Vince's Tiger 1 late variant 2017

[Vince Cutajar]

Hi Robert
The hatch is from Armorpax also. If I remember correctly it is slightly big for the turret roof hatch opening. I could have made the turret roof bigger or the loader's hatch smaller. As a compromise I removed some metal from both the turret roof and also the hatch.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Hi
First of all THANK YOU!
Never imagined my build log would be so popular. 160,000 views and counting. Guess I must have done something right.

Two years ago when I finished my Tiger 1, I made a list of what I still needed to do.

There are still a couple of things to do, namely:
Wife promised to do a canvas muzzle brake cover for me.
Pluck up the courage to make the left stick of my DX8 spring loaded to center.
Try and find a suitable ammo bag to fit Mark's MG34 cupola mount (any ideas anybody?).
Try and find one of those buckets to hang somewhere on the Tiger (any ideas anybody?).

The last two items on the list have already been done and today I (my wife) managed to finish the first item on the list.

She actually made two but I still haven't decided yet if I should change the colour of the cloth that was used.

Still haven't plucked up the courage to do item 2.

Vince

[Derek Attree]

Hi Vince

Buckets ....Look at Blackgates Engineering or Polly model engineering or EKP used on model steam locos and traction engines.

The bag Dave Dibbs does a resin Gurtsack or Stanard used to do a cloth one , Not sure if thats still available.

Hope that helps

Regards

Derek

[Søren Sandvold]

No wonder that this build has a lot of views
It's massive information and high quality work, is very valuable for anyone tempting to build a Tiger 1. I have read it from start to finish more than one time, and still finds small gold nuggets of tips and ideas to enhance my own Tiger.

Its a very, very nice Tiger you ended up with. Would love to see you weathering it up though, but understand the fear of making a mess of it

[Vince Cutajar]

Saturday is usually Tiger 1 day here (nothing to do with Bovington). I just run it a little in the workshop to make sure all functions still work. This is afterall my first ever radio-controlled model and I still can't believe that I got it to work without too much hassle. Many thanks to all who pitched in with suggestions and made it a hassle-free experience.

After the short run around thought that it was a long time since I put the transmitter on charge so took it home with me. Arriving home, on the spur of the moment, I decided that today was the day that I do something to the transmitter that I have been putting off since the beginning.

I always wanted to make the left stick spring-loaded to centre. I had seen some You Tube videos of how to do this but lost the links and was not bothered to look for them again. So, today, I relied on the Specktrum DX8 instruction manual. Removed the back of the transmitter but kept the battery connected. I was afraid that if I disconnect the battery I would loose all the settings and the receiver binding (eventually I found out that nothing is lost when the battery is removed).

Found the screw that is shown in the manual and started unscrewing it until the spring engaged. Something the manual does not tell you is that after engaging the spring one needs to adjust the spring tension as it is too loose. Took me a while to figure this out but eventually I realised that this had to be done and which screw needed to be adjusted to increase the spring tension.

Another item off the to-do list.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Yesterday my wife was in the backyard pruning some plants that were getting too tall and I happened to pick up something before it was thrown away.

I picked up a branch which looked like it would be good to replicate the log hanging on the side of the Tiger 1 that sometimes one sees in photos. Looking at the photos I suspect that the "log" could be a bit thicker although there was no standard size for these field additions. I will leave it like that for now to see if my eyes get used to it, but what do you think? Should I find something thicker?

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Looking at those photos also reminded me that I need to do something about the cupola mounted MG34. It should have the armoured barrel cover instead of the air-cooled cover. I drew it up last year but never got around to 3d print it.

Vince

[Adrian Harris]

I think your trunk may be a little thin.

Ask your good lady to plant a Buddleia and you will be able to supply the whole of Malta with fresh 1/6th scale logs every time she prunes

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

I think your trunk may be a little thin.

Thanks Adrian.
It confirms my suspicion.
I have to be on the lookout for something thicker.
Now where did she hide the tree saw?

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Some more work on the MG34 armoured barrel shroud.

A while back I asked Chris Hall if he could kindly 3D print the barrel and the shroud. He was kind enough to print me two not just one. Unfortunately, when I received them they did not fit as well as I would have liked the rear part of the MG34.

So back to the drawing board, actually back to CAD, to do some minor adjustments to the back part of the armoured barrel shroud.

This time I sent it out to a commercial printer in France and just for a change requested it to be printed with Polyjet printing technology. I also requested it to be printed in black for no extra cost.

Received them today.

They came out nice with no printing defects and now it fits perfectly the rear part of the MG34. It also fits nicely on Mark Lawson's cupola mount.
The only thing I do not like is that in some areas of the armoured shroud the print lines are just visible which was a surprise for me. I will try to do some fettling with a fine sand paper to see if I can remove the print lines.

Fingers crossed.

Vince

[Phil Woollard]

Very interesting Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

The MG 34 with the new front part is back in it's place.

I sanded off the print layer lines as much as I could. Gave it a good wash in clean water, let it dry and then applied a dark wash that I had used when painting the Tiger tools.

Now to sit back and enjoy some Panther builds.

Vince

[Robert E Morey]

Looks really good Vince. Nice CAD model as well.
Bob

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Bob.

Vince

[Robert Tanzer]

Great work you mad Vince.

Robert