gawd , another Tiger 1 (late) w.i.p. yawn . . .

[blimp]

Thanks Cliff , the screen is kaput i'll try and get it fixed if i can but it's an older Olympus model so the best bet is to trudge into town and look pitiful in front of some folks i know

BTW - If anyone is interested , and has the Asiatam 'small' metal Tiger 1 idler wheels , i've made some resin caps for them ( you just stick them on with epoxy or superglue )

• 

• . . . . I've done a mould , and it's doing nothing , ( + a litre of resin !) so as long as it lasts - if ya want some just holler

- All the best , Blimp .

[raven]

hi blimp i like all the work your putting into your tiger great job

chris

[majordisastor]

Love the Tiger - Tiger paintjob .....I have a tank called Willi .............I will have to chose its paint carefully .............

Andy

[blimp]

Ta muchly Chris

. . . I won't ask what the scheme will be then Andy

• . . . Anyway somebody had to do it , i blame the beer fairy .

- PT 6 ish . The rest of the turret .

Are we sitting comfortably ? here we go again .

• In the picture above you can see how i made the vision slits , first i reversed a large scalpel blade and used the tang , heated over a lighter pressed it into the plastic - the slit should be slightly below the centre line - when cool it was wriggled free and the whole mess filed back to a lower profile .

- Much better than H/L's 'woodsrew' effort nein?

• . . . I was not impressed with the trunnions either , and have cut them down to a more believable size and added some styrene under the 'chin' to represent the later type armour. things got a bit confusing here , research time . I spent yonks scouring the interwebs trying to find some decent shots of this , the late side armour profile is shown in 'Tiger info' but i couldn't find anything other than a photo of the thicker plate underneath .
  • . . . Or tantalising glimpses - such as Samur's Tiger http://jtrowbridge5.smugmug.com/Saumurs ... 5687_VS5oR" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
  - I did find some fairly good still's , but a recent 'update' wiped out all of my scrapbook files ! Thanks a bunch , F*refox . Grrrr . Anyway , what they showed was that the front of the plate should be much closer to the turret ring and with a step at the sides and another showing below the mantlet framework . More number crunching confirmed that around 5mm has to come off the front , and 1m has to come off the height of the turret too , to do this i carefully removed the .5mm steps that make the joint between the top and bottom halves of the turret and made a new one from strips of styrene glued to the inner faces , it is much more positive as well

Surgery time Deep breath , the real Tiger turret is offset , so i cut a 'V' shaped slit out of the r/h side of the roof along the weld at the front tapering back to the roof centre weld , taking care not to damage the inner fixing pillarthis was then clamped and glued , making sure the mantlet didn't overhang the ends when fitted .reinforcing the pillar/wall join with scraps .

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• 

. . . The turret has to go from this . . .

• 

. . . To this ...

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• . . . The chin piece was trimmed to suit , and some styrene was added to the 'chin' upper edges to represent the turrets 80mm thick armour (5mm in 1/16th) , and a strip of plastic ( cut from the old Tigers battery compartment )were glued to the front of the turret , to become the lower mantlet frame .

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The top of the turret roof was trimmed back (to the weld line) the sides reprofiled and another plastic strip (4mm)added for the upper mantlet shield piece , I shall scribe the three segments and add the bolt detail here as it is visible .

• The roof was skinned in .040" (1mm) plasticard to represent the additional 15mm extra amour that was added to the later tigers , i'll finnish the roof details after i've reworked the metal cupola to a more accurate shape .

New trunnions were made from a dead Biro body and milliput , drilled 3mm for the new trunnion pivots (spare Asiatam suspension axles) and the distinct lower 'step' of the front armour crosspiece added , again from spare H/L plastic . It dosn't have to be too neat either , the Zimmeritt will hide it all

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• 

The new scratched escape hatch door , the hinge from the old one had the lowest bolt drilled through and the lower portion cut away - * I found out later that Partworks Tiger has the right unbevelled type , worth looking for if you're thinking of doing a late version , trust me , it'll save you a lot of aggro .

• 

• A fit of madness made me get the Schumo (working!)track hangers , pricey , but they are truely superb , you need a magifying glass to read the part no's ! ( the holes needed redrilling but that's not suprising , they are made using the lost wax system )
  • 
  . . . Was it worth it ,just for this ? . . .

Next up , pt. 7 - ELECTRICKERY ! - should be a breeze .

. . . Oh , their comin' to take me away , Ho ho , haha , hee hee . . .

[majordisastor]

Nice work - I like to see posts from somone who never gets bored with fiddling ...Ahem ..

Like you I cut and drilled my side hatch assembly - thats the trouble with the late models - there are so many little details to trip over.

Just wait to you get to the coupla- there can be a few curve balls to come there !!

Andy

[blimp]

Easter , wedding , holiday , Not .

1. Garden centres AGGGHHH !

2. Decorating .

3. - i found our ancient tomcat , Rory , had passed away . At first i thought he was just asleep in his usual sunspot , only to find he'd forgotten how to wake up again . . .

The funeral didn't seem quite right with a certain wedding march playing in the background , but then again being a cat he always liked to be contrary .

R.I.P. 'ol fella .

Back to the subject .pt 7 . The joys of wiring . . .

• 

The new wiring scheme for the turret .

. . . Much better than the old confusing H/l system i think , i'm now able to trace any wire to it's source instantly . The 2 + 5 pin sockets from the original ABC TX board and the unused RX 18 IR lead supplied the coloured leads (the black lines show areas of shrink wrapping , keeping it all neat and snag free . )

- After all , this dosn't make much sense does it -

• 

. . . I havn't finalised the hull layout yet , the RX 18 is on the l/h pannier with the receiver going onto the face of the hull rear , to keep it all as far away as possible from the motors to reduce interference . longer, shrouded , motor cables with fuses will be used but i've run out of 5amp guage wire at the mo. So i'll do the piccies of them later .

. . . And just in case you think i've been lazy , i'm going to ditch those wheels i did earlier . - coz . . . .

• 

. . . I've brought some of these , steel road wheels for a Matorro SturmTiger . . .

• - I know they're not right either , but they will be . . .

• - After i've machined these faces flat . .

• . . . and put on these home made resin bits instead ! Muhaha !

. . . Eeek , she who must be obeyed has decided it's time for more DECORATING - the slave drum is beating - so i must dash , or this thread could come to a very abrupt end ! stay lucky out there folks . B .

[[ICE]monkey]

dont you just love decorating , those wheels will kook great
ice

[blimp]

Ta Ice , nice to see ya .

• 'Er indoors has decided lately that being outdoors "Is good for you" - (Translation -grafting in the garden etc. ) cruelty to troglodytes i call it . . . .

All i managed this weekend was the shot ring

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. . . and a couple of resin track shoes for the hooks , the metal ones i have won't stay put , these i can glue/pin into place permanantly and still have some working spares . Yay . B .

[majordisastor]

I like your turret protection ring - often forgotten in the later builds.

I hope to start scribbing one out for Tiger Ebbey soon.. Interesting about the turret track links, another area of fun to come no doubt !!

Keep up the good work - and try to stay out of the garden !!

Andy

[blimp]

Hello peeps ! I have got a bit tied down with work 'n stuff lately and bench time has been lacking , however , i have 'cleared the decks' and given it a coat of primer , getting it ready for all the clamps , tools and dodah's to go on .

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. . 'ello 'ello , there's a strange big box in the background - now that wasn't there when i went to work this morning . . . He hee .

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. . . tonights little job is turning the engine deck into the late type , moving the catch for the engine hatch , filled rear oil filler cap ( still need to make the tiangular plate , new air intake and handles ) all the old fixture holes were filled along with the six little waterproofing latch holes . The new 'cast' airfilter cover is just the old one ,sawn off , the top corners were rounded off and the base trimmed flat , the original hole was filled with a disc of plasticard with a 4mm packing piece to restore the height , neat eh . Also shown are some new radiator / fuel filler caps . Bluetac pressed onto the originals made the moulds , a drop of resin later - i can now have them at more realistic random angles simples . Must dash - early start again , nighty night .