My late Tiger conversion (Taigen)

[Jimster]

I used various colors of camouflage spray paint on my tracks with excellent results. Very durable. I also did internet searching for color images of terrain in my tank’s area of operation. The paint wears off on the treads in a realistic manner. Just a thought

[tankme]

Yeah, there are a lot of folks that really go to a lot of effort with tracks. If it is a shelf queen that only drives around inside...that's fine. I think if you drive it outside, hit the tracks with some dark gray paint, maybe hit them with a reddish/brown filter, and then drive the dang thing outside. After driving it for a bit the tracks naturally weather themselves. I haven't tried burnishing fluid yet, but it was on my list of things to try.

[MrChef]

On the prowl under its own power once again.

While I started looking into what decals to apply I started making adjustments to the running gear to try and improve how the tank was running. Needless to say things didn’t go particularly smoothly from here on.

You Sir are doing some excellent work here. Bravo! That's way better than just back from the dead.

I had a similar issue with my metal tracks on my recent Jagdpanther build. It can be overcome in a couple of ways and as shared above. If you're dead set on blackening them I can share what I did. But painting as said above is a solid option with minimal effort compared to trying to re-blacken them and less $ too. I've used Tamiya TS-1 Red Brown & a light coat of TS-38 Gunmetal with convincing results on black plastic tracks then if wanted a dry brush with some more gunmetal on the cleats.

Please share what happened next. I look forward to your update.

[Ecam]

For someone who said he didn't know what he was doing...
I'd say you have come a LONG way. Very impressed with the Zimmerit, it is something I hoped never to attempt, but visually I may have to. Great work!

[LordLudikrous]

Thank you everyone for the positive comments. While I was deciding what decals to go with, I found my tank was exhibiting a couple of issues.

Firstly , the running gear was running roughly. I initially put it down to paint wearing off and things settling in, but it didn’t seem to be getting better. It was especially noticeable when turning; on hard surfaces the tank was suffering from significant juddering. The only way to get it to ease off a bit (but not go completely) was to run the tracks much looser.



Constant experimenting with tension meant I ended up stripping one of the tensioner screws.

This led to its own problems, including one particular incident where the track jumped its idler and tore the paint up quite badly.



The aftermath of the idler jumping incident.

Then after reading up on tracks and compatibility and so on, I noticed something. Taigen tracks were closed pin, but mine were open pin. I grabbed one of my spare track links and compared it to the Taigen ones installed on the turret.



Quite a difference in track link design.

So it turns out these metal tracks were the Heng Long design, not what would later be known as Taigen, and their incompatibility would seem to be the root cause of the problems I was experiencing. Not the end of the world I thought; The tracks, sprockets and idlers were originally purchased in 2010 as a set, and I still had the sprockets. I decided to try swapping them out and seeing if that resolved the issue.



As it turned out, the sprocket design is exactly the same.

Given they’re actually no different from each other, this predictably failed to yield results. It was unfortunate, but it seems the set I had was a mix of the Taigen style sprocket and Heng Long style track, and the only way to resolve this problem was to replace the track with a Taigen set. I was somewhat annoyed, but given this was a purchase made 13 years ago I decided to take it on the chin and order a new set.

The second problem is that as mentioned before the Zimmerit is very prone to damage, and the front of the hull was particularly bad. When the Zimmerit suffers damage, the top layer of paint is taken off leaving the rather obvious rubber underneath. The solution I opted for was to stop the Zimmerit from coming into contact with anything in the first place, and would reinstall the track holder on the lower front plate that I had originally omitted when outfitting the tank.



The damage to the Zimmerit can be seen here where the two sections of the LFP meet.

This was predictably an invasive procedure and involved the removal of the gearboxes to get at the holes that I had sealed up.



Gearboxes are out and I’ve started removing the Green Stuff plugging the holes.



Drilling the holes through the Zimmerit, I was cringing the whole time as it was impossible to go back now in case of any errors.

I had to trim the track holder bar down a bit to fit properly to fit as I had added armoured transmission plates to the Tiger, and use different screws as the Zimmerit meant the track holder was a couple of mm off the hull compared to how it normally would be. However the process went well and the new track and bar was painted up and installed.



The track holder is now painted and fitted.

I’m actually pleased that I ended up doing this in the end, as I feel the tank does look better with the track on the front hull.



The Tiger’s new look.

Next up are the decals and new tracks.

[HERMAN BIX]

Top job that man. The front tracks will also cop a hiding if you run it hard, but does look better now they are on.
The older H/l open pin tracks are a far cry from the full-eye Taigen ones, remember to get the ones with the chevrons on the tread bars too
Taigen tracks come black and do require a clean off using brake cleaner or electrical parts cleaner. Brake clean can be picked up cheap from any car parts shop . Hold the tracks up vertical, spray and spray until the oil & stuff runs off, then wipe with a clean cloth. Ideally blow dry with a compressor to get all the residue out.
They will take paint really well.

[Jimster]

Nice Tiger. If you get bored you should check out my Tiger build thread. viewtopic.php?t=26614

[Herr Dr. Professor]

M'Lord: this has been an impressive fix and a helpful post to me. I think I have one (or more?!) of the Taigen Tiger I from some time ago, so I will be careful to check the track design. Then, too, I caught Bix's tips on cleaning Taigen metal tracks. I know I have painted some Taigen metal tracks starting with a metal etching primer and have had fine results, but the word of caution is always useful.

[LordLudikrous]

Thank you everyone for the kind words.

Things got held up a bit while I decided what decals I was going to use on my tank. I had only two conditions I set for myself, firstly my tank was not to be based on any specific real Tiger, and secondly, I did not want it to be associated in any way to the Waffen SS. There also practical concerns such as black numbers not looking very good against my paint scheme and so on.

In the end I opted to go for the Otto Carius Tiger 217 decals from Peddinghaus Decals. Things took a bit of a negative turn from there.



What I ordered.



What I got.

Oh dear. I immediately messaged Peddinghaus with some photos and a couple of days later with no response, tried to apply the decals to see if there was a perhaps a white colour in there that I couldn’t see on the backing paper.



Definitely not great, and people weren’t joking about how thick these decals were.

I messaged again with the above photo, and a week later from my original message still with no response I submitted a return request on the basis that the item was either defective or not as described. Unfortunately I had to wait another week before I could ask eBay to step in if I didn’t get anywhere with the seller, and predictably Peddinghaus never responded. To Ebay’s credit they ruled in my favour and refunded me the same day I asked them to step in.

Quite a disappointing experience overall and in 13 years of having an eBay account is the first time I’ve ever left negative feedback for anyone. While Peddinghaus has little in the way of negative feedback, what negative feedback existed all said the same thing; they never respond to any messages, so in the event of a problem you won’t get anywhere with them.

In the end I opted to order a set of decals from Forgebear Tanks along with my new tracks (and finally some actual proper smoke fluid) and would just discard the LSSAH markings.



Comparison of the new tracks versus the original metal ones.

Quite a difference I have to say the new tracks were noticeably heavier and of better quality.



Looking rather splendid with its blackened new tracks.

I got to work applying the new decals and decided to go with 213 as my number with the standard Balkenkreuz half way down the hull sizes. I have to say at this point while it looks good I was really regretting going with a later Tiger with Zimmerit at this point. Its easily damaged and made applying decals and absolute nightmare requiring copious amounts of decal softener. The decals on the turret basket went on a treat.



Applying the decals.

I was also a bit unhappy with how I’d covered up nearly all the Dark Yellow on the main part of the gun, but at this point wasn’t willing to risk going and respraying anything. As the decal set was originally for one of Michael Wittman’s tanks, I decided to conceal it by adding the kill rings that came with the decal set. While its unlikely a late Tiger would be in position to achieve that many kills, the idea of a comically dishonest commander and crew was quite funny, so I went with it.

Seeing as I wasn’t sending the original decals back, I was able to salvage some of them (with serious amounts of decal softener), and my Tiger ended up as part of the 502st Panzer Battalion after all.



Applying the kill rings. Decals are also being applied to the glacis.

While this was going on I also took the opportunity to replace the stripped screws in the idler tensioner with some new ones. These didn’t have the non threaded part on them, but it didn’t make any difference to the function of the idler so I’m happy with my replacements.



The tensioners fitted with their new screws.

In the end it literally took three days to finish applying the decals over the Zimmerit, due to having to apply a large amount of decal softener, wait ages for it to dry, then rinse and repeat. That also included carefully punching holes in parts of the decal with a pinhead in areas where softener had gotten trapped in the Zimmerit recesses and was unable to dry. It turned out ok in the end, especially once some weathering was applied, but seriously, I’m never doing Zimmerit again.






Ultimately, I’m happy with the result.

I still had some things to work out with the running gear, and right on cue the smoke unit broke.

[MrChef]

Excellent work sir! I really like the color/camo scheme especially in daylight.

Can't wait to see your next tank with Zimmerit in 10 years...

Chef