Mid tiger mantlet conversion to early mantlet

[Steen Vøler]

Hi all and happy easter

I have a mid tiger 1 mantlet that i will change to an early style tiger 1 mantlet.

Before starting with the sanding, i would like to ask if anybody has tried this before and share advice/experience on what to do and not to do

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Hi Steen,
The only one I know who has tried this before was Roland Mann:
http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/Rol ... nBn/?ref=1
Unfortunately, I don't know how he accomplished this, only that there was sandblasting involved.
I will have to do this too, eventually.

[Steen Vøler]

Thanks Christoffer

I will try with a narrow sanding machine and manual sanding to finish. Maybe also finish off with some mr. Surfacer 500 to give the cast structure as well as hiding the sanding result.

It was good to meet in Göteborg and look forward to our panzer meeting as we talked about. We talked on the way back and we would like to visit your battle area if possible

[Steen Vøler]

So, the sanding took a little more than an hour. The surface was a bit un-even, so I decided to mix a metal 2-component putty and lay a very thin layer on the sanded part. You ca nsee that the second gun sight hole is now in line with the left gun sight hole - the putty is also t ofix this error.

This is now drying and wil lbe sanded with a fine grade sand paper by hand.

The second gun sight hole will be added also. Can anyone maybe tell me the distance between the holes as it is on the Tiger 131 kit?

cheers
Steen

[Phil Woollard]

Looking good Steen although I can't believe you have lost that lovely 5.56mm bullet hit! regards Phil.

[Steen Vøler]

I know Phil. It was with pain in my heart to grind it off but it is going into battle soon so there will be other battle damage I am sure

[Steen Vøler]

hi again
after the sanding I applied a very thin layer of 2-component epoxy and sanded again.

Applied primer so that the visibility of the structure got better for additional sanding/adjustment.

Next is to bore the secong gun sight hole

[Kent Wiik]

Hi Steen,

Nice work!
Just keep in mind the holes was tappered.

http://tiger1.info/EN/Telescope-holes.html

Kind regards
Kent

[Adrian Harris]

Looks good Steen

I have to say I'm impressed the sanding machine was able to remove that lump. Did it take many belts

I've been looking at getting one and have wondered how robust they are.

Adrian.

[Steen Vøler]

Hi Kent
thanks for the detailing image and link. I have been thinking of making this part based on brass tubes in different sizes cut to length and glued into the gunsight holes.

Have anyone done this before?

[Steen Vøler]

Hi Adrian

The belt sanding machine was worth it all It took 1.5 hour and 4 medium corn belts and 3 fine corn belts. Then som manuel sanding with fine corn sandpaper

The only real challenge with the belt sander is the narrow size og the belt, and you will have to be very carefull not getting a un-even surface in the end

I would be happy to do the same with yours - just pay the shipping both ways.

[David Battson]

Hi Steen,
Your idea of making up a stepped gun sight insert from differing sized tubes is a good one, I have done similar by drilling the mantlet to the largest hole size and then making up a brass insert with concentrically drilled holes of reducing diameters at increasing depths.
By the way what has happened to your second sight hole, I would have thought all early mantlets would have two holes for the binocular sight (?). If it is a later conversion to the monocular sight, will you be adding welds for the plugged hole or is it all going to be covered with zimmerite ?

David

[Steen Vøler]

Hi David

I covered the second hole as it was not correctly bored. This will be bores out once again of course

I will go with the pipe in pipe solution

[Steen Vøler]

Mantlet conversion is now almost complete. Need to do the pipe in pipe thing, but that is the easy part.

Did a rain shield also as well as added the analogue gun sight above the gunners sight

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Neat!
Great looking modification!