Tiger Ausf E “F01” Gruppe Fehrmann

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Update 21 Mar 20

First, I hope everyone is staying safe in these uncertain times.

Secondly an update on Tiger F01:
The next job was to modify the bolt protector plate that is fixed to the inside face of the side plates. Two changes were required: (1) rounding off the top and (2) milling a circular indentation (I guessed at 8mm by 1.5mm) so that the nuts will partially hidden by the plate when installed. I recently purchased a set of 1-2-3 blocks which proved very useful when locking everything down.

Protector plate in place. Cap screws will be replaced eventually by studs and bolts.

Depth of indentations shown above, note final drive protector dry fitted. The 1-2-3 blocks were also used to lock down these protectors so that the holes for the attachment bolts could be drilled and tapped through (as per the actual vehicle). I will be adding a extra securing screw as suggested by John Grima (East Coast Armory).

Then it was on to the other end of the plates. Tapping holes for the M2 countersunk screws was interesting!

That’s it for now,
Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Update 28 Mar 20
The front and rear doublers are now finished, the front ones have been reduced down to match the protector plate. I will soon clean-off the side plates and fix them using CA. I think that it will be OK to do this before priming the plates.
As the weather has been good over last few days I tried priming my 3D printed parts using Halfords Red Primer, seemed to work :

Close-up, will use eventually 10BA bolts to attach.
I am planning to replace the roof supports with ones that are more prototypical. To start this I have printed up some plates that will fit behind the support brackets. These will be attached using a stud and a nut. The studs will pass through the plate and into the scalloped bracket to give the impression of Morse tapered bolts from the outside and inside. I am considering whether to do this along the length of the side plate or just where I need it. As the insides will be full of stuff (batteries controllers etc. etc.) it may not be necessary!

Holes drilled and tapped to 4BA. The next job was to start milling the edges of other plates in readiness for weld detailing:

Front lower plate. Now onto the rear plate; sometimes you have to be creative in supporting parts. Here I used some scrap timber to make a jig to help drill out the tensioner cover caps to accept M4 bolts.

My plan is to turn up a threaded boss that will be fixed into the rear plate for these bolts. The internal end of the hole will be tapped to either M5 or 2BA and used to mount a 3D printed ‘capture’ cover for the tensioner bolt (as suggested by John Grima).

That’s all for now...
Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Update 7 Apr 20
Track tensioner covers: decided to just tap through to M4 so will use M4 studs to attach internal capture covers.

Brass plugs fitted, note countersinking for M3 side plate securing bolt (should be easier to hide with bodywork). Covers were polished on the lathe and then counterbored to accept the M4 bolts.

Had to be creative again to secure covers for boring... used an ER25 collet plate from the lathe.

The end result...
Next I laid out other changes to the rear plate, first to improve the starter plate attachment and then the bosses for the Fiefel system. I will not have the system fitted so you will be able to see these bosses. Looking at several photographs it became clear that there was some slight lateral variation in the location of these bosses. I have placed mine further inboard so that I can drill holes now before assembling the hull and doing the weld detailing.

Plenty of Sharpie use...

The counterbore came in handy here too.
Back to the side plates now. A quick look at 250159 (page 107 of D.W. to Tiger 1. Jentz and Doyle) showed that some reshaping would be required for 250158.

Time to put it together for another dry fit...

Trying out some laser cut and pre-bent internal doublers that I sourced from Fractory, more about the roof support later.

Views of the reshaped and ‘thickened’ side plates. Join should disappear with weld detail, bodywork and rolled plate texturing using Mr Surfacer 500.

That's all for now,
Alastair

[Phil Woollard]

Nice work Alastair!

[Stephen White]

Alistair, great to see the Fehrmann Tiger taking shape. You might find Mr Surfacer 500 doesn’t give you the volume you’re after. A very workable alternative is Upol High Build primer, sprayed on in stippled patches. I’ve found it much more useable than Mr Surfacer in this scale.

[AlastairCooke]

Stephen
Thanks for the information and the kind comments.
Alastair

[Stephen White]

Today is the 75th Anniversary of 3RTR v Kampfgruppe Fehrmann or at least their sole representative, Franzen's F01. Some photos of the participants are here:

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/ba ... ost-875059

I'll copy this onto my dormant Comet build so that Celerity and F01 can be re-united in spirit at least.

Fear Naught,

Stephen

[AlastairCooke]

Stephen
Many thanks. Here's hoping 'F01' moves again before the 80th anniversary!
Alastair

[Stephen White]

This popped up on FaceBook this morning.

Kevin Greenhalgh, who runs the Fallingbostel Military Museum, is posting his photo collection on FaceBook. The collection relates to Fallingbostel during its time as the Panzerlehrschule and the liberation of Belsen. This photo is not one I’ve seen before. Kevin simply describes it as a Fallingbostel training tank. It is certainly interesting given the location, in the Fehrmann context. It’s clearly a hybrid, consistent with the other Fehrmann Tigers. I haven’t tried to compare what we can see of the paint patterns and damage but wouldn’t it be a result if we could associate it with F01? New Fehrmann Tiger photos don’t come up every day. I’ve sent it to David Byrden to see if he knows of it.

[AlastairCooke]

Stephen
Thanks for the image. I am not sure that it depicts F01 as by the end it had a turret with zimmerit. I also notice an 'L' shaped patch on the glacis which I think I have seen before... but cannot remember where . So I think we have an image of one of the 'six' but not F01.

Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Update 22 Apr 20
Sponson gussets
Started drilling holes to locate Vince Cutajar’s excellent shaped strips that simulate the bolted/riveted/welded gussets between the lower hull plates and the sponson floor.

Following Vince’s advice I procured some M2 ‘rivet screws’ with a 3mm diameter head. These were replaced later with slightly larger M2 button head screws as I felt the rivet heads looked a little small.

with M2 rivet screws

with M2 button head screws
I also used a step drill to open out the lightening holes in the firewall support bracket.

It is now onto the firewall and side plates for the engine 'room' .
Alastair

[Ivano Costantini]

Hi Alastair, I have difficulties with the mail.
If you read me, I sent you a PM.
Thanks! Ivano

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,

Update 6 May 20

Change of pace... the turret. I decided to take a short break from the Wanne and do something with the Turm. I have a late Tiger mantlet which has the right extra thickness but only one hole for the monocular gun sight... I drilled and bored out a second hole. This will eventually be finished with some tubes for the inner part.

Back to the hull..

The hull front plate has been milled to provide a slot for weld detail.

After a delivery of some parts from Shapeways that are too big for me the print at home, I was able to layout the engine deck.

The underside of the engine cover support frame.

The cross beam with temporary fixings.

General layout...I am probably going to mill a ledge in the rear plate. You may notice a ‘notch’ in the driver’s side of the plate...an accident with a broken drill bit !
Another thread shows the revision for the front that I designed....

That's all for now,
Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Update 22 May 20
Problem... drilling vertically into the rear plate without mishap (I broke a drill doing this earlier)
Solution... use a B&D Workmate and a smaller mill/drill.

Success....
Next job...machining the rear plate to add the required ‘ledge’ to the inner face. The plate will be “thickened” in due course by adding 1.5mm internally, probably using styrene sheet.

Note the patch added to recover from the results of removing a broken drill.
As I was getting the firewall laser cut I decided to design some Inset plates to add extra ‘strength/thickness’ to the belly plate, my design had reduced this to 1.5mm in places.

Test fitting the firewall. I am only including the detail for the engine compartment as I am planning to fit the loud speakers in the area of the sponsors occupied by the upper fuel tanks on the full sized vehicle.

The next image shows the firewall attached to the cross-member with M2 bolts and the cross-member “cut down” to fit the bearing for the turret.

Test fitting the idler axles. I also attached the idler adjuster covers to see if I can bolt in from both sides. This will make the design of the adjuster bolt capture plate a lot easier.

Next comes the fitting of the partially constructed top plate support bulkhead for the front. I have yet to design, print, and fit the webs.

This view shows the kit provided top plate and the additional area required to fit with the repositioned radiator etc. covers and engine cover. I intend to replace the whole top deck with a mild steel sheet so that I can use magnets to ‘lock’ it down.

I have recently received the excellent HL230 P45 kit from Ivano and will start the basic construction so that I can layout the rest of the engine bay.
That's all for now,
Alastair

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All,
Engine Build
I am putting together a detailed build log for Ivano's HL230 engine kit. I can create a thread for this if there is any interest... please respond if you would like to see it.

Alastair