Tiger Ausf E “F01” Gruppe Fehrmann

[AlastairCooke]

Thanks Vince,
I had decided against the Armortek supplied bin quite early on and purchased a set of upgrades from Sixth Scale Icon. My soldering skills are not up to building the brass kit so went for a 3D printed alternative as I have a lot more experience with such upgrades.

Alastair

[Robert E Morey]

Great details as always. Really like the bin.
Best regards,
Bob

[Damon Resch]

What size rivets are you using on the bin?

[AlastairCooke]

Hi Bob,
Many thanks for the kind words.

Hi Damon,
I am using the rivets supplied with the Sixth Scale Icons kit (1/8" x 0.032" dome head). I have also used some 1/32" x 1/4" brass round head from BA Bolts in the area around the pocket for the rear lift lug. They have a slightly smaller head but the difference is not obvious here. I want to make sure I have plenty of dome head available for the front and sides of the bin. The carpet monster really likes them . They fly really well if not picked up correctly...

Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Update 13 May 25
Zimmerit complete...

As I am leaving the rear of the turret uncoated I have had to wait until the turret bin was available.

Turret bin
Front of turret bin detailed, ready for clean-up...

I have used the sheet metal tool in Fusion 360 to unwrap the design and give me a template for the front and sides. The front was cut to size along the top and the holes for the rivets drilled to 0.8mm. Before fitting the sheet was curved by tying it to a large saucepan and pouring some boiling water over it. The bottom edge was cut to size using the rivet holes to align the piece. The sides were trimmed to size once it was glued in place with epoxy and medium CA.

Bin side cut out and drilled for rivet detail. Once again, the top edge is close to finished size and the rest is oversize.

(Note: side rivet detail added with internal doublers.) The bottom and sides were trimmed with the plate in position before it was epoxied into place.

Side complete, just need to do the other side.

Test fit of finished bin. (Lids will be fitted later.)

Close-up of revised rear turret lift lug…

That's all for now

[Tim Carr]

Super nice detail work. Thanks for sharing.

Later Tim

[AlastairCooke]

Thanks Tim.

Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Recoil Tube
The actual recoil tube was constructed from a tube with a flange welded to one end. The kit provides a collar that fits over a longer tube thereby providing a secure fixing into the mantlet that ensures concentricity for the gun tube. The realism can be improved by bonding the items together, filling the joint and adding some weld detail.

First the fit was improved by skimming a few thou off the mating surfaces. The image below shows where the material was removed as you can just make out the tool marks. (Note that one thou was taken off the whole tube to remove the original tool marks.)

The collar was modified with some subtle reprofiling: the outer bevel was removed and replaced with a step in anticipation of the ‘faux’ weld and the inner bevel was adjusted to an included angle of 60 degrees rather than the original 90 degrees.

The collar and tube bonded together…

Weld added and primed…

Loaders Hatch
I have decided to make my own hatch and have gone for the welded type. (Well, why not?) Outer weld added and primed…

I think the top surface could be a little smoother. A few sanded coats of Mr Surfacer should suffice. Note the holes for the handle have rings around them. These will add strength to the glue bond and will be hidden eventually with some weld detail.

That's all for now...