Oh no, another Wlad diatribe...
My Belly Plate Report!
Let me preface this report by saying I only know WhiteWolf from this forum and owe him no favours (except for all the good advice he's posted on this forum) or even disfavours for that matter. If you don't know what a "Belly Plate" is about just go back a few pages in the forum for an explanation.
A little background then:
The only thing I really know about engineering is that its got lots of 'e's in it and that every construction needs a good solid foundation. Upon inspection the Tamiya kit chassis really is flimsy to say the least - little more than a light and bendy aluminum? tub and the plastic hull doesn't really add to the strength of the chassis. It might be just fine for medium running of the model straight out the box and be suitable for a lot of people - I don't know. I planned from the beginning on adding those beefy metal tracks and god knows what else which adds a lot more weight to the model, which the whole of the chassis and gearbox bits were not really designed to take. Although I don't plan on thrashing mine around I'm sure that on the odd occasion I won't "spare the horses" either. And I just don't want to go through the whole build process, drive it a few times and end up with something that doesn't go as well as it should and deteriorates even more from there. There are other products out there that I've heard of to help solve the problem of chassis twist etc, one that braces the gearboxes across the top (a partial solution I believe and I have one), and even another belly plate, but when another member of the forum announced his intention of developing them for sale at a good price I thought "I'll have one of those!"
So here I am, customer No. 001 of the WW Tiger 1 Belly Plate!
The Belly Plate arrived sooner than I expected but still with the usual trans-Atlantic postage period. It was actually preceeded by an email upon despatch from WW which stated (not verbatim but close) "I'm not 100% happy with it, see what you think. If you are not happy I'll make you another free of charge or refund your money, either way you get to keep it."
Hey? So I'm on a winner here either way! I guess because its his first and you never know what someone else will think of your work. Don't expect the same offer now! So it was with some trepidation that I opened that really flat package, content obvious to me by it's lack of width. First impression, excitement! Silly how I can get excited by a flat piece of metal with holes drilled in it. I admit to being a bit partial to aluminum too.
It's cool! A 2.3mm thick slab of 6061-T6 aluminum drilled with countersunk holes in the right places to attach to the underside of the model. Actually, to attach to the gearbox /torsion stays etc from underneath and create a real solid chassis. The mounting hardware supplied to replace those ugly soft round Tamiya screws are simply gorgeous! Countersunk head hex bolts! Mmm nice, and I got a spare too! So even though you are adding 2.3mm to the depth of the bottom hull you gain by hiding all the fixings. The width and length are right for my Tiger, the forward and rear edges slightly bevelled, the side ones flat. And there's a really simple solution to still give you access to the track tension screws.
To fit it you need to undo all the Tamiya screws (except the track tension ones) yeah it means that blue tamiya threadlock has to be broken ( I emailed him about how to break the lock before trying it - never had anything to do it with it before) - ummm, get a decent screwdriver and unscrew it. He was right, what Tamiya threadlock? then pop the belly plate on the bottom and use the countersunk head hex bolts to attach it back to the bits inside (gearboxes and torsion bar stays etc) you dont remove the Tamiya one its just sandwiched between, (well at least i didn't remove it). I had to adjust the 3 screws that attach the plastic hull to the Tamiya chassis (loosened them a little) and twiddled my track torsion assemblies (badly put together in the first place) and then a perfect fit. As soon as you fit it the difference is noticeable to the whole feel of the hull and chassis assembly (even by touch), hard to describe but its just real, real solid.
Criticisms: The countersinking could be a little neater as far as finish goes, and there were some scuff marks on the plate (surface scratches from all his work) but in fairness this is an engineering modification, not one designed to look pretty and sits underneath the model where people shouldn't really be looking anyway. And this is the first! So nothing at all really and I'm sure it will only get better.
So what I plan (in my infinite madness) since I want a "looker" as well as a "runner" is to bevel the front and back edges even more so they match up with the angles of the last sloping surfaces and fill any resulting gaps for a seamless blend. It may be better looks-wise to severely bevel them all if you really want to make it disappear. Mmmm where is my angle grinder? Lol!
Conclusion: I'm glad I've got it, I found no reason to return it, it's staying on my model permanently and now I'm confident I've got a runner, it's up to me to make it a "looker" as well. If you doubt my sincerity, I have ordered another (at no discount and prior to this report) as a present for a friend who has just caught the "bug" and ordered his full option Tiger 1.
Nuff said.
Wlad.
PS. Apologies to all for lack of pics (see previous posts) and from now on no more reviews/reports and long posts except for monosyllabic ones (unless by demand which I doubt!) Hooray!!!