The Official Armortek Forum - World leader in one sixth scale metal kits

Brian,

I have the Modellers guide and it is a big help. I was not aware of the other book so thanks for the tip.

Rocky

Hi Chris,

with some time and passion you will develope your skills at least with your Tiger build. Finally you will be surprised about at a later state never thougt to get there when started. Do not warry now you will get it right. So am I.

Good luck and best regards - Roland

From Jentz & Doyle - here is a photo of the Kubinka Tiger which appears to have a circular center and perfectly (aside from the hit!) flat surface around the sight:


However, also J&D, an image of the Bovington Tiger (I believe). The black circled area does not appear to be very circular at all and the white circled area seems to be a flat spot in a non-flat surrounding - quite complicated...:


These mantlets don't appear to come from the same form, although both early? What do we make of that?

Cheers,
/Chris

Hi,

I am reading "Panzer Leader" right now and was struck (no pun intended) by your quote "Klotzen, nicht Kleckern". Guderian was discussing with Major Wenck ot the 9th Panzer weather or not to leave a flank guard or to turn the entire division to the west. This is when Mjr Wenck replied "Klotzen, nicht Kleckern". The book translates that as "the sense of to strike concentrated, not dispersed.." or rather "... boot them, not spatter them".

I had just read that an hour before your post and I liked it.

This is not a criticism, or anything but rather a comment on a good quote for life, and perhaps to "multi-tasking", that I found interesting.

Christoffer, I agree with you!

Cheers!
Brian

@Brian
Glad you understand me correctly. There are a few other proverbs that come to my mind as possibly meaning something similar: Do it right the first time, all the way, if it is worth doing - it is worth doing well and such.
According to Rubbel et al in the "Combat history of the sPzAbt503", Guderian used the saying for describing the purpose of the heavy battallions to strike decisively to achieve breakthroughs and destroy any major obstacle to the following infantry and lighter infantry support tanks, such as enemy tanks and bunkers. He particularly wanted the heavies not to get bogged down as infantry support, for which they were not very well suited. Although that was pretty much what happened when the war turned.

Cheers,
/Chris

One other thing I forgot was the pistol port!

Rocky

Hi Rocky,

I can only say the port was a night mare to me. My first turn went out in a desaster - completely wrong placed bolts. The following pictures say all about. Luckily the rotating gate was correct because it was the bigger amount of work. With the wrong bores I made two photos. One in open and one in closed position. Finaly I got it right. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the O-ring to make the turning gate tight and just not too easy to turn. So the final result of my port is shown with the rotating gate in open position after the drwaing. The part number stamped on the cover is a allmost overlooked. The original part therefore is shown on the last photo. The drawing may help yo to understand the inner details.







Goog luck for your build - Roland[/img]

Looks like I am in trouble!

Rocky

At the risk of hijacking Rocky's thread does anyone have dates for the usage of the two types of Feifel air cleaners

Adrian.

Hi Adrian,

according to Lentz & Doyle in "Germany's Tiger Tanks" Feifel air cleaners been introduced in November 1942 by Fahrgestell Nr. 250014 with the common design showing the double drums on each filter. This design has been changend to a simplified more ovale drum in March 1943. Finaly in October 1943 the Feifel air filters been dicontinued.

Roland

Many thanks Roland

Adrian.

Hi Guys,

While we are on the topic of Feifel filters, were they only fitted on Tigers meant for tropical climates, or were they fitted to all leaving the factory? I've seen early and mid Tigers without Feifel filters, but I'm not sure if they were taken off by the units.


Sarah

Hi, Sarah

I think that only the early tiger 1 has the feifil airtakes,
here is a webside where you find a lot of the tiger 1

http://www.alanhamby.com.html

Best regards Yves

Given they were a dust/sand filtering system, it seems odd that they wouldn't be needed in the summer in say Russia, where I would have thought dust would have been as much a problem as in Tunisia.

I wonder if they improved the internal filtering so as to make the fragile Feifel ones redundant ?

Also, is it linked to the change from the HL210 Maybach to the HL230 ?

Adrian.

Certainly, but as Roland mentioned above, they were removed in October '43 which isn't a very dusty month in southern Russia/Ukraine. The tactical situation was also such that the Tigers often had to drive straight into an overwhelming enemy and got shot up pretty bad. The record holders took hits in the hundreds and any externally mounted accessories would get badly damaged in such situations. I don't know if a perforated Feifel system would do any good and if that was the reason for their discontinuation or if it was for reasons of optimizing production. The discontinuation did not coincide in time with the introduction of the new engine, but may be related to the same general optimization and improvement work.

Cheers,
/Chris