Brown's King Tiger

[Armortek]

Hi Brown

You need a 24volt battery charger to charge both batteries at once. The second battery lead gives the option of having two pairs of batteries on board. That way you can use one set and then change over to the second. The charging lead connects to your battery charger.

Regards
Mark

[Brown Hawkins]

I started working on the loaders hatch this evening and noticed that making it functional might not be that hard. I started with one locking arm, a file, and a 1/32" drill bit. Here are the early results:



I need to figure our how to secure the locking ring to the hatch and still maintain the details you see when the hatch is closed. It will probably take some cutting of the rotating ring and then creative use of the really small bolts I have.

Here is a pic of another sub-project I started...making deck hooks:

I still need to thin them to the proper thickness. Aluminum works very easily. These are made from the scale diagrams drawn from Sven's measurements on his DVD (posted earlier). These will be secured with bolts after tapping a hole in each of the 3 styles of deck hooks.

And better pics of my hatch castle nuts:


These look better from a distance. It is hard to keep the cuts straight since I'm using a mini coping saw with the smallest blades I can find. They'll do.

Anything to not make welds yet!!

Later,
Brown

[Brown Hawkins]

Got the loaders hatch mostly finished.
Unlocked position:

Locked position:

Also made the small hatch lock/vent tab moveable.

Still need to figure out how to secure locking mechanism to the hatch proper. I have an idea...

Brown

[Adrian Harris]

Excellent looking parts Brown

I dread to think how small those nuts etc are

Adrian.

[Brian Leach]

Brown,

great job!

Looks good!

Now I'll have to do that on my Tiger I

Brian

[Brown Hawkins]

Thanks Adrian and Bryan. I have an assortment of tiny nuts and bolts on hand now after seeing all the additions folks have made here on the Forum. All of the BA size nuts and bolts I still get from the UK

I order from both Micromark and Scale Hardware
http://www.scalehardware.com/
http://www.microfasteners.com/
here in the states in the following sizes:

00-90 hex bolts and nuts (smallest)
0-80 hex bolts, nuts, and flat head screws (middle size)
1-72 hex bolts and nuts (largest, such as it is)

The 0-80 and and 1-72 have the option of a regular nut or a small nut the same size as the bolt hex head. I've only found the small nuts for the 00-90 size bolts. These "special" nuts are a bit pricey. The flat head screws are the same as the ones Mike Stannard uses on the Tiger 1 mud guards and I'll use them to get my KT mudguards to scale. And get taps for all of the above sizes too!

I used the 00-90 hex bolts with the lock arms on the hatch above and had to cut/file them to the correct length. I used a 0-80 bolt and small size nut to reproduce the molded nut/bolt on the lock wheel and then attach the lock wheel to the lock arm assembly (had to file off the hex head of the bolt). I tapped the 0-80 into the lock arm pivot. I am securing the nuts and bolts with a small drop of super glue on the bolt threads when an assembly is completed.

Now if I can only finnish the welds!! No, I'll work on the turret some more...

Brown

[Joe Calandro]

Hi Brown,

Very nice work. I was going to make my locking arms work but I have not gotten that far yet. You have just saved me a lot of planning.

Joe

[Mark Bennett]

Hi Brown,

Your build is really progressing well. Great job with the hatch details!

Who are you using in the UK for your BA hardware? I have to order some BA size hardware too.

Keep the posts coming!!!

p.s.

I'll be in your area (Denver) later this week to pick up an airplane.

[Brown Hawkins]

I get BA stuff from:

https://maccmodels.co.uk/
and
http://www.modelmakingsupplies.co.uk/

Both offer great service and quick turnaround. You may have to order bolts from one and nuts from the other, but it works.

I have a selection of BA hex bolts and nuts from 12 BA to 6 BA that complement the domestic brass bolts mentioned earlier.

PM or email me if you have time to stop by when you're out here.

Brown

[Richie Wignall]

Hi Adrian

I used 10BA when i did my front hatches on my old KT, cutting them was a bit tricky, but well worth it. it seems years ago now how time flys .

http://www.armortek.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... 1&start=30

Richie

[Brown Hawkins]

Work has slowed lately on the tank. Lots of planning, not much action. I did get to adding the mods around the antenna as seen in Sven's photo of KT 213:





Note Mike Stannard's very nice flexible antenna base and his smallest sized brass lock washers on the cover plate nuts. Space and dimensions are a little different from the real tank so I had to change 1 of the nut locations between the cover plate and the exhaust grate. I used 8 BA bolts and 9 BA nuts for the deck hardware. The bass hex bolts around the antenna base are 080 size from Microfastner or Scale Hardware here in the US.

I added 2 small aluminum shims under the Mike S. Tetra extinguisher to raise it up properly:



The missing deck hooks are coming along too, just slow. Tedious work but worth it, I think.

I took some photos of the extra track links around the turret but seem to have deleted them prematurely. I'll post retakes soon.

Brown

[simon_manning]

some nice work going on brown, great detail,keep it coming simon manning

[Brown Hawkins]

Moving at glacial speed! The truth is in the details.

Adding more track links to the sides of the turret:




I ground down the track hangers a bunch, added spacers to them to get the hanger out far enough from the curved part of the turret so I could hang the large track sections. This is a little different from the art scans on page 1 of my posts. The Hangers are just super glued in place for now until I am totally happy with how it looks. These extra tracks were field additions and no 2 seem to be in exactly the same place.

I was ready to add the axe and sledge hammer to the front deck when I noticed the hatches would hit them. Looked over the pictures from the DVD I got from www.Panzerbasics.com and saw what I had to do:



And I needed to raise the sledge hammer brackets from Mike S. a lttle to match the reall thing:


Here are the not-yet-bolted-on pics:




I used rectangular brass pipe to make the new risers and riveted to them to the clamps.

Here are closeups of the altered hammer clamps:



I hope to get a lot completed this weekend as I now have a heater in the garage. Temps are 6 F (-14 C) outside.

Just received an order of 10 BA 3/4" long machine screws and nuts from Macc Models (see above for the website) in the UK. These will be used to bolt the equipment to the side armor.

Later,
Brown

[Robert E Morey]

Brown,
Excellent job, don't worry on the snails progress. You cannot rush perfection. Keep us posted on your progress. Great looking details so far.
Bob

[Brown Hawkins]

Bob,

Thanks for the kind words. It's fun trying to match the real parts in miniature as best I can. Mostly I have just tried to emulate more skilled builders and buy detailed parts when possible. This is very nice group of folks that offer help, encouragement, and advice freely.

I finally finished the loader's hatch and am painting it before I post picks. I also got to looking for more places to put lock tabs and found they are on the bolts on the idler hub caps. Mike Stannard's lock tabs are superb (I think I said this before!); make sure you at least get packs of the 2 smaller sizes. Most, if not all, nuts on these tanks had a lock tab originally. Many tabs probably are missing from field mainenance and later were not replaced in restorations.

I've decided to paint the inside of the hull a brighter white than I did initially. Pics soon

Brown