to do Winter Whitewash practice on my T34-85. I had always wanted to repaint the T34 since it was the first tank I used my early skills of weathering on, panel liner, dirt, mud, pigments, filter, chipping, etc.

As I wait for the right weather to do major painting on the Snowy Tigger, I'm going to make my T34 white-ish. But have no fear as soon as I get 35-45 degree sunny day it'll be Tigger time.

[MrChef]

Mr. Painless Wolf gave me an idea. He's building a model to prep himself for his big build. I hadn't done whitewash camouflage in awhile and I felt that I could improve on what I had done previously. I'm also trying Ammo/Mig Washable White paint for the first time to see what it's all about.

So I cleaned off my previously weathered HL T34 and decided to do some worn weathered winter white wash.



The "paint mule"



The stuff I used.

The hairspray is not necessary I just wasn't confident yet with the washable paint. I did apply 2 thin coats and let it dry. The paint doesn't "chip" the same as acrylic. I did a test on the right rear lower hull section without any hairspray and you can see it blends the same as the rest with the hairspray.








This stuff is very fun to work with. I went back and forth adding and subtracting to see what I liked. It does Not work the same as traditional hairspray chipping which I was just getting the hang of. It becomes diluted or hazy and just easily wipes off with water and a brush or sponge. It is pretty thin compared to Tamiya XF paints but has good color coverage. I also tried it watered down which I had also done with the Tamiya paint and it doesn't "thin" the same way.











Definitely more to play with but I'm happily getting the hang of it.

[Ad Lav]

Great results so far!