Vince's Tiger 1 late variant 2017

[Vince Cutajar]

Happy day.

Today, I received the four boxes from Armortek for their latest Tiger 1 late variant. It was shipped last Tuesday and arrived on the island on Wednesday! It then took the shipper a couple of days to get it delivered to me!

One of the tank crew has taken possession of the boxes.

We call her Tiger so I guess it is fitting that she is the first one on the box.

I transferred the boxes to my other garage/workshop where the build will take place.

In the workshop

I could not resist, so I opened box 1 to get a better feel of the size of this model. It's huge. Bigger than I imagined.

Opening box 1

Congratulations to whoever does the packing. It is very well packed. There is a paper with a list of contents of the box and used that as a checklist to see if everything was there. Everything was there and also in this box there is the assembly manual and the certificate. I will be spending some time familiarising myself with the manual.

I already noticed that the tank floor plate has got extra holes in it which previous versions of the Tiger did not have. Most probably some enhancement. We will see as we progress.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Checked the other three boxes and everything seems to be there. Decided to do a trial assembly of the lower hull to see how it goes together. No major problems encountered. Before starting I deburred the floor plate (don't ask how I know it needed it) and also did a little draw filing where the bends are to remove the slight burr created in the bending process.

deburring suspension bar

Also removed remnants of machining coolant from holes. This is what I ended up with today.

Lower hull

No major problems were encountered and like this I can visualize better the changes I am contemplating.

These are the extra holes in the floor I mentioned previously.

These are for grub screws to lock the end of the torsion bar. I might drill and retap the suspension bars so that this grub screw comes in from the top instead of the bottom as it is now. In that case I will be able to cover up these holes in the floor plate.

Vince

[Adrian Harris]

> don't ask how I know it needed it

These things can bite

I blackened a fingernail when I tried to separate the upper and lower hulls on a Sherman and had my hands in the wrong place.

I always wear Tiger Grip mechanics gloves when I'm in the workshop, as it keeps the muck off and they are surprisingly good at stopping nicks and cuts.

If you're into high level detailing, it's a good idea to back through old build threads, but don't forget that Mark improves the design each time around, so changes people have made to earlier kits may have already been included in the parts as supplied.

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Adrian for the comments and tips.

I don't think I will be going into high level detailing. Just normal detailing to give it a personal touch. I have gone through most of the build logs that I could find and am in awe at the level achieved. I will not be able to get mine to that level but I will do my best. The trick in my case is not to rush.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

As this is a June 1944 Tiger 1 it has the small idler wheel and the track deflector should be slightly angled downwards. I could not find the actual angle so I eyeballed it with some photos I found. Could somebody tell me if the angle looks good.

Also, I would like to add the shock absorber mount plugs. I know where they go but would like to know what's the diameter of these plugs.

Thanks in advance.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Today I finished a prototype bump stop I had started some time ago. It may take some time, but I have decided to do four of them to replace the kit supplied parts. I think they look better.

Comparing it to the kit supplied part

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Did a modification on the tow bracket. At first I was going to do it from scratch but then decided to use the kit part and just add the lower part. At the moment it is glued together with JBweld but I don't know how much it will last. I will be happy if it remains together until I mark the lower holes with a transfer punch. Also did the tow pin in stainless.

I am going to replace one of the round floor access panels with a rectangular one. Making the drawing for that. Also working on the drawings of the pannier gussets. I was lucky that in Tim Bowman's build log he attached a diagram of one of them. Thanks Tim.

Vince

[Adrian Harris]

Very nice parts Vince

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Adrian.

It's good to have somebody looking over my newbie (first metal tank) shoulders.

Vince

[Adrian Harris]

You're welcome

What equipment did you use to fashion the pin ?

I find stainless steel is ever so tricky to machine on my lathe; so much so that I avoid it wherever I can, and prefer to use brass.

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Nothing special. Just a hobby lathe and mill.

I made that pin from 316 stainless because that was what I found in my "left over" pile. Most probably if I had brass of the correct diameter I would have used that.

I don't mind working with stainless. The three most common types of stainless are 303, 304 and 316. 303 is the easiest to work with. Next is 316 which is used a lot in marine applications. The worst to machine is 304. I avoid that like the plague.

The hole at the top of the tow pin is 2mm and at the bottom there is a 1mm cross-hole.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

I am making the shock absorber mounts but am not sure about the diameter. I estimated it to be around 22mm in 1/6 scale. Does anybody know what it should be? Even a full size diameter would help.

Thanks in advance.

Vince

[Adrian Harris]

I presume you have seen this page:

http://tiger1.info/EN/Shock-absorbers.html

These are pictures of the front and rear ones on the Bovington Tiger.

The front one looks to be a tiny bit bigger than the pannier fillet.

(Caveat - I don't know Tigers well enough to say whether these mounts changed when they went to the Late Tiger wheel arrangement)

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thank you Adrian.

Actually that helped a lot with the high resolution photos where one can really zoom in. I am going to make the diameter of the mount 18mm instead of 22mm. The 22mm one in my untrained eyes looked too big. 18mm should be better. I also noticed that there is a difference in the shape of the shock absorber mount between rubber and steel wheeled Tigers. The mount on the steel wheeled Tigers does not have the small hole in the middle and outside edge of the mount has a significant rounded fillet.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Finished the four shock absorber mounts which should be correct for a late version Tiger. 18mm diameter and 4.5mm thick with a decent rounded edge.

Shock absorber mounts

I could have marked the positions on the hull for future drilling but I realised that I left my laptop which has all the information at home. I could not be bothered to go and get it. Maybe next time.

As I had some more spare time I decided to continue test building the hull so that I check if it ends up square for the hull deck. During this process I encountered a couple of hiccups and a fitting problem.

So I am literally following the assembly manual and I always thought it was strange that no washers are depicted in the diagrams. Today I found a bag full of washers!!

Another thing I noticed following the manual was that the Upper Front Deck (CE3157 in the parts list and CE2157 in one of the diagrams) was skipped. This wasn't the end of the world as I figured out how to fix it to the hull. It took me more time to figure out that there is a mistake in the reference numbers. I noticed this before with some other parts.

The fitting problem was to do with the Glacis Plate (CE3160 on the parts list and CE2160 on the diagram). It did not fit properly on one side.

Does not go all the way down.

I figured out the problem. The Pannier floor on that side is a little too long.

A little too long

A little work with a file should solve the problem but I am not going to do it now but later on during the proper assembly. I am happy to say that the top of the hull ends up quite square for the top deck. What's the English expression? Quite chuffed. Is that correct?

Vince

p.s. I have a habit of being a bit verbose and include quite a few photos in my build logs. If it's too much please advise and I will tone it down.