ARMOR - Tamiya 1/16 Tiger 1 Group Build

okieboy Welcome back! I'm glad you had a good vacation and found some modeling material to boot!! It looks like you got the ball rolling on the build so I've got to hurry up and finish my Marder so I can get with it!!!

Shermanfreak You're in trouble.

Eric

Welcome back, okieboy!

Wait wait wait...you cut your 1/16 Tiger II's cupola off to put on your 1/16 Tiger I??? You are one brave man!

But...but...what's gonna happen to your cupola-less Tiger II?
Porsche or Henschel?

I only ask because I just removed the cupola from my 1/35 Porsche Tiger II, one of the many mods I have to do to make the Bovington Tank Museum vehicle, circa 1985. (Ain't that a weird subject?)

You could now do it in 1/16 if it was the Porsche turret!

About the Aber hangers...mmmmmmm...I did say I wasn't planning on using them, but...they are VERY nice, and it'd be kind of a shame not too...but I haven't seen any references showing a Panzer Gray vehicle with the track hangers, so...dilemma.

Also, knowing me as I do, I'm sure the second I let 'em go, I'd be dying t o get 'em back![:0]

Sorry to sound so stingy!

J-Hulk,

No problem. I'll figure something out. As for the King Tiger turret, I had ordered that separately from Tamiya. (It was a Porsche turret by the way) All I had to do was carefully use my dremel to cut the cupola off and then sand the edges down . Then I used the dremel again to take down the edge on for the original Tiger I production turret. After that was finished, I glued the new cupola to the Tiger I and used a teensy bit of putty to seal any minor gaps.

Roy

Hi, Roy!
Just wish I could help a brother out! I'll give it some more thought...

Ah, I gotcha. whew! I thought you had forsaken a fine Tiger II on your quest for cupola!

Sounds like exactly what I did to get the cupola for my E-100. Pirated a Henschel T-II for that baby, and now I'm stealing even more bits from it for my Porsche Bovington Baby!

Sounds like your Tiger's gonna be pretty cool, Roy.
You guys see the 1/16 Sturmtiger conversion done with our big baby? Looked great. Only thing, were there any non-steel wheel Sturmtigers? Mighta been. Doesn't matter; that guys S-Tiger rocked!

I'm still thinking straight out of the boxes (Tamiya, Aber, and AFV Club!) for my build. There's more than enough work there to keep me busy for years![:0]

J-Hulk,

Hey thanks bro. Like I said, I will happily pay for those track link hangers. (I just can't justify spending $200 on a set when about all I need is those darned hangers!) Loved your E-100 by the way. That's some quality work and that paint job is very convincing. Off the subject of modeling, I was in Tokyo a couple of years ago and I have to agree with you about Japan. I was greatly impressed with that country and it's people. I'd love to live there. (Plus I absolutely love sushi!) I'm told that outside the major cities, it's mostly agrarian farmland type stuff. Is that true? How populous is Osaka? Is it anywhere near Tokyo?

Roy

Well, not sure how much this will excite the rest of you but, the work on the metal chassis has begun. Here are some of the parts I assembled last night. They include the tension pulleys and arm supports:



I will post a pic of the completed chassis shortly. I don't think you want to see each little screw put on (and it seems there are about 2000 of them ) I posted an additional pic at the site too.

Hey Erock,

Let me know when you get to where you are assembling the actual suspension system. The directions are somewhat confusing to me in that they talk about twisting the tension arms 90 degrees. Hmmm...

Roy

Hi, guys!

Yeah, I've read in the Japanese magazines that installing those tension arms is a bit tricky, and actually requires a bit of elbow grease. Can you imagine have sore muscles the day after working on a model??

Roy, thanks for the kind words about Mr. E!
I'm glad to hear you've had a chance to come hear and see some of this wonderful country.
I've been in Osaka most of my 10 years, but I did spend 2 years in Tokyo and even a coupla years in Shiga, which is quite rural.

Tokyo is just HUGE. I had been to New York , LA, and have lived in Atlanta for several years, but none of that compares to Tokyo for pure size and sprawl! It just goes on and on and on! Sooo many people...all in a hurry to get wherever they are going.

Osaka is similar, but just not as sprawling and nowhere near as fast-paced. I really love Osaka and the whole Kansai area!
Shiga is about as rural as you can get. I lived on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. Just gorgeous countryside, with the lake, the mountains, rice fields...and Camp Imazu, where I got to ride on Type 61 and Type 74 MBTs!! (No Type 90s, sad to say...)

I ran into a guy named Dean today over in the AC forum who lives just up the road from me here! Finally, another voice here in Japan to help give the Japanese perspective!

Now, if only some actual Japanese folks would do some posting!

I've tried to get my Naniwa Sensha-tai buds to join up, but they're all scared to death of English![:0]

And Erock's off to a good start too. Now I want to know since you didn't have your birthday yet, are sneaking into your hobby room while the boss wife is asleep or did she decide to let you get an early start???


psst, just don't get caught!

Eric

Hey fellas, I just ordered an aluminum barrel from the Barrel Store. I need to pick up a good airbrush and compressor now. I'm thinking the Badger 150... Hopefully by tomorrow I'll get to start on the chasis and suspension. I plan to build a modified Mid version Tiger I with Zimmerit and without the air cleaners on the tail end. I'm cutting the number of headlights down to one and moving it to the center of the armor plate. The good thing about kit-bashing the King Tiger parts was that I picked up a lot of spare parts like the huge clamps and the MG 34 they mounted on the cupola. I also plan on giving it a base color of German ocher/yellow with a light green camoflage pattern.

Roy

erush,

She had to have known it was killing me not to get started on it!

I'm REALLY hoping that the Aber set shows up today. I want to get going full bore

Well, since work is approaching soon, here is what I have completed thus far:

J-Hulk, you are a credit to this hobby, and you rule! Thanks!!
And Erock is just humming along. Man, at that rate he'll be weathering his Tiger while I'm still building the road wheels! Right now I'm tooling the new cupola so that the hatch opens and closes. I can't wait to see how all of this turns out!

Roy

Hi, folks!

No problem, Okieboy! (I decided to sell him the track hangers!)
I thought it over, and realized I'd never use 'em, so no use letting 'em go to waste! Do me proud, Okieboy!

Erock, I'm choking on your dust! You are moving right on down the road there!
Am I the only one thinking "metal tinker toys" when I see that tensioning system?

I gotta admit, when I pulled that big canvas bag down out of the closet to get those Aber track hangers for Okieboy, and when I opened that big box and saw all that gorgeous plastic staring at me, I almost decided to forget the October contest I've committed to and get cracking on this MONSTER!!!!

But, I'm a man who honors his commitments, so The King of Bovington must receive all my attentions until completion!!

Then, Hulk builds Tiger!

Don't worry Hulk, I'm dragin' along with you!!! I didn't think anyone was going to start this soon and I'm determined to finish my Marder before I start on the Tiger (or I'll never get the Marder done ). I should be done by the time you're ready and we'll just bring up the rear and find out from Erock and okieboy where the problems are on the kit!

Eric

Excellent plan, Eric!

Made some decent progress this morning. Attached the tray, torsion bars and suspension arms.

The first few torsion bars were tricky but here's how I did it:

Insert the bar just inside the small "keyhole" type slot on the opposite end. Insert the suspension arm into the hole (make sure the torsion bar is just inside the slot on the arm) Grab hold of the suspension arm and twist down, then push in. You will see the 2 notches on the arm go through the chassis. Keep pushing and then twist back up. You will hear the suspension arm "snap" into place.

Make sure you hold the chassis firmly on the bottom. Don't grab by the plastic sides, it does take some force to get them in. Also, keep a pair of needle-nose pliers handy. On a few, the torsion bars slid a little out of the slot in the arm. You need to keep it centered, so it will go into place. Easy Hugh???

I have more detailed build shots posted at the site.



A side note here: Try doing the assembly without the torsion bar first. This will give you an idea of how it needs to be turned. You will see the 2 notches that hold the arm in place.

Now that's the part of the assembly I was most curious about. I'll give it a shot if I get the time today or tomorrow. I'll be stopping by my LHS on the way home to pick up some parts for the hatch on the cupola. Man, I need to take another vacation; this time to just stay home and work on my Tiger!

Roy

Thanks for the info!
Hey erock, I just noticed your kit is molded in gray. Mine's in dark yellow! Were the full options kits all molded in gray, and static kits in dark yellow?

How about you other fellas?

YES ...... there's building happening !!!!!

YES ...... there's pics happening !!!!!

What more could I guy ask for ?

J-Hulk, the color isn't the only difference between the two kits. Apparently, the static kit is equipped with working hatches, whereas the Full Option isn't.
(But for those lucky devils who have the Aber set, it solves that problem ).


Roy

J,

I'm pretty sure that's how it is. All of the pics I have seen of the FO are in grey.

Sherm,

Are ya' happy now? I usually get a few hours free time in the morning before work in the afternoon. Will *hopefully* get some decent progress made over the long, upcoming holiday weekend.

**Note to self.....ask the wife if she has made plans first**

There ya go, Robert! Progress!

Roy, yeah, I knew about the hatches, and we (the static boys!) also get a choice of mantlets and air cleaners, too!

Any of you FO boys want whichever mantlet I'm not gonna use? Or the aircleaners, for that matter?

Haven't decided which ones I'm gonna go with, but that wouldn't take long.

Hi All
Can i join the group?

Got my Tiger about six months ago and so far only done the suspension parts!
I was going to wait until i found a tiger to do, but that big box just kept looking at me!!!

Stil hunting on the net and in books to get some good pics of a single tiger, might do Tiger 812 "TiKi" of the 2. SS-PzDiv "Das Reich".

anyway a bit about me- I used to make models from late teens into early 20s then got distracted be guitars and bands, so about the age of 37 i decided to start again
so why not go for something big!! Wish me luck! Kicking myself for getting rid of most of my tools when i gave up,so the start up cost are going to be high!

some advice pls:
Photo etch, how hard is it?
Where do i get a metal barrel from?
Anyone else thinking about metal tracks? found some by Kenny Kong but just wondered if anyone has them and if there any good.

I will get a digital camera soon and start posting some pics when i get going again.

I hope that this forum will give me the courage to get on with the beast.

Howdy Box 1,

I'm in much the same position as you; having to buy equipment I had long ago. Don't worry, you'd need new stuff anyway due to recent improvements in technology! Anyway, for starters, I'd visit airconnection.on.ca . There you can check out decals, barrels, and other goodies. Most of their stuff is 1/35 however, so beware. Kenny Kong tracks are top notch by what other modelers say. I haven't bought them yet, but I'd like to. As for photo-etch, I've never applied it, but it really enhances your model. Just check out the photo-etch set on airconnection by Aber...the all inclusive set for the 1/16 Tiger I costs $199 and has just about everything you could ever want. (And some things you don't!) They also have smaller kits by the way. For air brushes, I'm looking at airbrush-depot.com . Nice selection and decent prices. Good luck!

Roy

box1,

Welcome to the forums and back into modeling! I'm not doing the 1/16 build, but I am working on the 1/35 mid pro build. As for PE sets, the difficulty really depends on the set. Eduard is a great manufacturer, so is Aber. Aber sets are usually more detailed, more in number of parts, and therefore, more difficult. They can be bent with a metal straight edge and single edge razor blade, or you can go for one of the new photoetch tools from Hold-n-Fold or EtchMate. Both are supposed to be great, but are a little pricey (my opinon). If you go with pe, I'd start with some of the bigger parts to see how they work, and work my way to the smaller, more fiddley parts. Some of the stuff, especially from Aber, are multiple part assemblies. They even have working hinges for some things like the tool clamps. I haven't tried any of those yet, but they look a nightmare. Also, I find the instructions for these sets is usually lacking, no matter the manufacturer, so have a good set of reference material for the tank you want to duplicate on hand. Oh, one of the big problems most of us seem to have with pe is a condition that's been coined as AS (for Aber Syndrom) and involves the frustration level that's achieved from working on one part for a half hour or so only to have it launched into the black hole of modeldom never to be seen again. For a discussion of this, see edogs link in the thread "finally posted a website..." and look at his link to 'articles'. It's written tounge in cheek, but there is a lot of truth in it.

I hope you have a great time with your build, and glad you joined in the forums. Enjoy.

Bill

Box1,

Welcome to the forums!

Sure, you may join the 1/16 build if you wish or the 1/35. For the 1/16, it doesn't matter if you have the Stat or the Full Opt. Also, there is no time limit to get it finished. You can work at your own pace.

Let me know and I can add you to the group build site for 1/16, if you want to give it a go.

The link to the site is in my signature below

Welcome to FSM Box1.

This will be a great group for you to be involved with. These guys have really got something going

Though I too am not part of this build, I do stick my nose in here and shake the hornet's nest a bit.

Thanks for the welcome guys

Eric, when i get some pics, i would love to go on the group build site.

TOOLS!!! god HOW MUCH!

I seem to be spending far to much time UMMing and AHing over how far to go with the detail of this kit.
I carnt quite pin down a date for the tamyia kit, looks like around Jan-May 43 but its missing the fixed periscope for the loader.
which was instaled the same time as the spare trank link barackets on the turret.

Robert: Do you has a 1/16 Sherman to take us all on? :-)

Feeling part of the crowd already
Dave

QUOTE: Do you has a 1/16 Sherman to take us all on? :-)

Not at all ...... but I do have a wee herd of 1/35 Shermies.

To quote Nathan Bedford Forrest,
"Get thar fustest with the mostest"

Sherm, that's just called "forced perspective!" LOLOLOL