Armortek

I have had the exact problem. In my case it turned out to be a bearing that was not fully seated (darn bearing! ). That makes the bearings bind when squeezed axially.

Regarding the vision port, just glueing it in place does nicely. I was going to point you to Ragnar Arntsen's beautifully animated version, but the pictures are all gone thanks to a picture hosting provider we used to rely on in the past. Luckily, the forum accepts pictures directly these days.

Cheers,
/Christoffer

Thanks Christoffer for your input. I have ordered some 0.1mm shim washers to experiment with. Maybe with these I can find that sweet spot where the bearings are free running without any end play.

Regarding the vision port I would like a system were I can have it either closed or open. I think I have a simple solution for it but it is still on the "drawing board" for now.

Vince

Last weekend played a bit with the driver's vision port armour and I think I found a non-permanent solution of how to keep the vision port open.
Drilled and tapped a 3mm hole just above the vision port and made a special screw (from the scrap bin) to lock the armour in the open position.
Like this I can have the port either open or closed and I can reach the screw from the driver's hatch.
I also covered the port with a piece of Lexan sheet but for now left the Lexan protective cover in place. If anybody needs a diagram of the position of the bolt holes I can also put it on the forum.

Vince

Started the slow process of assembling and final painting of the road wheels.
The inner faces of the above road wheel were pre-painted prior to assembly. All that remains for this road wheel is painting the outer faces.
For this road wheel I will first paint the fixing hardware before fitting the other wheel. The inner faces have already been pre-painted.

Vince

Still working on the wheels but I have managed to get two of them fully finished. Just out of curiosity I checked to see how they look on the swing arms.
It wasn't hard to slip them on the axles. Let's see when I have another two finished if it becomes more difficult. I have also started doing some modifications to the visor armour. Noticed in photos that the top sliding armour (CE0126) has got an undercut or lip at the front (not sure of the proper English word for it). So I milled some material off to create this lip.
With the armour in the closed (down) position, the lip overlaps the bottom part of the armour.

Vince

Looking really good Vince,I havent touched my Tiger yet.Ive bought a Pak 43 which I'me going to finish in polished bare metal so any work i do cant be hidden under paint.I hope my Tiger goes together as nice as yours.



Glen.

Hi Glen and thanks for the comments. Enjoy the PAK 43 build. It will be good practice before you start the Tiger.

Vince

Finished another two sets of road wheel assemblies and tried putting them on. It's fiddly but doable. Most probably when I come to the stage of final fitting of the road wheel assemblies on the axles, I will turn the tank upside down as it will be easier to fit the wheels.

Also noticed that when I put a couple of tracks on the aft road wheel, the tracks were interfering with the lower bolts of the bump stop. Put a wood block under the wheel so that it will take the weight of the tank (and the road wheel moves up) and the tracks just miss the lower bolts of the bump stop. Most probably I will re-adjust all the swing arms to 30 degrees from the current 33 degrees to increase the clearance.

Vince

After finishing half of the road wheel assemblies I decided to take a break and do another modification on the driver's visor armour, namely Visor Armour D (CE0129). I wanted to put in the five fake mounting screws on this part but suddenly decided to remake the part from scratch. Nothing wrong with the original kit part but the new part should have a more true to life profile.
Vince

Looking good Vince!

Just a reminder...there was no slots in the 5 bolts, just a flat top.

http://tiger1.info/EN/Drivers-vision-port.html

Kind regards
Kent

Thanks Kent. I did not know that. I thought they were slotted head screws. I guess some Milliput will fix that.

Vince

Hi Vince,

You learn something new all the time about our models and their 1:1 origin and for me that's 1/2 the fun of this hobby.
And you will never ever know 100% about them as new facts never known before pup up.

Keep up with the fun, love see your progress.

Kind regards
Kent

hi Vince,
In response to your question about the road wheel inner face - I made mine the same as the outer facing wheel. That is with a brass tab between the two bolts and nuts on the bolt end instead of the hex head facing the hull. I assume the inner wheel face and outer wheel face would be the same. I had to make some extra brass tabs as there are not enough supplied in the kit. I could be incorrect in this assumption however. Perhaps Kent or someone more knowledgeable can respond.
Best regards
Bob

Bob, I was planning on doing them just as you described but then I came across a period drawing in the Culver and Feist book (which I showed in a previous post) which made me change my mind. The photos I came across are not very clear so I am still not sure which is the proper way.

Vince

Still slowly working on assembling the road wheels, painting the visor armour components and making a bracket behind the MG mantlet but planning ahead I have tracks in my future.

The tracks seem to be covered with a very fine blackish dust which seems to get everywhere. I suspect it is a casting by-product. How do you guys clean these individual tracks? Can I wash them in a bucket of water?

Vince