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Dr Phibes wrote:Beautiful work Hotte, as always.
As my own first KT build works ever nearer to completion already you give me further ideas for future upgrades and refinement.

That's the reason for this reports; I'm glad if you can get some ideas and inspiration...

With the holders for the poison gas detection panels (LOST-Erkennungstafeln ) it goes on. Made from a brass sheet – here both for the rear turret, drilled, folded and…





…mounted at the rear.





As well at the gun mantlet…



…and at the end received all panels weld lines.



At the commanders cupola were also missing some details. So has Torro omitted the armor protection for the hatch arm; thereby the open hatch has no lock. Here a photo from the original state...



As base material I’ve used round brass; built was a shell with two stages, pictures…





The opening in the cupola was accordingly drilled.





A first fitting. Continue with photos…







The arm of the hatch cover received at underside a little notch…



…and at the brass tube was welded a little retaining mandrel.





In conclusion for today still two pictures in mounted state.





With additional adjustments at the turret it goes on…

It goes further with the announced adjustment at the turret cupola. The cupola diameter was increased; for that I’ve used stripes of a polystyrene plate. The spaces between were thereafter closed with putty.



The whole was then sanded and at the front periscope cover was mounted the counterpart of the alternative visor. A few pictures…







I’ve mounted ElMod’s Battle Unit in the loaders hatch and these thereafter again in the turret.



The hatch received then still various weld lines.





Under the commanders cupola was a magnet glued, but I haven’t closed the hole for ammunition.



But first a little adjustment. After two polystyrene plates had fallen off, I removed all of them. For that I’ve used now Apoxie Sculpt. At the end was the hatch glued in and weld lines added.







The hole in commander’s cupola was closed with a lid from polystyrene.





Here a view in the opened loaders hatch; my Battle Unit is here installed.



View over the alternative visor…



…and still some pictures with weld lines.





To my knowledge had the early Henschel Kingtiger only one tank ventilation rear right; the late version had four ventilations; two in the rear and two directly behind the turret.
Torro had made two ventilations; in the rear left and right at the rearmost armor plate at the upper hull. The left one was removed and the right was a bit improved. Pictures…







So much for today…

Superb detail work.
You are right about the vent pipes on the rear, when I researched it I found it was one or four apparently, although I'm not sure why they changed it. Anyway like you I opted for just the one on the rear right as was aiming to build one of the 'earlier' KTs (easier than making two more anyway ).

Just wondering - why the need to increase the diameter of the commander's copola? Is this because the Torro metal part is not to scale?

Dr Phibes wrote:Superb detail work.
You are right about the vent pipes on the rear, when I researched it I found it was one or four apparently, although I'm not sure why they changed it. Anyway like you I opted for just the one on the rear right as was aiming to build one of the 'earlier' KTs (easier than making two more anyway ).

Just wondering - why the need to increase the diameter of the commander's copola? Is this because the Torro metal part is not to scale?

Hello Dr Phibes,

it's not so important as you mean and was more a feeling. The diameter of the cupola I haven't compared, but the distance from the outer edge of the cupola until the beginning of the cover of the periscopes. I've looked at some pictures and just this distance was me ultimately a bit too short.
And as a good side effect fits the cupola now exactly to the cupola foot at the turret.

hotte8487 wrote:
Hello Dr Phibes,

it's not so important as you mean and was more a feeling. The diameter of the cupola I haven't compared, but the distance from the outer edge of the cupola until the beginning of the cover of the periscopes. I've looked at some pictures and just this distance was me ultimately a bit too short.
And as a good side effect fits the cupola now exactly to the cupola foot at the turret.

Ah, yes, I see what you mean hotte8487. It is a good idea too as I noticed when preparing my KT turret that the copola does not, as you point out, match the seat in the turret. If I had thought about it, as you did, I would do the same as I can now see it also makes it easier to match up and extend the weld seams (I had a problem with this too). Thanks again for useful advice.

Mr Hotte, an educator as well as an artist.
Amazing attention to detail and the execution to match ...........

Many thanks Mr Bix; nice to hear from you...

For completeness, a few words to electrics. The MG by Torro isn‘t scale, the reason is – it has no barrel. Only the heat protection is present. So you will have at firing not only a muzzle flash. For a more detailed MG I had to take a look at the accessories market, but I decided me to make the existing MG a bit better.



For that I’ve bought me optical fiber…



…and made a barrel for the MG.



The optical fibre than glued into the barrel; more I didn’t do.





In between I’ve made all connections in inner turret. All connections are received plugs; so it is at each time demountable. The ElMod BU is also connected over the rotation ring.



The lighting was completed, for one hand the back light…



…and on the other hand also the front light.



For the connection between lower and upper hull I’ve used a HL turret cable, a bit adjusted. The green-white cable is for the backlight, the other is a servo connection for the front MG.



The ElMod BU was mounted in loaders hatch.





So much for today…

It goes on with my explanations about my electricals; today especially the rotation ring. At all multipolar connections I’ve used sockets and pin strips by JST. However you’ll need a matching crimp plier…



A piece of a circuit board was used to solder the pin stripes and to mount the hole.



The rotation ring was screwed on a driving plate; all cables for use were sorted with the clothes pegs.



As connection between lower and upper hull I’ve used the original HL connection cable and the HL board. At the upper hull receive each connection a plug for easy dismount or replacement. There were connected the light for the front MG and the servo for the MG, the turret motor and the front light. The free pins were for the servo; the second cable for lighting was solder off and connected to the bottom of the HL connection cable…



The turret rotation motor receives his connection…



…both turret servos and the muzzle flash are connected to the socket; the bipolar plug is for charging the accumulator.



A view into the turret…



…so were both turret parts are screwed together.



The turret is here mounted to the upper hull and also connected.



The cable for the backlight…



The connection plug for the rotation ring is mounted at the speaker box; from there then all connections to the ElMod Fusion board.





My recoil unit had in the highest gun elevation positions a little problem; she touched my driving plate a bit. My solution was a 3 mm thick round plate from polystyrene. Thereafter were the rotation ring again mounted.







More soon…