Herrmill - Hello again - it's a small world!
Sev - e-mailed you "the list".

OK. The Tamiya KT build, from basic to advanced, parts, upgrades, suppliers, etc etc have been well covered already, so I won't duplicate posting that kind of info. as I first thought would be useful. I'll post my build progress with pics even tho it will likely be very repetitious. The "big box" is being delivered tomorrow by Fedex. Only two days from ordering at Rare Plastic Hobby - pretty quick. I'll be tearing into that right away.

Here's a vid clip of a Tiger I gun blast produced with a simple nichrome firing mechanism and a very small black powder charge. This is the same approach I use on the 18 firing guns on my 1/24 scale R/C ship model Syren.
The barrel is brass tubing, the muzzle brake is the stock HL plastic part. The barrel is wedged in the tiger's metal tracks for this demo setup. The blast produces little heat - the plastic muzzle brake is safe. No projectile is, or can be, used with this setup.
A very small BP charge wrapped into flash paper cartridge is used. The cartridges are pre-made and easily slipped into the tip of the barrel - into a chamber only about 1" deep. There is only slight kick/recoil.
A nichrome heater wire at the back of the chamber ignites the charge. Instead of flashing the blast LED, the wires will be used to ignite the charge and the recoil mechanism timing should be about right with the ignition. This will likely be the system I install in the KT barrel.
[link=http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showatt.php?attachmentid=3164385&d=1270438954]Tiger muzzle blast[/link]