Vince's Tiger 1 late variant 2017

[Tom OBrien]

It depends on how much trouble you want to go through.

Here is the magnet system, which you've probably already seen, from John of east coast armory:



Dale Jordan's system that Adrian shows is also good. Just, a lot of extra work, but worth it, if you really want no visible fasteners.

Once you add paint and camouflage, mine is not so obvious as the screw heads are flush with the roof. For exhibition, you can always add a bit of debris to cover the very small screw head.

cheers... Tom

[Vince Cutajar]

Look what arrived in the post this morning:

Many thanks Steve. Couldn't resist, so attached the brackets with temporary screws and attached it to the turret. Perfect fit.

Still working slowly on the tool placement on the hull roof using Armorpax tool clamps. Slow going but who's in a hurry.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

I can't leave a good thing alone. I guess it's a form of OCD.

I added two pieces of brass sheet to the turret bin to make it look more like the real thing. The bolts for the top brackets are 3mm with a one size smaller head.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Today I was at the local Wurth stockist to get some bolts and noticed they had various sized U shackles.

So I got one which I thought was of the correct size. Still not sure if it's size is correct though. Should it be longer? What do you think? Could someone measure the length of his U shackles?

If I decide to keep this size, it still needs to have the pin modified.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

The more I look at the photos of the U shackle the more I am convinced that it is the right size. It is a stainless steel shackle and before I buy the other three I thought I would check if it's hard to modify them. There a various grades of stainless. Some of them easy to machine whilst others are a pain to put it mildly. I suspect it is marine grade stainless (316) but am not sure.

So I first drilled out the tapped hole to make it a clearance hole. It wasn't too hard considering that I was using a drill which saw better times.

Tapped hole was at the bottom

As that went relatively well I thought how about making a new pin. I did not have stainless rod of the appropriate diameter so I used brass instead. After all these will be painted.

Turning the brass pin

Using the shackle as a guide to see where to drill the 1mm hole

Finished Tiger 1 U shackle

Using left over split pin from the track pins

Vince

[Glen Clark]

Nice.





Glen.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Glen. I need to get the same hatches as you did. They look great.

Vince

[Glen Clark]

Thanks Vince,I like your turret bin but I'll stick with the Armortek one for now and maybe retro fit one like yours.Is it a "Fields of Armour ", one?




Glen.

[Vince Cutajar]

Steve Winstone upgrade.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Finally finished with positioning the tools and accessories on the hull roof. It took longer than I anticipated.

So what did I do?

• Added the starter hand crank.

• Repositioned the anchor points of the tow ropes 30mm backwards.

• Shifted slightly laterally the wire cutter.

• Added pry bar and used an end-stop.

• Added end-stop to spade handle.

• Added axe.

• Fitted Steve's jack block.

• Fitted Steve's electrical box for the Bosch light.

• Remade the vent cover.

• Repositioned the hammer and changed it's head. Used end-stops around head.

• Repositioned the Steve's C shackle.

This does not mean it's finished. I would like to improve the look of the hatches. Also I would like to make the cleaning rods functional, i.e. they screw into each other (awaiting material). I will also attempt to modify the tow rope and cleaning rod clamps (awaiting material).

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

I have also been fitting bits and pieces to the turret to see what needs to be done.

Quick tip for fitting the hinge of the escape hatch. Add a standard 3mm washer to each screw between the hinge and turret wrap.

This reminds me that I need to modify the hinge for a June 1944 Tiger 1.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

I am stuck a bit here.

I would like to do the weld seams on the sides and front of the hull roof but still keep the facility of removing the hull roof if required. I have a sort of a half baked idea of how to go about it but I suspect that I could be over-complicating it.

So how do you go about doing this? All ideas are welcome.

Vince

[Adrian Harris]

As you seem to have the equipment and skills, how about the method David Wilkins used here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5945#p52199

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Adrian. Can do that.

Any more ideas?

Vince

[davidwilkins]

Hi Vince,

You are doing a brilliant job with your tiger build, as regards my method of cutting the slots in the main plates of the tiger tank I machined these out before I made the final assembly. However I did rebate the rear hull sides after the hull was built using a hand held router although great care must be taken with the potential kick back. I think I clamped a wide plate to the side of the tank to act as guide to cut a rebate of about 2mm by 3mm there might be some reference to this in my build blog. Look forward to see how you tackle this issue.

Regards

David