Tamiya Tiger Rebuild

[Panzermechaniker]

After being inspired by Ad Lav's Tiger rebuild and his pointing me to the spare sprue hubs that allow for the outer front wheels to be removed which makes the tank imo I tore my hard run Tiger down to the ground and rebuilt and repainted it. Nothing special. It is all stock except the parts I had broken off and replaced. Schumo headlights, Mato smoke grenade launchers and a Mato cupola that I have Micro- Liquitaped on as the cupola has to be switched out to the original Tamiya one that I modified to get the hatch flattened out for IR battling. I also glued in a lot of polystyrene reinforcements as I had found both the lower and upper hulls were way too flexible and glued the roof into position as I found it was jumping out in rough driving. I wanted to do an Abt. 502 example so I picked a late summer 1943 camo version as it was remaining a T1 Early. I wanted to use stencils but the Hussar decals were very good I just would have preferred a different number. If you look at the front spare track you will see 4 guide horns snapped off which gives an idea of how much abuse I had put this Tiger through in the last 3 years. Tamiyas are tough

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[Meter rat]

Fantastic work, and a beautiful environment to run it in.

[Panzermechaniker]

Thanks and yes the numerous natural dioramas on our club field really make a difference for taking shots. Of course the bright natural sunlight exposes every screw up too. One more winter project Tiger to come and then I'm going to re-do my Tamiya Jagdpanther

[ColemanCollector]

Looks great on that field, especially the stone foundation backdrop. And the ubiquitous bucket!

Mike.

[jarndice]

Nice, I do like the detailing, the wing nuts on the Radio operators mg is correct but rarely modelled as are the chains on the drain caps of the air filters,
I am sure you know why the front wheels were removed, The mud in a Russian winter would be compressed between the front wheels and overnight it would freeze and expand, Destroying the whole front wheel assembly, Removing the front outer wheel overcame the problem.

[Panzermechaniker]

Thanks guys and jarndice thanks for mentioning the drain cap chains. Makes the hour of constantly removing tiny chains ca'd to my fingers and tweezers until I finally got them to stay in position worth it

[Jimster]

Beautiful modeling and your photos really capture your upgrades and attention to detail.

[Panzermechaniker]

Thanks Jimster for the compliments. I've always wanted to do a 502 Tiger from the very beginning if for nothing else their logo. Although I wish I had the skill to pull off your Initial version with the huge mammoth logo. I found it interesting in Carius's book that they would pre-inspect bridges to make sure they were reinforced enough to carry the Tigers and they would post a sign with their logo on the bridge if it passed inspection

[Ad Lav]

Great camo and photos!

Nothing like a refresh to bring a tank back to life!

[jarndice]

Thanks guys and jarndice thanks for mentioning the drain cap chains. Makes the hour of constantly removing tiny chains ca'd to my fingers and tweezers until I finally got them to stay in position worth it

It is worth remembering that the rear panel on the Heng Long and the Taigen Tiger 1 is removable so assembling and detailing can often be achieved more successfully by taking it off and laying it down flat on the workbench, Of course this is only practical when you are working on it as part of the initial build.