Armortek

A tank is born!

An up-side-down tank.

Vince

Vince another thing that could be done would be to machine the taperlock taper a bit deeper. But you have once again found the best solution. Its looking very good. I will keep this in mind when I mount my sprockets.

Thanks Bob. As they say; "There is more than one way to skin a cat".

Vince

This morning, with some help, I turned the model upright. It's starting to get heavy now. Before resting it on two wooden blocks I thought I would let the road wheels take the weight so that I can have a look at the ground clearance. If I add the thickness of the tracks, the ground clearance at the moment is about 90mm. I am aiming for a clearance of around 78mm and I think with more weight at the end of the build I will be close to that. So it was a good decision to set the swing arm angle to 30 degrees as per instructions.

Sorry guys, but I could not resist it. I installed the track loop on one side just to see how it looks.
The track loop has 96 links and some of the links have to be removed in the future.

The plan now is to work around the hull and test fit all the bits and pieces and making modifications as required. As I already have started at the front of the hull, I decided to continue in that area. Fitted the front spare link holder and put some tracks in it.
At the moment, the links are very loose. When I made the spacers for the holder I made them longer than required to cater for the zimm thickness.

So here is a question for anybody who has built the Tiger 131. The front spare link holder was part of the kit. Could you tell me if the spare tracks are loose, or does the holder pull them tight to the front of the hull? Could somebody measure the distance between the holder and the front of the hull for me?

Thanks in anticipation.
Vince

Vince your tiger is looking great. Don't foget the ground clearance will decrease when batteries, motors and packs are added. This will drop the height a lot. It looks like the tracks need a link removed. Enjoying your progress!
Bob

Thanks Bob. That's what I am banking on; that the height will reduce further as the weight increases. Yes, tracks will need to be removed but I thought I will wait a bit more until it gets heavier.

Vince

It looks Great Vince,your posts will really help when I start putting mine together.Silly question but can you remove a single link or do you have to remove 2 like in a motorbike chain?

Once I start my build you can possibly expect quite a few Pm's from myself asking silly little questions,hope you won't mind.

A few years ago before I acquired a Pitts Special I was building a Baby Greatlakes(eventually called a Baby Lakes).I was fortunate enough to have 2 flying from the club where I learned to fly.I bombarded the builder with silly little questions,for example...does the x brace behind the pilots seat go from upper left to lower right or visa versa?I got the answer,then I asked is it looking from the front or from the rear?

It didn't really matter but to me working in a shed at 2am tack welding the fuselage tubing up after I finished work down the coalmine on noon-shift it was the single most important thing going on in the world at that moment.

Keep up the good work.

Glen.

That is correct Glen. You can add/remove single track links from the loop.

Vince

I have decided to defer the decision about the front spare track holder to when I have applied the zimm in that area.

I am at the moment working on the headlamp assembly and also thinking about how to improve the looks of the front mudguards. I am planning on using nearly all the kit parts and adding some others. I would like to straighten the bends that the mudguards have.
I wonder if it can be done using a big milling vice. Has this been done before?

Vince

p.s. Finally managed to get myself "The modeler's guide to the Tiger Tank" book.

Vince Cutajar wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:39 am

p.s. Finally managed to get myself "The modeler's guide to the Tiger Tank" book.

Gratz! What's your secret? How did you do it?

Marco, I left a saved search on ebay and when anything crops up I get an email. At the moment there is another for auction on ebay UK.

Vince

Why not make the mudguards out of brass. Check out how I made them for my mid Tiger. My post is on page 11.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1219 It looks like my pictures (photobucket) can be seen.
The Armortek ones did not come forward enough.

Thanks Mike for your suggestion. That's a fine model you have there.

It crossed my mind to redo them from scratch but I would like to see if I can salvage any of the original parts first.

Vince

Finally took the plunge and attempted to straighten the bends in the front mudguards. I am happy to say that the experiment was a success.
Used a 5" milling vice with smooth jaws to do it. I haven't removed the 90 degree bend on the long side of the side flap as I suspect it will become too wide. In that case I might mill it out. Have to think about it.

Vince