This project has moved some more since I posted last.
Before I was able to complete the engine compartment and start on the engine itself I had to first finish off the tank's rear hull / exhaust detailing.
To start with the client requested that he wanted his tank to be zemmerited, so before I was able to move along with the detailing I needed to sculpt the zemm on the rear hull.
Portions of the hull that were not going to be coated with the zemmierite were masked off allowing for a nice clean cut sections of areas not coated.
After the zemm, I added the remainder of the rear detailing, This would include the ECA Jack mounts, tubular convoy / tail light, reflector, idler tension cover caps, and starter cover cap.
On these Armortek tigers the kit supplied tow hitch is a nice sturdy unit, one improvement that I made to the kit mount was the addition of a resin ECA tow pin, and the addition of the bottom portion. The bottom portion of the hitch is missing on the stock kit, but is a very easy addition to make out of plastic and two fasteners.
A small resin cone was also added to the starter cover cap. These quick additions also help improve the look of the tank.
The tank's tow shackles were also added. The kit supplies you with a very nice set of aftermarket cast bronze tow shackles and all the functional mounting hardware required for the build.
The kit supplied parts are very good and are very effective at their job, but because of the new thickness of the zemmerite they were too tight to mount on the shackles, so rather then redoing the zemm coating in that spot I simply
fabricated new mounting hardware of the same design, only slightly longer to compensate for the zemm thickness.
I then moved onto the tank's rear fenders. For the fenders the kit supplies you with a very basic set of early style fenders, which are all sheet metal, hinged and have the rear hull mounting frame. Because this is a late tank I switched out the early style kit fenders with a set of aftermarket ones from Sixth Scale icons.
The set was the unassembled versions and with a few hand tools they went together very quickly.
After they were installed it was time to start on the exhaust system, but before I could I wanted to fully prime and paint the rear hull to get it prepped for installation.
exhaust sut was also airbrushed on at this point, as once the manifolds and guards are added these areas will become very difficult to get to.
Once the rear was all ready it was then time to focus on the exhausts. For the manifold system the kit supplies you with the exhaust stacks, armored covers, and sheet metal heat shields. All of these parts are nicely made and were used on the model after a few small tweaks were made.
The stacks themselves were basically assembled OOB, with the only mod being made was the addition of the puffer cap detailing. After the cap was added they were weathered with their rust, and sut effects
As for the armored covers, they had a few small shape tweaks that were added via the mill, ECA lift bolts,
cast texture / numbers, and also had the rust / sutt effects added.
The exhaust heat shields that are included with the kits are mostly ready to go OOB, they are laser cut sheet steel and come pre bent and drilled.
what was added to them were the rigidity bulges. Because of their thickness these were added via plastruct half round stock. Like the other parts these too were weathered. The exteriors will be completed along with the rest of the tank.
Once all the parts were ready they were all installed. Installation is all done with fasteners, and install in layers like the real one.
On the heat shields I fabricated the mounting bosses. These were simply cut from plastic square tubing. Once added they give the shields the nice stand off appearance which is found on the real tank and helps the look.
More pics were posted on the facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory
and a youtube video was made describing more of the progress.
http://youtu.be/qAAaZD7x0ug
Now with this major part of the build out of the way I can now focus on the engine and all the animations... More to come!
