Dave's Tiger I (Early) Kit Build Thread

[Dave Goodwin]

I'm just about ready to get started. I've been reading a lot on the forum this week and I'm at the point now where I'll need to make some decisions.

The first step in the build guide is attaching the torsion bar support rails to the lower hull. I need to decide whether to do that now and then prime and paint later, or prime and paint the individual parts and then assemble them. I have to admit I am of two minds about it.

On the one hand, I like the idea of all the surfaces being primed and protected. On the other hand, it's an aluminum-aluminum joint, so dissimilar corrosion should not be a problem and when painted the joint should be well sealed. It's also easier to just paint once, rather than on each individual piece.

Priming individually also raises the problems of having to seal-off or re-tap threaded holes and introduces some minor dimensional changes due to the paint layers. My current leaning is to assemble and paint as subassemblies when the metals are the same. When dissimilar, I will prime individually.
Thoughts from any of you veterans on that?

The very last step in the build guide is track assembly. There is no mention of any sort of lubrication on track pins, and they are a fairly loose fit so I'm not sure any is really needed. What do you all do about that, lube them in some way or just build them dry?

With some luck, time-wise, some building may occur tonight I'll be doing probably the simplest couple of things in the book - adding all the cosmetic detail hex bolts to the road wheels and attaching those torsion bar rails to the lower hull. Once the wheel bolts have been added, I can mask off the tire mounting flanges and get all of those wheels primed before mounting the rubber.

[John Fitzsimons]

I dont think you need to lubricate the track pins. The lube will just attract dirt and debris. I filled the holes for the brass bushes and then applied the etch primer before assembly but only once I was happy that everything fit together well. Etch primer is a thin layer and shouldn't affect fit. Fit the brass bushings before assembly and dont forget the 0 rings. A bit of grease on the 0 rings.

[Donald Suttie]

Hi
I acid etch primed everything inside and out,2 years into my build and i have zero rust on what i have done so far

Donald

[Dave Goodwin]

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to proceed with my plan and prime first when dissimilar metals are involved, and prime as sub-assemblies when the metals are the same. I think that strikes a nice balance between protection and efficiency.

My first build session was this evening, though I only ended up with about an hour. As I suspected they would do, things are taking longer than I estimated and are not as simple as they may first appear

Tonight's session was to work on perhaps the simplest task in the entire build; putting the cosmetic detail fasteners into the road wheels. I figured I'd just blow through that and get it done. Ha! I filmed the work and the camera tells me I spent 53 minutes on it. I got 3 wheels done. At that rate, I'll spend nearly 12 hours on this task. That can't be right, can it?

Accounting for some of the talk time on the video, I'd say it was about 45 minutes of actual build time, so 15 minutes per wheel. With 18 fasteners per wheel, I guess less than a minute for each isn't so bad. In any event, it takes as long as it takes! I will say, my fingertips are sore now!

If you're interested in watching me work and listening to me blabber on, I'll post a video link once I get that ready to post. Feels good to have gotten started!

[Donald Suttie]

Slow and steady is the way,on my build i managed to put some of the bolts the wrong way,although i worked slowly
i found it best to prime everything first,then assemble,living in Scotland it can get quite wet and damp here,and didn't want any surface rust to spoil my finished Tank
after a few wheels you will find quicker ways to do the same job as the wheels get repetitive
it is important to make sure the wheels are properly seated on their hubs as if not you will have to strip it down as it will affect the tracks and smooth running at a later stage
i had 2 or 3 wheels which needed readjusting because they weren't seated properly

Donald

[Dave Goodwin]

Thanks Donald! I've improved a little bit on the wheel assembly, but the best I can manage is a stable 16 minutes per wheel putting these cosmetic bolts in. I'm OK with that.

I was looking at the suspension instructions today, just to begin to get to grips with it, and I can see how I could easily mess that up so, yes, slow and steady is the watchword going forward. Look twice, build once, look again! I already discovered that my preliminary assumption on how the hub would mount to the wheel was completely wrong.

I've finished 8 wheels now in a total of about 2.75 hours. I'll hope to knock out another 3 or 4 this evening after I get home. I've started a spreadsheet build log where I'm tracking my build session times. It's unimportant, but I like the data

[John Fitzsimons]

Have not looked at my wheels for a long time. I don't think the earlier kits had the bolt details on the inner wheels.

[Dave Goodwin]

Interesting, John. I know ArmorTek make lots of incremental improvements as they re-offer various editions; I guess that was one of them. An odd one, though, as nearly all of this bolt-head detail is mostly hidden when the assemblies are built. I do like that on this release of the Tiger I, at least, they've got countersunk fasteners at the front and rear of the hull rather than the incorrect hex bolts they used in the earlier versions. I'm not sure when they switched but it's nice to have as it will make the bodywork easier on those joints.

I continue plugging away on the wheels, as my fingertips will permit. I'm up to 13 complete now, and will do a couple more before going out to run some errands, then more this evening. I'm hoping to be half done by Saturday.

[Dale jordan]

Can we have a photo of the other side of the wheel please .
Dale

[Adrian Harris]

I believe this is the first Early/Mid Tiger from Armortek with the correct inner paired wheels.

Until now all the wheel sets have been made up of the same dished wheels.

The really early kits used a single casting for the inner pairs but they were not the correct profile either. A few hardy souls remade the inner wheels on the very early kits.

Adrian.

[Andrew Gaze]

Love your work Dave.
Very keen for more photos of the kit and parts you are working on.
I have a kit on a payment plan so won’t be getting it for few more months yet, it’s nice to get a bit of a heads up on what to expect from the kit.

Cheers,
Gazey.

[Dave Goodwin]

Well, that's one box of 24 wheels done. I think I'll be giving my fingers a couple days rest before starting on the other box!
For reference, here's a shot of both sides of the wheels. All 48 are identical, so if the real tank has different profiles for the singles and doubles, this one definitely will not.
On the long axles, the double wheel is on the inside with the bolt faces of the double wheels facing outward. On the short axles, the double wheel is on the outside and the bolt faces of the double wheels are on the inside. I'll have to do some research on that and see how it is on the 1:1 vehicle.

[Dave Goodwin]

Very keen for more photos of the kit and parts you are working on.
I have a kit on a payment plan so won’t be getting it for few more months yet, it’s nice to get a bit of a heads up on what to expect from the kit.

Welcome to the Club! It's definitely a new experience for me. I've done small-scale plastic only prior to this, and not a whole lot of that either. I might be cursing those 2.5mm hex bolts now, but they are way easier to handle than some of those tiny 1/35 parts. I don't even look at 1/72 kits

[Dave Goodwin]

Spent some time today on the torsion bar support rails. Got them all degreased but I think they're going to need some light sanding too. The cleaner/degreaser didn't do much for the cutting compound residue.

I sanded and cleaned out one end of one of the rails and glued in the first of the brass bushings. I'll use that to help me decide how I want to paint them. I wanted to see if I prefer masking the installed bushings or leaving the holes empty and masking those. The bushings are thick enough that I am leaning toward just masking them in place.

I also started work on the second box of wheels, adding those detail hex bolts. I will now also build a trial wheel assembly to decide how I want to handle painting and the bearings. Again, I think I'm leaning towards masking the bearings once they are in place.

[Dave Goodwin]

Mock-up of a wheel assembly did demonstrate that I'll have to paint the hubs and wheels independently, as they'll be too close together to be painted assembled. On the long axles, the bearings sit quite deep into the hub and I'll want the outer portion of those deep recesses to be painted, so I'll have to install the bearings and then mask them off in place to accomplish that. My primer is supposed to arrive today. I'd like to get one wheel primed at minimum as a practice example for tire installation.