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Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:50 pm
by tomhugill
Hey folks,

I've wound up with a few projects recently of the German tamiya variety

First one was fairly straight forward, tamiya tiger spares and repair with an inoperative recoil.

On arrival the plastic part at the end of the barrel had snapped. Recoil was grinding too. This was removed and on inspection the worm gear had slipped along the shaft, moving this back for the unit working. The recoil mount was also bent leading to the action being inconsistent through the stroke of the recoil. Squaring it was required to sort this.

Rotation wasnt quite right with it hanging up in places as it turned. To help stop the clutch kicking in at the smallest amount of resistance I swap the clutch gear from the final one to the middle one. This way there's less torque on it and it's more resistant to slipping.

Now the mechanical sides sorted it can go back on the shelf till I decide how to proceed. At the moment I'm quite fancying a light detailing but doing it in grey.

Despite being nearly 1/4 of a century old the tamiya tiger still holds up well. The sound might be a bit antiquated but still one of my tamiya favourites.

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Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 2:04 am
by tomhugill
Second one was a more serious case. A tamiya jagdpanther from eBay that for all intents and purposes looked like it had been cobbled together to resemble a functioning tank but really wasn't.

Loads of fasteners missing, the te sooner system was held together with a wing and a prayer (one idler arm snapped in transit), the upper seems.to have been gutted with a recoil and flash but none of the apparatus for traverse or elevation present.
The suspension didn't seem to really function, initially I put this down to the fact it looked like some ones crammed the longer tiger torsion bars in rather than panther ones. Why? Who knows! However when I had the tracks of it was clear that the issues were much greater. The wheels hadn't bee built properly and seemed to have the tyres backwards, some were very poorly attached so the wheel halves didn't run true. A mess.
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Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 2:36 am
by MrChef
It's always good to see older Tammy's rehabbed. Nice on the Tiger.

I look forward to see the broken Jagdpanther rise from the ashes.

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:53 am
by HERMAN BIX
MrChef wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 2:36 am It's always good to see older Tammy's rehabbed. Nice on the Tiger.

I look forward to see the broken Jagdpanther rise from the ashes.
Send that one to me Mr Hugill, I'll rise it !!!!
Looking forward to see what you do with them.

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 2:26 pm
by Ad Lav
Bent torsion bars! Not ideal!

I love rebuilding a Tamiya, saving it from someone that’s built it badly.

Look forward to what you do :)

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 3:29 pm
by john1970
Unscrewing the torsion bar stays should take the pressure off the suspension arms making for easier removal. As for replacing i would just straighten them and trim to size cheapest option.

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:57 pm
by maxmekker
Great progress to now

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:46 am
by tomhugill
john1970 wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 3:29 pm Unscrewing the torsion bar stays should take the pressure off the suspension arms making for easier removal. As for replacing i would just straighten them and trim to size cheapest option.
They look bad but actually they seem to work just as well as normal ones, if I was to sell it I'd probably bung in a new set but for my use for now this will do!

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 8:46 am
by Guido Henn

I love rebuilding a Tamiya, saving it from someone that’s built it badly.
Whenever I see gray Jagdpanther or Kingtiger, I know that the specialist staff was involved :crazy:

Mrs.Hugill please keep us up to date :thumbup:

Re: Hugill big cat rescue/rehabilitation

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 12:59 pm
by Ecam
Guido Henn wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 8:46 am Whenever I see gray Jagdpanther or Kingtiger, I know that the specialist staff was involved :crazy:
Some of us were duped by the 70's box art. I still think they look "right" in grey!