Tiger 131 In South Wales

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

Still moving forward but getting a little bit frustrated at the moment I have a lot of bits half made and not finished for various reasons. One of them being I need to get down to bovvy and get some more measurements of tiger 131.

I have started to work on the rear of the model and have had to make a few compromises on the armoured shield that fits around exhaust, I had forgotten to machine out the new hole location for the corner holes where of the armoured shield that fits around the exhaust I was going to use M5 bolts and make some nuts out of some M8 hex bar to give the right scale size nut/bolt. The main compromise is now to use M4 bolts and make some thin M7 nuts instead.

I have made rear mudguards brackets, the measurements I used for these I got from the tiger info website, but making the actual mudguards will have wait until I get some measurements from bovvy.

Regards

David

[Phil Woollard]

Nice work David, those exhaust outlets look good to me, I have to manufacture two sets some time soon and if mine look anything like yours then I will be happy. Are you going to machine the exhaust mounts and mount holes in the rear plate true to the original? If you decide to take photos or make a diorama of the exhausts removed it sure does look good ,but it does require making new flanges and machining square bottom holes in the rear plate to except those exhaust mounts.
....Phil.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the kind words. I will probably leave the exhaust mounts as they are but I do intend to bash and put a few holes in the thin skin shield around the exhaust.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Very nicely done David. all these little details and making a superb build and they are all made by yourself which must be very satisfying

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the kind words always appreciated. Making my own parts for these kits is what I get the most enjoyment out of when building a armortek tank, and for me offers very good value for the money when each model takes 3 to 4 years to build.

I have just fitted the exhaust caps and I hope to try and get these to work when I fit the smoke module.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

I am working on two areas of the tiger at the moment, catching up on some painting and working on the rear hatches.

With regards to the painting I decided to use different etch primer that requires mixing the two parts myself. The adhesion seems very good as I have a lot more control Appling this paint through my airbrush, the only down side at moment is that it takes a bit longer to clean the airbrush afterwards.

After looking at a large amount of photos and taking some measurements from the tiger tank info website and a bit of guess work I decided to move all of the rear hatches side ways by 4mm. This was to prove a real challenge as it meant cutting a 2mm by 3mm rebate in the side plates. To do this cut I bolted the rear hull plate into position then clamped some thick Aluminium plate onto it and use this as a guide.

Then came the hard part using a hand held router but to be fair it done a good job and having it set at 20000rpm there was no kick back.

Now I need to start looking at the two centre hatches as these will now need to be made wider.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Hi David, nice work on the rear grills. you seem to be plodding along at a similar pace to me

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your kind words and I think that plodding along is the right description for me at the moment.

Using David Bryden website as starting point for making the engine hatch I now made all of the rear deck plates and hatches and fitted into place. I still have a lot of detail to add particularly with the fitting of the feifel filters this is where I have only just realised that with these filters fitted you lose all access to rear end of the model.

This will probably be my last update until spring next year as the boss and I have decided to move home, hopefully this will happen in the next month or so. The boss has given me a list of jobs to be done before I can set up my new tank building factory up and running.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Hi David, the engine bay is coming along nicely and I am well jealous of those engine hatch locks

Paul.

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

I am well jealous of those engine hatch locks

Me too! Where did you get your square drills?

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul, Chris,

Thanks for your encouraging words always appreciated. As regards my square drill bit I milled a 3mm hole 1.75mm deep and then used a 1mm milling bit to square out the hole to 3.3mm square.

Regards

David

[simon_manning]

i was following this build with great interest david, is it all still going on, regards simon manning.

[Adrian Harris]

Unfortunately, according to the forum software, he's not logged in since his last posting:

Adrian.

[davidwilkins]

Hi, Simon and Adrian,

Thanks for asking about my Tiger 131 build unfortunately it has been on hold since my last update. Since that update my total focus has been renovating our new home as it has not been touched in nearly 30 years and as one gets older things just take longer to do.

I am hoping to start work on the foundation of my new tank building factory in the garden in a few weeks time with the aim of restarting my Tiger 131 build by late summer providing the boss leaves me peace to get on with it.

Again thanks for asking about my build and I am pleased it's of interest to you, I am going to have to find more time to follow this forum as I am missing some stunning builds going on.

Regards

David

[simon_manning]

look forward to the build restarting david, regards simon manning.