Tiger 131 In South Wales

[davidwilkins]

Hi all,

I have recently received my new tiger 131 kit. It looks like a very impressive and interesting build and I am itching to make a start. Unfortunately I have to finish my Centurion build first so I have packed it away for now.

In my first build of my Centurion tank I used the "rank" of novice builder. I had the ambition and enthusiasm but not the experience. However, my Field Marshall- Mrs Lisa Wilkins has prompted me to the position of Lance corporal after my efforts on the Centurion Centurion build.

I am thinking of building the tiger as per tiger 131 in the tank museum, this will give me a solid reference point so hopefully I can make a accurate replicate of this version of the tiger. This will require permission from the Field Marshall for a few 'incursions' to the tank museum

I hope to start about spring early summer time and I am watching with great interest the builds that are taking shape already.

Over and out for now.

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

I have finally made a start to Tiger 131, after having a good look at the tank in Bovington and looking at technical drawings of the Tiger tank I decided that the first area that I would upgrade was the floor. I have made a new floor out of 4mm aluminium and made it in 3 sections, in doing this I am going change the cap head bolts for button head and recess them by 2.2mm so that they will not be visible (I will cover them with milliput).

To fit a 4mm floor I removed 1mm from the suspension bar and cut a rebate into the hull lower sides to take the new wider floor. I have also cut out a rebate into the floor panels and will fill these in with milliput to form the welds.

With the original floor I decided to cut this into 2 pieces and fit them onto the top of the suspension bar to act as a cover for the suspension system.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Hi David,

It's a really good start and some brave mods there. Keep them coming.

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your encouraging words very much appreciated, this is my second armortek kit and I feel a lot more confident this time round.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

Making steady progress on the Tiger, I have decided to make new pannier floors and I am using 4mm aluminium plate for this. First job was to mill square the top edge of the lower side panels and tap out some threads to fix the new plate, after looking at Tiger 131 at Bovington I have decided to only bend it in one place near the middle. I have cut a slot in the front glacis plate for the pannier floor plate to sit in I now need to make a small wedge plate to fill the gap between the lower side plate and the pannier floor.

I am also considering making a new hull roof out of 4mm plate and making it 2mm wider and rebating the upper side panels for the new roof plate to sit on. This will be a big challenge to try and cut out the turret ring so I will have see how I get on with this idea.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Hi David,

Good eye for detail... I haven't seen that particular detail copied before, I am looking forward to seeing the forthcoming photos

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul, thanks for your complements.

I have made my new hull roof plate and I am pleased with the result. The most time consuming part was making sure it was absolutely square as the table on my mill only has 375mm of travel so great care was needed in lining up to keep it all square.

The new hull roof is 4mm thick, 6mm wider and 4mm longer than the original plate, I have rebated the side and front plates to sit the new roof plate onto and I am pleased with the fit.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Hi David,

Anther nice detail, will you be filling the groove with milliput later on to simulate the welded seem?

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul,

Yes my plan is to use milliput for the weld simulation. After looking at Tiger 131 at the tank museum most of the welds on the hull are slightly concave and vary between 25mm 40mm wide so I have cut my grooves between 4mm and 6.5mm to try and give a accurate representation of the welds.

Regards

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi all,

Progress has been a bit slow but I have moved forward, the hull is now stripped down for cleaning and to start painting. I also carried out a bit more milling on some of these parts to try and improve the hulls appearance.

Regards

David

[simon_manning]

nice work david, go to john snooks tiger 1 build, he shows a simple easy method to construct the pannier fillets for your tiger, regards simon manning.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Simon, thanks for the information I will check out John's build thread.

David

[davidwilkins]

Hi All,

I have bolted the hull together hopefully for the last time. Having gained some experience on painting my centurion model and reading the threads on the forum about painting I think I managed to improve this mainly by applying very thin coats and allowing at least 24 hours between coats.

Have started to work on the front lower side plate I thought this was going to be a simple job by just adding a 2mm plate to replicate the correct thickness, but looking at it when fitted it just did not look right. After looking at photos of tiger 131 I decided to try and make a few changes in this area these are based only on photos and my interpretation of them. I am hoping to visit the tank museum in October and I will see if I have made the right decision.

Regards

David

[Paul Wills]

Hi David,

You have moved along a bit from the last time I looked, its great to see it coming together. Some builders had issues with the axles unscrewing in the early day, so a mod others have done to the swinging arms is to cross pin them. This may not be an issues anymore but its belt and braces and easy to do at this stage of the build if you know what

Paul.

[davidwilkins]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your thoughts about upgrading the suspension swinging arms I was thinking that it might be worth doing although I have seen some excellent reports on the forum about the upgraded suspension on the new kits, but it still might be worth doing for piece of mind.

Regards

David