King Tiger Turret

Dan Williams · Post by **Dan Williams** » Mon May 10, 2010 11:14 pm

Hello,
I was wondering if your turret builds have been easy, or hard.
For me the rear does not line up with the sides.For ex: the rear is higher then the side by 1/16" With a big gap at the bottom.
The turret sides fits with the front good.But not at the rear.The left side is clamp with a bar clamp.Only 1 mounting hole lines up.I had to refile the side,and rear joints for a better fit.
The right side and rear is still not right.The rear is higher by 1/16" at the top.
I started to drill a new hole for the left side to rear.But stopped.I need abetter fit of the parts first.
The turret sides at the rear half does not touch the floor in the rear half.by over 1/8"
Did others have these problems with the fit?
Dan

Brown Hawkins · Post by **Brown Hawkins** » Tue May 11, 2010 5:34 am

You too? I still have work to do to get the final fit for the turret. I basically assembled the sides, front, and rear of the turret and then fit this onto the base with 4-5 clamps. The clamps pull the turret sides down to match the base shape. Here is an early attempt:

My best results were with using 5 clamps at once. I get a hole liined up, screw in the bolt and move to the next hole using the clamps agian to line up the holes. Not quite like the instructions. Some grinding of the rear base might be in order for the best fit. Using the clmaps kept me from filing the holes as much as I first thought I'd have to.

I bought longer bolts to attach the side plates to the turret base. The kit bolts don't always get enough thread into the base hole to tighten without stripping some base hole threads.

Hope this helps,

Brown

simon_manning · Post by **simon_manning** » Tue May 11, 2010 9:44 am

try fitting together very loose just with a few bolts,don;t tighten ,this allows you to move the panels around and hopefully line up some holes,also the bottom track hangers and the rear hatch hinges go on first before turret assembely,i missed this,my turret went together with some fileling and using slightly longer bolts,place some photos on lets have a look,regards simon manning.

Rick Jensen · Post by **Rick Jensen** » Tue May 11, 2010 2:18 pm

Dan

First the good news.......at least yours nearly fits. I ended up doing a massive remill of the the sides of the base plate and redrilling/re tapping all the holes except for the 4 that runs down the front side of the turret and the rear bottom. In all about 8 hours of rework. Dale is of the opinion that it has something to do with the second batch of Tiger2s' as I have seen his turret and it is a really good fit WITHOUT the clamps etc. and he got his in the first batch/release. As Simon says make sure you follow the instructions with regard to the fitting of parts before your final tighten up, ie rear hatch mounts.
Good luck

Rick Jensen

Rick Jensen · Post by **Rick Jensen** » Tue May 11, 2010 2:24 pm

Dan
Further to my post above you might want to look at how Armortek fit the top of the turret and compare that to the real tank. A slight modification to your build is to get a longer top rear plate and mill the lip of the turret rear so that you end up with a butt joint. Have a peak at some drawings and you will see what I'm on about.

Rick Jensen

simon_manning · Post by **simon_manning** » Tue May 11, 2010 5:19 pm

rick is correct about the fit on some kingtiger turrets, place some clear photos on here it may help to judge the misfit for those who already have passed this stage,i.e the gaps the work involved. simon

Dan Williams · Post by **Dan Williams** » Sat May 15, 2010 4:47 pm

Hi Guys,
I worked on the turret for 3 days this week,I had to file the rear joint deeper.Trying to get the screw holes to line up.I brought longer screws.Drill some of the holes deeper and tapped them.Clamps did not work for pulling up the last 1/8 gap.So I thought about the press.
I ended up loosen up all the screws.And going around turning all the screws even.This work well and pulled the side to the floor with no gap.
But 1 hole did not line up,so that one I filed to fit.I had 3 of them total.
This was easyer than I thought it would be.
I had put off building the turret for many months.
The screws I used were M4x12 & 16 long. don't over tighten the screws.
Hope this works for you.
Dan