I know you all have written about this before but what is the easiest method of making the Tiger gun mantlet correct? I have very limited hand function due to spinal cord injury and my fine motor skills are limited?[&o] Any help will be appreciated..........

Buy a corrected one from Mato! I know you dislike them but they've got em! Maybe you can get one from Blueslateman or Pugwash on the auction site. Cheap shipping from UK to USA with those fellows and they usually have the barrel extension too.

That's where this one came from Mato,thus the problem[:-]

The factory makes them that way, I haven't seen any new tanks with the corrected one on them either yet. As far as I know it's an aftermarket part.

I'm not looking to buy I'm looking to fix? I have 2 Heng long Tigers starring at me.

I know this has come up before..... try searching the old posts. It does involve drilling new holes from what I remember.

I figured that would be easiest because of your injury. Anyhow this is basically all you have to do. Pull the plate behind the mantlet, flip it over and replicate the holes on the other side. Some guys fill in the old holes, I never bothered.

Are you going to lengthen the barrels?

the info should be in one of stickies richard put up,yeah does involve drilling new holes tho

Thanks ! Yes, I was thinking about fixing the barrels also.I am not sure if I can do that the mid recoil bothers me.

You'll need some K&S Brass and Aluminum. 5/16 Aluminum to make a new inner barrel and 9/16 brass outter barrel. Some guys even replace the long tube with brass for seamless realism. It'll be about 24-25mm longer then original.

I had that problem with two tigers....settled it by puttying up the holes, bit of dremmel to cut one side and putty to build up the other ie; visa versa what's there.. and retapping them, and on my tiger with zimmerit, simply applied the zimm over the mantlet after I killed the stupid red shooting light. Didn't have to flip anything.

Here are the steps I took to extend the barrel
1st I separated the barrel at the front groove of the mid section

2nd I made a barrel outer extension from layers of rolled .020. sheet styrene

3rd I then made an internal barrel extension for the inside the barrel at the muzzle end rather than cut the inside of the muzzle break. I had beveled the inside edge of the inner extension where it meets the end of the aluminum internal barrel so there would be no edge for the bb to catch on

4th I then inserted and glued the inner barrel extension inside the front section of the barrel. Next I glued the outter barrel section to the rear section of the barrel. Then I slide the front section onto the aluminum inner barrel and glued the front section to the outter barrel extension.

When the glue has dried I filled and sanded the joints smooth. With this method you have a solid sturdy barrel

heres what swathdiver is talking about done on my tiger

Thanks so much for your approach to the Tiger gun mantlet!I did what you said as far as grinding the one side and I had an old gun that I used part of to putty in the other side. I couldn't get the tracks off and I hated seeing the gun the wrong way.Again thanks! Jay612