My Jagdtiger by Per Sonnervik

Per Sonnervik · Post by **Per Sonnervik** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:58 am

Hi fellow modellers and a Happy New Year to everyone!

I´d thought I´d start 2014 by showing some of the things I´ve done on my Jagdtiger build I started some years ago. Well, I started a Tiger II at the same time so some of the photos show these parts too.

I decided to make new hull parts for both my models but tried to use Armortek´s parts whenever possible. My goal is to make the models as close to the originals as possible but there are some things I haven´t decided yet - for instance if I´m going to make the details on the inside of the hatches but time will tell.

This is not a critisism of the Armortek Tiger II model but more of a crazy guy´s obsession with very detailed large scale German heavy tankmodels and that crazy guy is me.

I started with the steelwheels from Armortek which are very good but I found one area it could be improved. To do this I needed to customize some cutting tools but it wasn´t that hard even with my limited experience of this.

The machining was done in three steps, see sketch below;

step 1; I used a standard cutting tool to remove the material here.

step 2; this is the trickiest step and care has to be taken both when making the cutting tool and when machining. Below is a photo of what my tool looked like when machining this step;

If you want to try this first test on some spare wheel as it´s important that the cutting tool actually cuts.

step 3; another cutting tool was made and finished off this modification;

The finished wheel should look like this when done;

I might be crazy in somebody´s eyes but there are some sanity in me(?) as I decided only to do this modification on the outside of the Tiger II roadwheelpairs, see arrows below;

This modification took some time as I did both the Tiger II model´s wheels as well as the Tiger I´s but I think it was worth it.

Next post will be about the front and the backside of the wheelcenters and the long and short hubs.

Cheers Per

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:28 pm

Outstanding Per!

Love the "how to do" layout of the build story of yours.
Look forward reading more of your pair of Tigers being made.
Two knockout showstoppers for sure.

Kind regards
Kent

Paul Morris · Post by **Paul Morris** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:46 pm

Hello Per.

Happy New Year this will be one to watch for sure

I must get that sheet off my Jagdtiger and get her re started

Cheers Paul.

simon_manning · Post by **simon_manning** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:06 pm

about time you spoilt us with some input, quality building and new ideas, keep the posts coming, regards simon.

leesellars · Post by **leesellars** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:50 pm

Hello Per

I wouldn't expect anything else from you. Keep up the fantastic work.

Lee

Stephen White · Post by **Stephen White** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:42 pm

Good to see, Per. You're a brave man to work with form tools - either that or very skilled.....

Thanks for sharing your build, especially when there's something to take away and use.

All the best.

Stephen

Robert E Morey · Post by **Robert E Morey** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:56 pm

Per,
Looking forward to seeing more posts like these. Also looking forward to seeing your Jagdtiger! Happy New Year.
Best regards,
Bob

Per Sonnervik · Post by **Per Sonnervik** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:33 am

Thank you gentlemen for your comments and encouragement, much appreciated.

Next step was to work on the hubs and the wheelcentres. To make things a bit easier to explain and understand I divided things into inner and outer steelwheel. Here´s what I did with the inner;

Some comments;

In step A1 I had to open up the inner diameter to be able to get the washer through from the outside to lock the wheel onto the shaft plus I kept the original thread.

Step A3 I made a whitemetal piece that fitted into a larger hole, glued it and then drilled and tapped for the 2mm bolt.

Step A4 I milled out for the white metal plate with cast numbers plus made a new hubcap and grease nipple in white metal.

Step B1 it was important to keep the original threads and I added a new ring outside which was held in place with three screws.

The end result looked like this;

The outer wheel followed in the same "footsteps";

The difference besides the obvious is that in step D1 there was no need to keep the original threads.

The end result looked this;

Next came the wheelcentres and as I was going to do late models I had to do a new wheelcentre disc with this holepattern;

The hole pattern on these 2009 Armortek version was a mixture of old and new hole pattern with one hole left out but thankfully that didn´t put a spanner in the works as the new ones turned out like this;

The inner wheel´s wheelcentre ring;

Two of the bolts were threaded onto the old Armortek hub base and the rest of the bolts were fixed to the outer wheel which holes were threaded, photo below show the backside of the outer wheel;

The outer wheel´s wheelcentre ring looked like this;

My attention was now directed at the backside of the roadwheels, this is what I did;

I must admit to being a bit lazy here as I chose to do the same version for both the inner and outer wheels and just fitted a ring to close the gap for the inner wheel.

Thanks to Simon Manning and Stephen Whinstone (thanks guys) I was provided with long (appr. 30 mm) bolts which would go through both wheels and with rethreaded 8 BA nuts on the front keep the whole wheelpair together;

This is what the wheels looked like in the end;

Now the hard part was to repeat this work on 36 wheelpairs and here is where I started to question my "bright" idea of doing two Tigers at the same time - I managed to pull through but with much greyer and less hair.

Cheers, Per

Derek Attree · Post by **Derek Attree** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:58 am

Hi Per
Nice work going on there.
This is going to be a stunning pair of models.

Keep up the posts

Regards
Derek

Tim Bowman · Post by **Tim Bowman** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:58 pm

Hello Per

Good to see you posting.

Look forward to seeing this one come together.

Happy New Year

Tim

Jeff Hyder · Post by **Jeff Hyder** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 4:39 pm

Hi Per
Just caught your thread.Brings back all those memories from years ago when you were building your 1/8 KT.Super detailing at its very best complements your vast knowledge of this tank.Look forward to your progess.You never know it may get me building again.
All he best for the New Year, Jeff Hyder.

Per Sonnervik · Post by **Per Sonnervik** » Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:26 pm

Tim; when are you planning to start your Tiger II - have you had the bump stop 3D printed yet?

Derek; I´ve seen you´ve been quite active yourself with all the holes to be threaded - keep up the good work.

Jeff; yes, in those days you were more or less on your own and had to come up with the solutions - things have changed.

Next step in my build was to make new suspension arms but was that really necessary? Well, I had decided to make new hulls with different spacing between the torsionbar centres compared to the Armortek models and these things are related.

A good thing is to try and plan ahead the different machine steps but it´s not that hard - it´s not rocket science. Also when having parts water jet cut, the cut always comes with an angle as the water jet deflects; the thicker the piece the more the jet deflects.

This is what the pieces looked when I got them;

I had also a jig made to be able to hold them in a vice, the arms being slightly wider than the jig. I marked out the centre for the torsion axle, drilled and used an endmill to get to this;

I threaded the hole and used the Armortek torsion axle to machine the area that are going against the lower side armour;

Next, I made a simple template to get as uniform distance as possible. After this the hole was drilled and threaded;

In this stage of the process the suspension arms looked like this;

They are starting to take shape, a total of 40 arms including 4 extra, and next time I´ll show the rest of this work.

Cheers Per

Christoffer Ahlfors · Post by **Christoffer Ahlfors** » Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:41 pm

At this rate of progress, you will have them finished in time for the Arsenalen meeting in April!

Cheers!

Per Sonnervik · Post by **Per Sonnervik** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:47 am

Christoffer, yes I saw that but the thing is not to haste as a lot of work can be ruined if in too much of a hurry.

I noticed I had some strange looking photos in my previous posts but changed that now.

Back to business and I´m sorry if these posts have to much machining and require a workshop but I work with what I have. Next step was to reduce the overall height of the arm. I removed a section of the jig and milled the height of the arm to my spec´s;

I´ve also drilled a hole for putting a locking pin through the arm but hadn´t drilled the hole in the wheel axle postion as I decided to do this much later.

The arm needed to be worked on around each axle and I managed to find a cutting tool long enough to help me here;

Next step was to mark out the sides as the arm´s sides are not parallel but tapered. This work was roughly done in the milling machine and then more accurately with a file;

The last major machining work was done in the rotary table;

In preparation for some grinding work I marked out on the sides of the arms as they are slightly bevelled;

After this a lot of filing and then I added alu strips (on both sides) which I pinned and glued in place;

While waiting for the glue to harden I reduced the thread length on Armortek´s suspension axle;

I had made a white metal cap for the torsion bar centre on the arm and here you get a good look what the arms will look like in the end;

To sum it up;

More work had to be done on all the wheel axles as they had to be adjusted to get the wheels closer to the hull side but more of that later on. I haven´t finished all the work on the arms yet but I´m almost there.

Cheers Per

simon_manning · Post by **simon_manning** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:46 am

lovely work per and inspiring, more ideas the better, regards simon.