Armortek

A Mammoth effort to this degree, good build and keeps the interest flowing, regards simon manning.

the tenons bit my palm as it snapped together so be careful.

Injured in the line of duty.

First time it snapped like that I said that no way I am getting my hands close to that so started using clamps instead.

Vince

Phil, just my two pennies worth, would a safer methode be to use a car jack to gently wind the horse shoe apart. That said thia is the most interesting tiger build yet.


Martin

I agree a scissor jack would be good, I'm just to impatient and need to work quickly Martin. More turret progress

I have been asked by a number of builders what we should do ref the gap between the mantlet and the turret, so this is one for Armortek,"what do you suggest that we do with the 6mm gap in question"?

The loaders hatch conundrum.

Good to see you working on areas that I haven't done yet. Makes it easy for me when I get there .

What size screws did you use on the barrel sleeve? M2 CSK?

Vince

Hi Vince, the screws are from my box of interesting things, they have a head diameter of 4 mm...They just looked right.
Now my box of interesting things ( as you have asked) is made up of parts that I salvage from every day items like printers old record players, anything with screws, springs, brackets you name it, if it looks remotely useful it goes in there!

If they have a head diameter of about 4mm then most probably they have a thread of 2mm. So I guess you drilled a shallow hole, countersunk it and glued in the screw.

Vince

Yep Vince you got it, just dont over do the cyno or you will loose the outer screw diameter detail as its a bit delicate.
Ooo Vince while i think about it, I plan to add an interior periscope to the loaders position are you thinking of doing the same? I have spares so it would be a shame not to.

Yes Phil. My plan is to put a periscope for the loader's position. I have already modified the kit supplied periscope guard to accept a periscope under it. I also have a spare periscope similar to the driver's and radio operator's periscopes that I intended to use but recently I found that on a late Tiger 1 the loader's periscope is the same as used in the cupola. So I guess I need to source a periscope that is similar to the cupola periscopes.

Vince

I'm sure the larger periscopes were used as well and they look a whole lot cooler so I will go with that, I have many photos showing the larger type. we have the turret interior on its way soon so I shall be working on lots of addition in that area.

Hi Phil,
Your tiger build is looking very good.
Regarding the mantlet clearance problem(s) between drivers hatch and also turret wrap, I had similar issues with my late Tiger, although the gap from back of mantlet to turret wrap was a little less than on your kit.
To address the problem I started with the exposed ends of the mantlet. For me the ends seemed a little too thick, so I reduced their thickness slightly by increasing the step cuts circled in the photo. I then closed the gap between mantlet and turret wrap by skimming equal amounts off the contact faces between the mantlet and the elevation pivot plate as marked with arrows. The overall effect is to pull the mantlet back, but even with this, there is still some contact between the hatches and mantlet at certain degrees of turret traverse and gun elevation. From photos and drawings I have seen this appears to have been an issue with the real tank as well, but I can find no info to confirm either way. It would be interesting to know at what turret/gun positions it was and was not possible to use the front hatches – anyone ?

Also Phil, one other clearance worth checking before you pin down the engine hatch and add the missing rectangular deck infill piece between the two radiator covers is can you open the engine hatch with the turret in place (inc. escape hatch, track hangers and a skim of zimmerit ) ? it would be a shame not to be able to access all that wonderful engine detail ! David Brydon suggests that this should be possible between 64 and 72 degrees of traverse, but it was an issue for my model which I discovered far too late on in the build - the only solution left being to omit the hinge pins and lift out rather than lift up the engine hatch to access the engine bay.
Regards, David

The loaders hatch all done but for the cable pull. I have also made a start on the cupola.

Hi David, the clearance of the hatches will be a challenge that's for sure, I was considering plugging the holes in the pivot block and drilling new ones 4.5 mm in to bring the whole mantlet back in one go.
Ref the engine hatch, they have always been close right from the very first Tiger 1 kits, I have tried this one and it misses ok at present, I will also check with the track hangers in place but I think we were ok there!

The turret continued. We are waiting and waiting on the turret interior so in the mean time I will carry on adding what i think is necessary to give us a good impression of a late Tiger interior whilst looking through the escape, loaders and commanders hatches.