Tiger 131 In South Wales

[Vince Cutajar]

Me too.
Looking forward to the continuation of the build. I picked up many helpful ideas from it.

Vince

[David Stewart]

Again thanks for asking about my build and I am pleased it's of interest to you, I am going to have to find more time to follow this forum as I am missing some stunning builds going on.

Regards

David

I agree David this forum is like a model masterclass! Great builds and craftsmanship. Looking forward to you resuming your Tiger build

Another David

[Simon Peck]

Hi David,

I’ve a question however ref a few posts back. Your front mud guards, how did you get the hole for the hinge to line up across each hinge point, as I’d imagine you did in order for the mudguard hinge to work properly? Surely a long drill bit would ‘drift’ too much.....

Cheers,

Simon

[davidwilkins]

Hi Simon,

I think I machined out parts of the hinges out first but left enough aluminium to keep the some strength in the aluminium block so that it did not flex when I drilled out the holes. When I drilled out the first hinge I used a 1.5mm drill bit and then changed to 2mm milling bit this made a perfect guide for a 2mm drill bit for the next hinge.

When I do this type of work I always use the best quality drill bits and cutting fluid, also I use ER collects to hold the drill bits in my milling machine and use extreme care when starting to drill.

I am not sure if drilled out all four hinge holes from one end of the mudguards I thick I did by adjusting the drill bit depth in the chuck collet for each hinge. I hope this makes sense and is of some help to you.

Regards

David

[Simon Peck]

Hi David,

Thanks for the explanation. Yes, that makes sense, very useful.

Best regards,

Simon

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

It's been a long time since my last update but I am now just about ready to resume my tiger 131 build. I have just finished building my new tank barracks and now finishing off the internal layout. The new barracks will hopefully be a bit more comfortable to work in particularly in the winter time as I have insulated the floor and roof it is also double glazed. Updates will be a bit slow to start of with as will take a bit time to feel my way back into tank building, I am hoping to visit the tank museum a week Saturday and get some photos of 131.

Now I just have to try and remember how load photos onto the forum again.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

I have had a go at restarting my Tiger build over the past few days, and the area that I decided to work on was the filler caps on the rear decks. I did not have any confirmed measurements so it has been all guess work from photos and that was the start of my problems by making a change to filler cap or surrounding area it look would ok from one angle but then looking from the opposite angle it looked totally wrong.

With this in mind I decided that the filler cap had be all the same size and all of the compromises would be made on the deck grills. So with in mind I reduced the circumference of all the filler caps by 2.5mm as I felt this would give me enough room to make changes that I wanted.

Not sure how this is going work out hopefully by the end it won't look to bad.

Regards

David

[Vince Cutajar]

Hi David

Lovely to see an update of your build. I think I know what you are aiming to achieve with the filler caps and surrounding area. I was going to do something similar but dropped the idea. Now, when you said you reduced the size of the filler caps, you gave me a new idea that I will be investigating.

I was a bit perplexed when you said:

I reduced the circumference of all the filler caps by 2.5mm

Did you mean diameter instead of circumferance?

Vince

[davidwilkins]

Hi Vince,

Thanks for your comments, yes I did mean diameter and I look forward to see what you come up with.

I do think that the original filler caps supplied by armortek are the right size or closer to the right size than the modification that I am doing. I just feel that that this would be the best way to get the overall look.

Regards

David

[simon_manning]

nice to see you back on david, workshop looks rather nice aswell, well done, regards simon manning.

[Dennis Jones]

Nice workshop David, Good to meet up and chat last weekend. Have you sorted radio gear ?

Dennis.

[Adrian Harris]

> Have you sorted radio gear ?

Boxed up and waiting to get a price from the post office

Adrian.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Dennis,

It was really nice to meet you, thanks for all your advice and help with the radio control systems. It is all sorted with Adrian and I should have the set soon. I have not purchased the Armortek options yet as I am waiting for upgraded gun recoil with smoke discharge to come on line.

I dare say when I am trying install the electronics I will be on the forum screaming for help.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

Simon, sorry I missed your comment thanks for the welcome back I am still finding my way around the new workshop.

Still finding my way back to building my tiger tank but I am starting to move forward in a couple of areas. I am still working on the filler caps and surrounding areas. I have made some M2 eye bolts and brackets for holding the tow cables in place on the rear decks I just need to order some M2 wing nuts from Knupfer and make a list for some other bits and bobs.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

It has been a while since my last update as other jobs have been getting in the way. I have fitted jack to the rear plate but I have made a few modifications to it's position, the jack footplate and brackets that hold it in place.

I have raised the position of the jack by 5mm to give more clearance above the rear mudguards and it brings it closer to the air filters but looking at photos I believe this now looks better. The footplate I measured the last time I was at the museum so just scaled this down, as regards to the brackets I used the book supplied with the model as a guide to making these parts I just need change the bolts for some 2mm diameter pins and wing nuts.

Regards

David