Tow ropes

[peterbarclay]

Hi Not a happy camper. The tank tow ropes and track tow rope supplied with late tiger are obviously too thick when compared to photos of real tanks .I estimate nearly twice.The tank tow ropes should be about 2.8 mm but are over 5 mm. I think the formulas that people use to scale down items do not work. I was a merchant seaman for 30 years and have a lot of experience with wire rope including splicing swaging etc. cheers

[Mike Stannard (toyrific)]

Hi Peter

I hate to rock your boat, but your estimate of the tank tow ropes is wrong. It is a very simple formula.

The real tank tow ropes on the Tiger 1 are 32 mm in diameter 32 divided by 6 = 5.3333 mm

The real track tow rope is 14 mm in diameter 14 divided by 6 = 2.3333 mm.

I assure you the cables that come with the Armortek Tiger are very close to correct scale as are mine.

Regards
Mike

[peterbarclay]

Hi I am not trying to be a smartarse but the formulae used to reduce full size does not work as we know with the jack block .The supplied and aftermarket jack blocks are approx 1/3 too thick. The same problem has occurred with the tow cables.The supplied and aftermarket tank tow and track tow cables are nearly twice the thickness they should be. Please study photos of real tanks in excellent books like TIGERS AT THE FRONT>.Use your eyes and common sense not formulae and you will see .

[Mike Stannard (toyrific)]

Hi Peter

No wanting to labor this to much, but you are wrong on the formula, I have been using this formula to make 1000's of parts for the past 10 years or so, with over 600 satisfied customers I doubt it is wrong. The formula is so simple it cannot be wrong. Take the actual size of a part and divide it by 6. The real tow rope cables are 32 mm in diameter, divided by 6 = 5.33 mm (13/64 inches) My cables are 3/16 inches, which is 1/64 inches smaller than it should be but it is the cable size closest to the correct 6 scale on the market that I could find. It is certainly not larger than it should be.

If you are saying that this formula is wrong then every 6 scale product on the market is wrong. I don't think so. A 6 foot person divide by 6 = 1 foot, hence a 12 inch action figure, 1:6 scale, How simple can that be. Period pictures can sometimes deceive, angle, light, shadow etc. I deal where possible with published facts and measurements. The tow rope sizes are published in The DW to Tiger 1 by Jentz and Doyle.

I have a very simple solution to your problem, if you are not satisfied by the parts offered by the skilled craftsmen in this hobby, make your own.

Mike

[peterbarclay]

Hi yes i have made my own cables and you can see these on the Hobby Havoc forum.See for yourself how much more realistic they are.Go to armortek tiger 1 dabby. Cheers peter E/S

[Robin Hinson]

Perhaps one should consider going back to Hobby Havoc and staying there

Regards

[Peter Silcock]

As long as Peter is happy with his model and parts then I guess that is Ok. However as forum members have pointed out previously we are guests on Armorteks forum and perhaps a degree of circumspection is required before we post opinions. No matter what 32 divided by 6 is still 5.33 in any language!

[Dave Boller]

I'm looking at the dates on these comments and I realize I'm a "Johnny-come-lately" with mine, but since no conclusion has been reached on the thread, let me put this out there. It sounds to me that what you may be seeing in the old photos is actually the track cable not the tow cable, but just simply stowed in the wrong place/way on the tank, giving the impression of being something it isn't. Perhaps the tank no longer had any tow cables and used that (however flimsy) for lack of anything better; the chaos of war and all. They do afterall, look almost identical except for their size, which one cable(the tow) being about twice the size of the other. Sound familiar? That being said, here's something else to consider, and this is something I'm sure everyone has noticed in may different scaled models of all sorts. When "scaling" things down or up, errors can easily creep into the math. Usually they involve rounding fractional numbers off. For example, what do you do with a measure that has".555" in it? Do you round down, or up? Some manufacturers might round up, some down. The result being two different sized items. You see this alot in all kinds of 1/6 stuff too, where two identical items are slightly different in size, yet should be identical. Also, if there is any kind of heating involved in the manufacture of the item, this can very often distort (slightly) the measures of it. Even the molds used in production, can expand/distort after much repeated heating and cooling, especially if done rapidly, and time is money afterall. Point is, real-life scenarios do not often jive with even the most meticulous of expectations("Murphy"s Law"). Please understand, I'm not trying to disparage anyone, just trying to render possible explanations for the discord here, and I do appologize for any such impression.