Armortek

Hello everyone and Happy New Year.
I'm new to 1:6 and thought I'd post the occasional update on my build.
First comment is what a well engineered kit it is the panel fit is very good and I haven't had a problem with either the hull basic structure or the turret.
Having studied many build posts over the last few months in anticipation of my kit arriving I was hoping to add some extra detail here and there. The first opportunity I got was to replicate the pannier gusset details as per John Fitzsimons. The following step by step process is how I did mine;

1) I measured the location of the rivet holes and cut outs – mirroring the Armortek vertical flange locations except staggered. I transferred the measurements to a 1m strip of 30mmx2mm aluminium. Note that I’d already practiced with some 1.5mm ally sheet but it didn’t work out very well when I came to separate the two halves ending up with something resembling 2 very long Vesta deep fried noodles!.
The 2mm strip is harder, as it’s been rolled and it seems to cut without as much distortion. 2) All the hole positions were centre dotted. Note that with a couple of exceptions the main hole spacing is at 24.5mm centres. 3) I used a pillar drill with 3mm holes for my copper rivets and a 21mm hole cutter for the main cut outs. I screwed the ally strip to some wood every 150mm so that the drill didn’t grab as it passed through and also so I’d got something substantial to hold and clamp to the pillar drill vice.

4) In this manner all the holes can be cut swiftly and in line using the cutter – the final diameter of the cut holes was actually 21.5mm. 5) I marked a 5mm line either side of the C/L along the strip so that the finished gusset would be 10mm wide and used a niblick to separate the two halves. I’d tried using snips on my practice piece but they appeared to induce a stretch to the alloy which was almost impossible to rectify (ref. noodles above). 6) Next it was simply a matter of positioning the strips and drilling rivet holes through the pannier and securing the new flange with Loctited rivets. You could of course rivet them conventionally. I shall simply cut and grind the ends of the rivets flush with the inside of the pannier floor. A tip here with installing rivets in this way, I found that I had to countersink the rivet holes slightly to make the rivet head sit perfectly flush, I think it’s part of the rivet head forming process.

You'll see that I’ve already countersunk some fasteners for the hull floor and into the hull sides.

I am very satisfied with the results, it just remains to do the welds, for which I may try syringe-applied plastic padding. I’ll let you know how that pans out, hopefully better than my experiments with a hot-glue gun!.

Hi John, will be following your build closely in anticipation of starting my own very soon.You look to have got off to a good start. Keep it coming.

Regards

Mick

Will be keeping an eye on this thread as well.

Looking forward to starting my own build early next month when I'll be in the new house if all goes according to plan and the solicitors get a move on.

May do it as S21 instead of 131 though.

John

well done john for posting this, i am exactly at this stage and thinking how to attack this portion of the build, the old kit had these parts included, so made it a bit easier in some respects, regards simon manning.

very nice job there. I did'nt bother second time around. Maybe do it on the next Tiger

Thanks for the support chaps. I shall post updates periodically - I cant promise a 'blow by blow' account but if its of interest or helpful to anyone I'll be sure to put it on the forum.
Critique is always welcome and I'll ensure to post credit where its due
Incidentally, having received a set of Steve Winstone's excellent cast bump stops (miniature works of art they are) I wanted to know where they should be mounted. There is some debate on the forum as to the exact location, however as they are almost entirely hidden from view and they take the place of a functional Armortek component I decided to fit them so the rubber stop is in the same place as the kit supplied part.

For reference you could refer to D.W. to Tiger I by Thomas Jentz or use Tiger I info http://tiger1.info/vehicle.html this site will have drawings for almost everything you want to detail

Welding with tile adhesive

OK, here it is, my 1st attempt at welding:

1) Tile adhesive hardens like concrete, is waterproof and seems to stay ‘live’ for a while giving lots of opportunity to achieve the desired effect, my 1st attempts are looking more like Zimmerit than welds but given enough practice I’ll nail it eventually. 2) My welding ‘gun’ – I noted that if I oscillate the nozzle a little whilst extruding, a weld pattern can be seen – like I said I need practice, but infinitely better than the hot glue gun and cheaper than using milliput - it may cost me in syringes though. 3) I also replicated some timing pointers on the rear idler housing and swing arm. I seem to have a problem with the ‘inner drive protection flange’ profile, can anyone tell me if they have the same issue. I’m assuming that it’s a profile error and some judicious grinding will rectify what appears to be a defect. I’ll hold fire until I get confirmation from the guys at Armortek.

Another bit of work completed in the last few days was the removal of the CNC machining ridges (pretty as they are - but I'm fairly sure the Germans didn't have CNC machines back in the day !) I've shown before and after of the rear idler wheels. The material is soft enough to pare away the majority with a 'U' shaped craft knife - the rest is just time with the Dremel.
Including the front sprockets I think it probably took the best part of 8hrs .. phew! Thanks for the nice comments, more next week folks.

This week I have mostly being working on sprockets and idlers.
John Fitzsimons advice taken ref rear idler cap bolts = 7BA with 8BA hex heads. The M3 holes were drilled out to accept some 2mm I.D. brass tube which was bonded in and tapped 7BA. The bolt heads now look more in proportion. I gave my sprockets some attention to mimic the rough-cast/'hacked-up' look of 131's spokes, so I basically abused them with my belt sander. I think a bit more is required near the rim, and my chamfer on the hubcap isn't quite there yet, but the look is coming along. I added the oiler detail and added an adapter to the centre bolt to allow it to screw into the threaded end of the main drive axle. The syringe applied welds seem to work - i'll post some pictures in the future.

That's all for now.

This week's progress has been mediocre but I did manage to create a rough cast finish for my sprockets by painting a mixture of PVA glue and aluminium filings on the cast surfaces. This also masks some of the definition of the casting numbers I had applied and makes them look more cast. I took the opportunity to turn the hubcaps down a bit to create a chamfer which breaks into the 5 outer bolt recesses. The effect is much more like 131. Not much more work required here on the sprockets themselves although I might sharpen the ariss of the chamfer a little and open up the oiler recess a little more.

Following advice from Mark and Gill I ground off the excess metal under the gear housing protection flush with the underfloor.

More to follow in due course.

Hello John,

Good to see someone working on Tigers and I think you´ve done some great work on both the idlers and drive wheels.

One thing is that the center bolt on the real thing is not recessed but is on your model. If you want to do some further detailing you can also add lock tabs to the bolts.

Keep up the good work.

Per

Thankyou Per, both are now on my todo list. I have a picture of a broken sprocket being removed in Ww2 which clearly shows locking wire through all 5 cone headed bolts.
Cheers.

Per,
Finished apart from a top coat of Dunkel Yellow and weathering, I've got the effect I wanted, thanks for the tip - I found a picture of locking wire rather tan tabs so out with the drill and 5A fuse wire ! ... What do you think? Heres the locking wire picture: I'm think I'm done with my front sprockets finally )

Hi John,

The drive wheel looks very good but as you´re doing the Tiger 131 it didn´t have have lock wires for the bolts as I think that´s a field mod you see in your photo.

The standard version (to which Tiger I 131 belongs) of the drive wheel had lock tabs as can be seen in this photo;



The lock tab is secured to a small hole in the hub at arrow no.1 and the bolt is secured at arrow no.2.

I´m sorry if this cause you more work.

Per