Brown's King Tiger

[Brown Hawkins]

Here is a picture of the MG hooked up to the amplifier module:

Very straight forward just like Yves said above.

Here is a short video showing the running lights and the MG in action:

[Brown Hawkins]

Working on the track skirts:


Used 1/8" 0080 CSK brass screws to attach the brass pieces to the steel skirts except where I goofed and drilled through the brass with the countersink (small drill bit). Then I had to use the 1-72 CSK brass screws. Only had to do this twice so far.

Close up:


I will remove the brass strips, sand the skirts, reattach the strips, milliput the screw heads, sand again and paint. Who knows when!

Plan on using 8BA bolts to attach the skirts to the hull. The actual bolts are kind of small.

B

[Brown Hawkins]

Here are some things I've been working on on the rear deck:

Made the late armor covers and modified the engine hatch hinges.
Not sure where these covers were deployed or if they actually made it to the battle field.



I'll paint the covers and make the rest of the spaces later this week.




Rounded the corners of the hinges freehand and they look 100% better. I'll add the stops on the hinge base next.



What you can't make out is that I'm thinning down the rear deck hooks to a more realistic thickness. Doing it the hard way AFTER they are cut out instead of thinning the bar stock first.

B

[Brown Hawkins]

Put a base coat on the air intakes armor, made the spacers, and attached with 1" 7BA bolts:

This sure does alter the look of the rear deck Not sure I like it too much. Gives the rear deck a very smooth look.
It's hard to see the basic wire mesh except with the front armor which will be covered with the rear of the turret most of the time:



Another mod that I have been agonizing over because of my first poor milling results are the exhaust guards:


I figured out I can fill with epoxy and mill as needed until results are ok. There is a small detail on the corners of the guards (pencil marks on each end) which will be a little of a challenge. Once all the mill marks are filled the guards will be coated with Mr. Surfacer fora cast effect. They are pretty rough in all of the examples I have seen pics of.
The bolts are 2BA with small head nuts. I made the lock washers several months back. These are the same bolts and washers I used for the track tensioning covers mentioned earlier in this thread.

Lastly I started working on the rear turret panel taking a lesson from Mark Bennet:

My only issue is my lathe can't work on the whole panel at on time. I have to reposition 4 times to cover the needed area. I've gotten pretty good at lining things up for long cuts! I decided I'll make the final mod along the top of this piece the way Mark did on his.

B

[Brown Hawkins]

More baby steps!
Just a reminder not to forget the exhaust armor lift pins by Steve Winstone:



These pics are from http://www.worldwar2aces.com/panzer-tank/kingtiger/ and show the actual lift pins:



The rear of the KT looks simple at first but has a lot of details. Maybe not as much as the T1, but still.

No 2 exhaust armors look the same so we should be good with just about any mods to here. Numbers are a little weird. Here you see a 10 on the left side of the left armor but no raised 314 underneath in the middle. And the right armor is more rounded than the Belgian 213 part.

Does anyone know how the pins were attached to the armor? I don't see an obvious weld.

These pins work for all those Tiger 1's out there too!

B

[Adrian Harris]

Nice details Brown.

I would have said the rear of the KT was busier than a Tiger.

> Does anyone know how the pins were attached to the armor? I don't see an obvious weld.

There is an obvious casting seam across the end of the lug on the Bovington Tiger so I wonder if they were cast in place ? Seems odd to cast such a simple shape otherwise.

Adrian.

[Brown Hawkins]

Thanks Adrian. I was tending toward cast but wondered the same thing. Easy enough to attach a strong lift pin later.

The T1 has the tool box, starter plate, and possibly feifel air cleaners not found on the KT. It's been 2 years on the KT, it'll take me a decade to finish the T1 I have in the boxes!! Just my opinion.

Thanks again!

Brown

[simon_manning]

nice to see you still going for it brown, and some great work, no rush and keep the posts coming, i will be joining you on this section soon for some kingtiger building aswell so keep the tips coming, regards simon manning.

[Tim Bowman]

Nice work Brown. Good to see your Tiger II coming along....nice attention to details.

Like Simon, hope to add to this section of the forum soon as well.

kind regards
Tim

[John Fitzsimons]

How many king tigers has Simon got?

[Brown Hawkins]

After fretting that I was going to irreparably screw it up, I finished milling the rear plate of the turret per M. Bennett's thread:



Will assemble the turret for the final time this week (I hope!).

Painted the escape hatch (S. Winstone rework):




Anyone who hasn't gotten one of these hatches really should consider it even if you have to retrofit your tank!

Weathering all of this is years away!

B.

[John Fitzsimons]

I agree about the hatch. Great addition to a King Tiger.

[Brown Hawkins]

Here are a few updates of what I'm working on.It's all fairly minor stuff I've put off. Takes me a week to stage everything for an hour of work now that the baby (almost 2!!) is running around and into everything.
I'll have about a week sorta to myself to make some major progress shortly, oh and oversee some major house renovations.

The front fenders gave me fits on how to attached the side piece. I used JB Weld in the end with good, strong results. Still need to make the small weld bead to cover the seam. The rib supports underneath are a pain trying to align and rivet into place (see earlier work on the fender rivets and lock tabs).

Used clamps and the machine squares to keep it...square. I remembered to put a piece of tape between the fender and the squares for the inevitable epoxy leaks.











Still have to square up all the fender sections for a good fit and that will determine how close and how much additional work I'll need to do to get closer to the real thing:






Took a little off the hull machine gun armor. It's representative. The dome needs to be a bit higher and this limits how much you can take off before you start cutting into the flange that inserts into the glacis plate:







Next will be turret fun and adding the tool clamps to the hull sides.

Brown