The Phoenix - Tiger 131 #12

[John Fitzsimons]

Adrian,

Nitromors is not as strong as it used to be. Last time I had a major refurb I used this stuff.
https://www.vinnybyrne.com/body-shop/pa ... r-5lt.html
This is stronger than nitromors having some of the nasty stuff nitromors lost.

[Adrian Harris]

Thanks for the link John.

I've not been having problems with Nitromors, and have just found their liquid varnish remover version, which gets into all the nooks and crannies much better than the standard green gloopy stuff.

It also seems to shift the soot/smoke quite nicely.

Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

The main hull, turret part and all the road wheels are at the blasters, and should be back with me by the end of the week.

Cost quite a bit more than I was hoping but, having tried cleaning the turret lid with a 0.2mm wire wheel in a drill, it was going to take ages to clean them all up, plus there's various all the nooks, crannies and screw holes to clean out, which the blasting should do automatically.

He tried one piece whilst I was there, and it came out with a lovely satin texture, just right for a coat of etch primer.

My baby blasting system should arrive tomorrow as well, so I'll get to find out how much mess I can make with it

Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

More gunk removal, this time from the recoil tube and mantlet ring.

Both the recoil sleeves were completely burnt and liquefied, which I think is why these parts are so caked with plastic residue.

I found that heat to soften the plastic, then wire wool dipped in cellulose thinners shifted it remarkably quickly.
I had it mounted in the lathe chuck for easy of handling, and so that I could have it rotating slowly to enable even application of heat.

Very glad I have some 3M full face masks to hand

Adrian.

[simon_manning]

well done, just when i thought you were taking a back seat this winter on your projects, the right economics always fuels more enthusiasm for a build, this is genuinely an interesting topic, hopefully not to be seen again, keep at it adrian, good thread, regards simon.

[Adrian Harris]

Major parts are back from the blasters.

The two wheels with the black centres are where I forgot to remove the hubs before delivering them
They will be my first test once my home blasting system arrives.

Adrian.

[William Gardeniers]

Looking good the parts Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

One of the two sprockets was a cause for concern, due to a break in the sprocket ring and the lip of the sprocket centre.

Having stripped them down, I was initially hopeful that the damage to the sprocket centre centre wasn't too bad, and might be repairable with Aluminium brazing sticks.

Even though there is a crack right through the rim, I was hopeful that this would be fixable.

However, in testing the rest of the rim, the metal had crystallised on both sides of the gap, and was just crumbling.

So, new sprocket ring AND sprocket centre required

Adrian.

[Brian Ostlind]

Well at least you have some cool “damaged” sprockets for a diorama! I would love to have something like that buried halfway in the ground outside my playing area.

[Adrian Harris]

The engine deck was pretty badly covered in melted plastic and soot.

I cleaned up the rear most vents with cellulose thinners and a variety of wire brushes and thought they looked OK.

But having put all the parts through my new glass blasting cabinet, they've all come up a treat.

I left the brass plugs in place as I didn't want to contaminate the threads with media, and I'm hoping their shape will have kept most of the soot etc out of them. If they do need a clean up, I have some small steel wire wheels for the Dremel which should pass through them nicely.

Adrian.

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

It looks just like a regular build from this angle, apart from the strange pearl primer you are using... Amazing!

[Adrian Harris]

Still working my way through the parts. This is the mantlet before and after cleaning:

Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

The central panel has suffered much worse damage than the other panels from the engine deck as it wasn't on the tank at the time of the fire.

One corner has been heated beyond the melting point of the aluminium and has buckled badly.

This part is a write-off, so hopefully I'll be able to get a replacement from factory stock.

These are the parts I've managed to salvage from the plate:

The aluminium parts have been media blasted to clean off all the soot etc.

The steel hooks and clamping bars have spent the day in Hammerite Rust Remover Dip, followed by a quick run over with a stainless steel brush to clean them back to bare metal. The threaded bar still needs the final clean up.

Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

I'm about half way through the running gear

These are the suspension arms etc which I have cleaned up so far:

The torsion bars cleaned up nicely, using steel wool whilst turning them slowly in the lathe. I'm going to try refitting them, as I don't think they will have been taken to a high enough temperature to affect their elasticity. They seemed OK when I tested them when still in the Tiger, but if it does just drop onto its stomach then I'll have to plump for a replacement set.

I've ordered all the bearings for the axles, idlers and sprockets. I'm not sure what to do with the road wheel spacers, as they are very blackened from the tyres burning away around them, but I don't really want to blast the pockets for the bearings. I printed some ABS fillers for the final drive housings, which seems to have kept the bearing areas clear of media, so I might try printing some dummy bearings for the spacers and give them a blast.

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Your new media blasting setup is doing a great job.

Vince