sevoblast

Nick, on the schumo gear downs. There is no room in the hull to fit them. You can use the Impact TU1 set, with the built in geardown. Go to etoarmour.com and look at the Sherman section. I only have the latest all steel sets, basically bullet proof.
Mark
Excellent build! Really nice work. I have taken some of your photos and stored them for my next T 1 build.
Sev

TigerI

Hey Chili, how are the tamiya spare tracks for mounting on the sides of the tank. Was thinking of going aftermarket but if they are molded nicely I'll stick with the tamiya. Have an Aber photoetch kit that has hangars and just want want them to look good.

EugeniRUS

Bob,
Why do you think they wouldn't fit? They are the same as those I got from you. Those fit well.
Eugene

chilipiper

T4Mania,
If I remember right (I don't have them in front of me) the spares are the same as the rest of the tracks and basically have the open pin configuration. In my opinion, that wouldn't look right, hanging on the side of the turret, but then I can't remember if the pin side faces in or out... I guess with some work, you could close in the pins with putty and and they would be ok.

I got some spare Impact track links for use on the front of the tank (10-12 links) and I think they will look pretty decent (not too expensive either).

chilipiper

Sevoblast,
Thanks for the compliment. I'm having a great time building this puppy, not to mention sharing it with the forum.

googlydoogly

Great idea on the magnets. I glued the turret roof on my Tiger, and basically work on the RC components inside the turret by working from underneath. It's a little bit more hassle, but it works just as well.

ksoc

Nice job on the Tiger!

You definitely have "options" when it comes to the Tiger's Mantlet

chilipiper

Ksoc,
Thanks for the complement!

I think that's the picture I remembered seeing with all the different variations of the mantlet! Thanks for posting it.

TigerI

Hey chili, are you going to light your bosch headlight on the tiger. If so, what size and voltage bulbs you going to put in them. I just bought a set of the Bosch and want to light mine.

chilipiper

T4Mania,
I am planning to use the Bosch headlights as well. I will be using the grain of rice bulbs instead of LED in them. I rigged it up, powering them from the receiver and they're not as bright as the LEDS, but not that nuclear white light either... kind of a nice mellow yellow. I'm just looking for something to remind me whether or not I left the power on...

chilipiper

Turret Construction Part 3…
I got in a bunch of goodies that I had previously ordered and set about to finish the turret. I had previously mounted the completed cupola to the turret roof and added a bunch of weld bead to the turret. I added a bunch more, simulating the weld between the roof and the turret walls. In order to prevent the weld bead from sticking to the turret walls and and thereby preventing the removal of the roof when needed, I put a piece of saran wrap that had been treated with a teflon spray between the roof and wall (pulled taut, with no wrinkles) before applying the weld bead. The saran wrap was removed after the epoxy had cured, leaving an almost invisible gap.

I mounted the kit smoke dischargers onto the new Schumo mounting plate. I had thought about using the smoke dischargers I bought for my P3, but they just didn’t look quite right, so I stuck with the stock ones. I launched into putting all the detail from the Aber set onto the smoke dischargers… what a pain. Lots of fiddly bits that were happy to launch themselves into the carpet, but with some perseverance (and a magnifier) I got them built. Fermented adult beverages definitely help when building these!! Finally , I glued them onto the roof using epoxy and added more weld bead around the edges (used the saran wrap trick on the lower mounts, so the roof remains removable).

I decided that the turret stowage box was a good place to add a counterweight, so I mixed up a bunch of steel shot with some 15 minute epoxy and packed the box about 1/3-1/2 full. Hopefully this will be enough. Once this had cured, I added the Aber latches onto the stowage boxes (oh joy, more tiny bits…). The Aber set also includes a template for the rivet locations, so I added a bunch of real brass rivets (I think they were 0.5 mm) that I got from Scalehardware.com ([link=http://www.scalehardware.com/]http://www.scalehardware.com/[/link]). I added a little “distress� to the corners of the stowage box to give it that lived in look. The stowage box was glued onto the turret with epoxy and some weld bead added to the mounts.

At this point, I turned my attention to the muzzle brake, adding some detail to the muzzle brake from the Aber set. Finally ready for primer..

I put on a coat of Tamiya grey surface primer followed by a coat of Testors Model Master Acryl Antifouling Red, thinned about 30-50% with Tamiya acrylic thinner (not my favorite stuff to spray - I get a lot of buildup on my airbrush needle compared to Tamiya acrylics).

hdbeast

Looks very good, and thanks for the link, I've been looking for a good site for rivets.

Gary

mailedfist

This is a great build, terrific detail and your using great teknique! I like how you say "fermented adult beverages" help. I can totally relate[8D]

Keep up the outstanding work

chilipiper

Thanks, guys... I appreciate the kind words. I am enjoying sharing my build with the forum and being able to give something back. I've learned about an awful lot of of tips, tricks, web sites, books, etc. here that I am putting to use on my Tiger (and was able to use on my King Tiger). There's a lot of inspiration to be had here...

njmlondon

Excellent work! You are really bringing a sense of weight and realism to it. Love the texture and details. I am just starting mine and am aiming for about the same level of detail as yourself so am really enjoying watching this go to together.

TigerI

Chili you plan on running 2 batteries or only 1 in your tiger. There really isn't any advantage to running 2 besides the extra weight it provides for traction. Once 1 battery dies the tank stops anyway. How much weight you plan on adding if you"re only going to run 1 battery. A typical 6 cell pack weighs about 14.5oz.

chilipiper

Thanks njmlondon, I hope to see a build post when you start yours.

chilipiper

T4Mania,
I'm thinking of running only 1 battery, as I am planning on adding an internal charging jack and want to keep the wiring simple. With the capacity of batteries these days, there really isn't a need for 2. And you're right, when the 1st battery dies, the tank dies.

With all the metal goodies (including metal tracks), I don't think I'll have to add any weight. My King Tiger, with all it's metal extras ( and 1 battery) weighs in at 18 lbs or so.

TigerI

Chili, never got an answer back from Karen at the museum about the K sprue. If you're still interested try emailing her.

chilipiper

T4Mania,
I asked the LHS to see if they could get it for me; they thought they could get it. Still waiting on it, though... maybe this week.

Panther F

Pretty cool work with the rivets! I still like the 2 battery method because you get better run times even though one battery might die first. More weight/better traction and you can always run the batteries in parallel by re-wiring them.

How hard was the rivet installation? Makes a big difference! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

chilipiper

The rivet installation was actually pretty easy, as the Aber set has a PE template for the rivet locations. I just attached the template to the stowage box, marked the hole locations with a sharp dental pick and drilled out the appropriate sized holes (I don't remember what size drill I used, but I do remember it was slightly smaller than the shaft of the rivet, so the fit was tight). Once all the holes were drilled, I just inserted a brass rivet in each hole and secured each one with a drop of liquid model cement.

chilipiper

Taking a break from working on the turret, I decided to work on the tracks and wheels. I ditched the stock tracks in favor of the Impact tracks for the Tiger. These things are beautifully made, nice detail and no flash to clean up. At the same time, I also got a few extra links to use on the rack on the front of the Tiger. I decided to blacken the tracks the same way I did on my King Tiger, using Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black.

I started by scrubbing both tracks and the spare links in hot soapy water with a toothbrush and then rinsed them off. I poured some of the Aluminum Black in a bowl and added a couple of drops of hand soap to it and brushed it on liberally onto the tracks and spare links (I did try this on one of the spare links first to make sure there were no problems – there weren’t). It took about 5-10 minutes to do each track. In total, I used about 2/3 of the bottle to do everything. When I finished applying the Aluminum Black, I rinsed each track in hot water and let them air dry. As you can see in the pictures, they came out great; a very dark grey finish ( they look lighter in the first picture because I used the camera flash – in natural light, they look more like the second picture, with a slight brownish cast to them. I probably won’t do any further weathering on them, I’ll just let ‘em get dirty with use.

One thing I didn’t like about the Impact tracks was that inserting the pin to connect them was a royal pain. I bent a couple of pins while putting the spare links together and finally gave up and used a couple of pins from the stock tracks CA’d into place. If anybody has tips on putting pins into Impact tracks, I would sure love to hear them..

It took a while, but I also finished building all the wheels per the kit instructions. Gotta have something to run on the tracks…

chilipiper

For this installment, I tackled the task of adding damage to the feifel air cleaners and the exhaust shields.

The right hand feifel air cleaner was easy to do; I left it stock, as I had no clear pictures showing what damage I should do.

The left feifel air cleaner was a little tougher. First, I assembled it per the kit instructions, except for adding the top piece. I cut away about 2/3 of the top halfof the body, down to the horizontal rib and replaced this portion with sheet aluminum from a soda can. I used the top piece from the kit as a template to cut out a new piece from the sacrificial soda can and assembled the pieces with CA, and faired in the edges with putty. To make the bullet hole, I drilled a small starter hole and gently expanded it to the desired size and shape using an x-acto knife and a dental pick. To create the dents, I used a hi-tech method… I whacked the filter with a screwdriver! [X(]

Using the kit parts as templates, I cut more sheet aluminum to make up the exhaust shields (I never drink this much soda…). I then cut the kit parts away, leaving only the mounting brackets and enough to provide some internal support. My inspiration for this mod was [link=http://web.mac.com/ethandunsford/DAK_PROJECTS/DAK_TIGER_1.html]here[/link]. I rolled the aluminum to shape (including the raised bead along the top and bottom. Bullet holes were added in the same way as the feifel air cleaner. The dents were made by pressing on the shields with the shaft of a dental pick until I got the desired amount of crunch.

All the sheet aluminum was lightly sanded and everything was primed with Tamiya’s grey primer. After I had primed (and photographed) these parts I added some itty bitty Aber nuts and bolts and chains to the feifel air cleaners.

TigerI

Nice work chili, about as realistic as you can get. Where can I get one of those hi-tech screwdrivers all I have are the regular kind. Keep drinking that soda cause you never know when you may need some more aluminum buddy! By the way, where did you get that stuff you used on your metal tracks they look great.