Armortek

http://www.scalehardware.com/

http://www.microfasteners.com/

Some useful suppliers

Thanks again John for those links they will come in handy .
I have done some work on the hub caps ,i driled a 2.5mm hole in the center of the hub and then counter sunk the hole to take a bolt .I did this because all the pics i have looked at show a bolt in the center ,old and new pziv so this is why ,my only hope is that its ok. I used 2.5mm domed cap heads because i thought i had enough of them to hand ,but as it turned out i didnt have enough so have only done the one side, i know the bolts are not correct but i went with what i had. I am quite happy with the way they came out ,and glad i checked the hubs first for fit ,they would never have screwed in otherwise they were still a bit awkward to fit but all done on one side for now
next is the vents i have put them together for the moment ,i think i will weld the vents up instead of bolting the together well thats it for another weekend hope youve all had a good one .
best wishes nick

Nick, looking good so far.
The bolts in the center of the wheels are for adding grease. They are also on the return rollers and rear idler
and on the front sprocket with the flat cap.
I hate to bring this up but you are not quite done with the return rollers, the last roller is lower than the other
three, not sure how much lower. You can see it in this picture.

good job nick. very inspiratiional. keep up the good work.

Hello Nick, I am following your build with great interest.
It's a pleasure to view your photographs and discriptions.

These and other 'builds' add so much to bring the Forum alive.

Well done,.......Mick

Great stuff. It will be a great help when I start mine. There are always some little details with these kits that you may feel need adjustment. Great work on the wheels. Hub caps look great. That filler worked really well on the road wheels. I would love to know who makes it. I will put some on my shopping list.

Hi to all
Thanks for the encoragement it means a lot just to get some feed back from others on the forum there is always something to learn from every body old hands and new.
Hi mike i did spot the diference in hight of the rear retern roller ,but thought that since i,m hopeing to put side skirts on, it wont be too obvious ,and mark went to all that trouble to put the holes there ( all be it in the wrong place ) i thought i would use them .Thanks for that though, i didnt know that the extra bolt in the center was for greesing ,its good to learn a bit more.
Hi Ray yours is looking good as well thanks
Hi Mick glad your looking in , i am enjoying the build so far lots to do as you know from that comet of yours , you built.
Hi John your right about the details, i did say at the start it would be mainly a standard straight forward build with only slight modification ah well . The filler primer is a halfords own make and is just called filler primer ,its got a dark yellow top .They do the same colour but just the primer so make sure it says filler on it as well .
Today i tack welded the vents up looked awkward to bolt them up and i want to go down a diferant rout as far as the top deck is concerned ,i want to try to weld it all up as a unit so i can remove the complete top half as one unit for the instalation of the electrics i will take pics when im finished.
all the best to all
nick

Nice work Nick!
My heart sank when I saw the work involved in removing the machining marks on the wheels - tried to grind them out with my dremel on a spare wheel - horrible mess.
I did manage to use a 6mm end mill in my lathe to good effect (I think) to make the cup in the caps and with 2mm hex bolts to get reasonably close to the real thing.
Keep up the good work.
Bob

Hi Bob
i know what you mean i still got a blister on my thumb from all the sanding down hope there all sorted now , i dont trust myself with the dremel for that reason its orible i tell ya. Have you got any pics of your progress .
Monday and today i,ve been doing the top section of the hull i want to make some big changes here ,i started with the mud guards and cut the front fold(first fold)off and the rearfold off ,i want to make them hinged like mike kasputis has done on his pz 4(see pic earlier in this post) i then counter sunk the holes that attach the guards to the angle bracket on the top of the lower hull ,i then bolted them down with m3 counter sunk bolts and nuts this gives me a flat serfice for the top deck to sit on ,this is not as the manual says they should be atached i am doing it this way so i got good access to the inside when i come to install the electrics and batteries next was the vents these i tack welded together and added some brackets to the top of the vents so i can bolt them to the underneath of the vent tops(the big chunks of aluminium in the kit)

next was all the parts that make up the top of the hull i decided to weld all these pieces together as one unit ,i was worried that they might distort and twist with the heat but it was ok,there are four diferant thicknes,es in the top part that make it awkward to weld ,the thickest taking more heat than the thinest pieces so it was dificult to get a resonable scale weld but i think i did ok

I am hopeing that this will make it easier to fit the brackets for the side skirts ,they will be bolted to the top section of the hulland wont have to be disturbed if and when i need to get access to inside

still lots to do but the boxes are getting emptyer all the time
best wishes to all
nick

Wish I could weld. At least nobody can claim your weld are not realistic. Have not seen this approach on the forum before.

Coming along nicely Nick.
It looks like they made quite a few improvements on the Pz IV kits.
The vents were one piece and not as good as they are now, also the
turret was not one piece and was a pain to assemble.

Hello Nick....that is some weld....super neat and really looks good. I have been told that welding
aluminium is very difficult....

It's so satisfying to watch the Armortek parts slowly build, until you are left with the empty boxes .

I used my 'large box' as a paint spray booth.

Best wishes...Mick

Great idea for spray booth. Wish I had'nt dumped mine now. Know what ho mean about parts dwindling down. I had just cleared the last tiger 1 parts from my drawers an presses and refilled with the Panzer IV parts. Amalgamated the remaining left over fasteners with the Panzer IV bags.

Hi to all
Mike your not kidding about the turet if your pz4was the same as my pz3 then a pain is an understatement ,i was so happy to find this turet was machined . Before i unraped it i thought it was cast ,its quit heavy lovely machining job well pleased.
Hi Mick
they do say its the hardest to do ,but like everything if you do it enough you will get the hang of it ,i had a good teacher ,my dad that helps and then years of experiance .The most difficult thing with the top hull was the thicknes of some of the plates to others its the heat, to much and you just burn through . Good idea with the box still got mine will be using it ,nice one mick.
john you must be mad, from a tiger to a pz 4 straight away , i needed a rest after my pz3 and my bank account did too i admire your courage.
Not much done tonight fitted the drivers slit ,needed tweeking and the machinegun mount and ball ,two little jobs done .
all the best nick

I think maybe some madness involved. Have a great time building the Tiger. Bank balance is stuffed now but the way things are now I feel my money is better invested in a tank than a bank. Also working on a schwimwagen and my partner recently bought me a Stuka JU 87b in pretty much correct scale. I will have air support also. Have everything to complete the Stuka but will probably never fly it. need to learn to fly something basic first.

great to see the progress from Nick and Ray here. Learning a lot from their builds. THanks to both for sharing.

Nick, just found I was using the same filler primer in the early build stages of the tiger. Didn't like the colour but was not aware of the filler properties. Thanks for showing the possible uses. You did a great job on the rod wheels with it.

Are you intending to paint the interior. I used ford ivory from Halfords.