Dave's Tiger I (Early) Kit Build Thread

[Dave Goodwin]

The kit is slated to arrive, currently at least, tomorrow and Wednesday per UPS. I've already paid the import costs via the UPS website, so that's taken care of. Just waiting now...

The first of the ordered materials so far arrived today. I got the 1/6 DiD Jager figure I'll be using as a Commander so I have that to look at in addition to the PDF copy of the Tiger build document that Monique kindly sent me. I've also ordered some supplies which should be here Friday - adhesives, Loctites and some needed tools. If things arrive on schedule, I'll spend some time on the first couple days just doing inventory and getting the parts organized.

[neil graham]

I just looked up the 1/6 figure......oooh, super tempted to get one for my build.

[Dave Goodwin]

I'm going to put the Churchill Creations animatronics in him also, but haven't ordered that yet.

[Malcolm.Plumb]

I'm going to put the Churchill Creations animatronics in him also, but haven't ordered that yet.

If possible order your figure someway ahead of when you going to need him as I think Sym is very busy.

I waited nearly four months for mine to arrive in the end.

Pretty cool though

[John Fitzsimons]

Good luck with the build Dave. Keep us posted with lots of photos.

John

[Dave Goodwin]

All but box 1... Grrrr....

[Dave Goodwin]

Box 1 delayed again! Double Grrr. Now supposed to arrive tomorrow, along with a bunch of my supplies.

In the meantime, inventory continues. So far, so good. My only worry right now is the other 24 road wheels. I rather expected those to be in these 3 boxes, but there's only 1 box of 24. Here's hoping the other is in Box 1.

I haven't broken down some of the small multi-part bags, though I have inventoried them, but will do so over the next few days so I can identify which parts are which and re-bag/re-label them to my liking. I also acquired a number of plastic storage totes and am devoting those to all of the parts associated with the major systems - suspension, wheels, tracks, exhaust, Feiffel, etc. I also bought a pair of hardware organizers and will sort all the screws, nuts, washers and such into labeled compartments in those to keep them all in one place.

I've only spotted one minor oversight on the factory labeling. The large Pannier is labeled as CE1442/CE1442 when it should be CE1442/CE1443. The text on the label correctly calls these out as Pannier Top and Pannier Wrap, so no real problem.

Tonight, I think I'll assemble a short section of track to get my feet wet. Seems easy enough...

[Dave Goodwin]

So much for the tracks being an easy start!

I was going to assemble some track today while waiting for the #1 box to arrive, but I am finding that the split pins provided are absolutely not going to fit into the small hole in those track pins.  The inventory does not call them out specifically but the ones I received were labeled as 1.6, which I assume is their metric diameter.  That seems way too large for the hole in the track pin and, indeed, I can only get one leg of the pin through it. I've emailed ArmorTek to get their take on this so we'll see what they think. In watching other assembly videos on YouTube, the split pins seem to just drop right in, so I'm pretty sure something's up.

At least Box 1 arrived as scheduled! I now know I am Tiger #43 Off to inventory its contents and see where I stand on the parts list.

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

The cotter pins on my 2010 T1 are 0.85 mm in diameter.

[Donald Suttie]

the late tiger 2021 version is 1mm x 20 mm
if that helps,no issues with the track pins,but after a bit of trial and error just ordered up spares from ebay
the bag with the track split pins is very small

Donald

[Chris.Marshall]

Hello Dave,

I'm new here. I see you have #43...... I have #42 sitting in boxes under the bench

Fans of Douglas Adams will get the significance of that number. From my perspective that must have been meant. I'll not be posting much here at the moment though and probably won't start a thread or anything for a while as I have a very large live steam locomotive ( 7 1/4" g and 10 ft long ) to complete before I can really dig into the Tiger. But will be watching with interest.

All the best,

Chris.

[Dave Goodwin]

Ohhh, always loved those Live Steam locos! Good luck with that project!

ArmorTek got back to me promptly, confirming that they had shipped the incorrect size split pins. If you have a kit number up to mine, #43, it sounds like you will probably be receiving a new packet of split pins also. I finished inventorying the fastener bags and was only off by 3 fasteners each of 2 types, which they will include in the post with the split pins. That's a pretty astounding accuracy rate for a small company, and superb customer support all around.

Today should bring a few more supplies from Amazon and then I think we're off to the races. Today will be spent arranging my work area and cleaning up.

[Chris.Marshall]

Many thanks Dave...

Looks like I'll be due some split pins too.

Loco completion due probably a little after Christmas... Almost there. In year 20 of a 6 year project

Chris.

[Dave Goodwin]

Project T-shirts are arriving

[neil graham]

Great shirt! "Big machine of doom"

...and I should start inventoring as well and check my pins.