I think the condition I received them should be reflective of the type of build represented here. I would personally like to thank everyone who took the time to post all the great links and their own efforts with the HL Tiger. It has made the journey and education much faster and enjoyable.So here is what I started with. Missing all of the parts that come with the factory box. Nothing was ever assembled. The BB loader worked but the elevator was shot.
Having multiple turrets to work with, it was easy to split the worst of the two and re assemble the turret with the bottom section in two pieces. The part visible from the side was permanently attached to the turret. I will be applying zimmerit for the first time and felt like this particular operation was needed to pull it off. While I was digging around in the turret, I also opened up the hatch in the rear and gave it some life. I am awaiting a few pieces I ordered for the other top turrets and periscopes.
My biggest fear when starting this one was the conversion from BB to IR. I had seen a lot of different ways to attack the project. I decided I wanted to use as much of the original assembly as possible to make the recoil work. The pictures kind of explain what is going on here. I have the original BB barrel in the assembly with a brass sleeve in the mantle. All just there to get some of the preliminary work done awaiting the arrival of my full length metal barrel. Whew.... It went smoother than I had anticipated, so far anyway.
I also cleaned up all of the top of the hull and modified the machinegun for LED. I spent a little time making a headlight bracket and a few other brackets and such. I took off the front fenders to really help with that.. "dirty look"
So this has been the past week of the journey with the Tiger. Once I get a few supplies in, I should be able to make a bit more headway.
Right now it is a guessing game. 