Tiger 131 In South Wales

[simon_manning]

lovely work, nice to see a tiger getting this much love, great build, regards simon manning.

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

Simon, thanks for your kind words.

I have now made all of my new wheels and have just made the flange collar to fit around wheel axle 1. I am not going to make these for the other wheels as you will not be able to see them.

Next job is to finish making the locking tabs for the wheel nuts and bolts and I still have some work to do on the hub caps.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

Still making progress on the wheels, I have finished making the locking tabs these were made on my rotary table and I have now started working on the oil/grease nipples on the wheel hubs.

These have proved quite difficult to make but I am reasonable pleased with the result, the first 8 for the short hub have been made but the next 8 for the long hubs are going to be a bit more difficult to fit as space is tight. So that's going to be my next job.


Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

I have now started to paint and fit the wheels on it is only when you start to fit these wheels that you got the sense of how complicated and time consuming it must have been to maintain a tiger tank.

After my poor attempts at gluing the rubber tyres to the wheel rims on my Centurion build I was hoping to do a better job this time (I used 3 pots of glue and had the glue everywhere except where it was supposed to be).

So I mounted the wheel on rotary table stretched the tyre over the track horn flange guide put a bead of glue all the way around the wheel rim then just pulled the tyre off the flange onto the rim. The tyre was a bit loose from the stretch but soon shrank and I just fitted a cable ties to hold in place, 24 done just another 24 to do.

Regards

David

[Phil Woollard]

David I have been studying your post with interest , the weld beads look excellent , probably the best ive seen to date ! In fact they are probably a little to perfect, the reason the authentic welds look like they do ie a bit rough and seem to stop and start is because the arc welding rod would only last about 200mm before it needed a fresh one. If you want to be totally true to the original then add a little fine sand grains here and there to represent the spatter from the flux coating , im not picking fault but your work is so good i just wanted to point it out.
It's good to see the wheel hub weld also in place as this often gets overlooked .....nice work regards phil .

[davidwilkins]

Hi Phil,

Sorry about the late reply am having problems with my PC and internet. Thanks for your thoughts and comments on my tiger build. Interesting point about the stop/start of the weld rods splashing out.

I did find trying to replicate the welds on the wheels difficult due to the inconsistent positions where the wheel dish was welded to wheel hub.

I have just been looking at your latest update on your bergepanther absolutely stunning work.

Regards

David

[Phil Woollard]

Thank you David, my welds are no where near as good as yours, but i am happy with them, what will you do in the way of weathering 131, as it will be very hard for you to age effect such a nice looking finish? (I mean hard as in undoing all that lovely work) Although you do have the existing vehicle to use as reference, as she has many dinks,dents and battle scares for you to replicate!
Keep up the good work regards Phil.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Phil,

My first attempt at building a armortek kit was my Centurion build this was built as if it had come straight out of the factory, no weathering, dents or marks to paint work.

So part of the reason I decided to try a build Tiger 131 was to have solid reference point. I have taken a lot photos and the tank and hope replicate as much as I can, I have few ideas on how to replicate some of damage on the tank only when try will I find out if they work.

Regards

David

[Phil Woollard]

You should enjoy replicating the dinks of 131, just remember its all metal and repairable and replaceable if you cock it up!
The existing 131 has had lots of damage and so lots of repairs to the same, so you will have to cause dents (like the exhaust shroud damage) and then tin bash them out again...I do enjoy that part.
I may share a secret or two will you ref the exhaust shrouds via PM. I will post some pics of the Tiger1 resto after I have created similar damage/repair to the shrouds on that old girl.

Regards Phil

[Paul Wills]

Superb detail David, all those hours of being on your hands and knees taking photos at Bovington is paying off.

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

Paul, Thanks for your comment. It nearly crippled me getting those measurements but I think it was worth it.

I have started to put the wheels on for the last time (I hope). So I have now started to do a bit of light weathering, this is the first time that I have ever tried to do this and it is proving to be a bit of a challenge so I am sticking to areas that are well hidden. Trying this out really makes me appreciate the skill by other member of this forum on this subject.

Regards

David

[Phil Woollard]

I love the look, it's very convincing David , I'm in the middle of the wheels at the mo , god knows how many times they are put on and taken off , we could probably do it in the dark if we had to regards Phil

[Paul Wills]

Hi David,

In your case it has been very worth it, that is superb detail.

The weathering looks great. there has been a lot of debate over the years on how far to go with weathering. Personal, it's up to the individual and what he wants to recreate. Yours looks fine for a new tank in the field, and with use it will fade and get dust up, that's how I do mine. Just don't let Stephen inspect it, he may put your driver on a charge for oil the leakage

Paul.

[Jeff Hyder]

Hi David,
On my early variant Tiger I made 3 attempts to sort out the wheels ,especially the inner flanged ones that run between the track guides. Your work is first class, I take my hat of to you.
Jeff Hyder.

[davidwilkins]

Phil, Paul & Jeff,

Many thanks for your kind words and encouragement.

I have now managed to fit all of the wheels on and have also fitted the drive sprockets and I now feel that this tiger tank is starting to take shape.

After looking at the hub cap that fits onto the drive sprockets and looking back at some photos that I had taken of this area I decided to make some modifications. First of all I made a back plate to the hub cap and bolted this to the M5 thread in the centre of the main drive gear. The next step was to tap out five holes required to accept the five outer cone bolts to hold the hub cap on.

The other modifications that I made to the hub cap was to machine out the recess for the cone bolts to 12mm, fill in the centre one so that the cone bolt was not recessed, reduce the overall diameter of the hub cap by 2mm and finally to add the oil/grease point.

Regards

David