Hi all,

Figured I would try my hand at a blog, since this is going to be ( and has already been) a looong build.

A friend had approached me and asked to build the old (IIRC) 1968 release of Tamiya's Tiger 1. Foolishly I agrered with a stipulation that I could make any changes to the kit that I wanted. He said OK, as long as it was finished as a Das Reich Kursk era vehicle.

This has been going on and off for about three yeard, more recently on. I have over 70 pics taken to this point, so figured I would add a segment every couple of days or so until we're cought up to date.

Constructive comments always welcomed.

On with the show!



I started by plugging all the holes for the OVEwith streched sprue, as I will either build the tool clamps or use some Aber for them.



The bottom of the upper hull before shaving it all flush.



All the holes and slots in the sponsons were filled. I've tried to recreate the weld joins with some success at the rear of the lower hull sides.



Ditto on the front of the hull. Also added were weld beads. One think that I've found out is there are LOTS of nice weld beads on an AFV such as the Tiger.



Many more on the hill rear also.



Tried to beef up this area on the front hull as well.



I scratched the front fenders from brass stock.
At this point, I tried to scratch some hingers for the fenders, the part where the extention folds up, adn became very very frustrated. I put it down for a couple of full builds ( read couple years) but now am back at it.
Figured I would check out some doll house supply stores for pre made hinges. hope I can find em.

On to the turret tomorrow.

Watch here for more updates!

HI

Are you going to go nuts or just try to do simple tweaks?

Tom

A look at this old Tamiya kit just shows how far the kits have come and what someone can do with this old girl. Will be watching your progress.

Darryl

Second try...

Keep up the good work , it looks like a very daunting task.
I have the same kit ,and have not done much with it ,since. ( purchased in 1986)
Still trying to make sense of the fighting compartment , the gun is atrocious.

I'm looking forward to any follow-up on this particular one ...

Cheers
Marc V

Interesting to see someone having a pop at this old dog, will follow this thread with interest.

Keep the posts coming!

James

Hi Tom,

One mans " going nuts" is anothers norm lol
I'll be attempting to fix everything that I can find that is erroneous in the kit, within reason. There is just so damn much to fix!

For instance, all the tool brackets, and probably tools will be replaced, as will the Feifels, and I've already corrected the commanders cupola ( Coming soon!) . Some things I just dont want to get into, like rebuilding the turret shell, rebuilding the horrible drive sprockets (shuddering at the thought) or tracks.

Hi Daryl, Marc and James,

Thanks for watching, I hope that this build can be of some help with your own!

C[ ]

Matt

Todays Update:

Turret !

My friend started bugging me about "where's my Tiger" type of thing, so I had to get back on the horse. Not finding, or even looking for fender hinges yet, I decided to start on the turret.

As with everything else that I'm finding on this kit, the turret has almost NO detail on it. Not nesscessarily bashing here, just stating a fact.

To its credit, it did have some nice weld beads, which I retextured for a more defined appearance. One thing that jumped right out at me was the loaders hatch. There was a recessed area in the roof for it to sit. Well, there never was any such thing, so I filled it in with some stock styrene.



Moving to the loaders hatch itself, a weld bead was added around the splash guard for the hatch, as well as around the handle. The handle itself was also replaced with some wire. Also, I created a new hatch hasp from brass stock.





This was the first time that I had tried using Mr Surfacer to simulate that rolled steel texture. After I read a few on line articles, I tried it. What was I waiting for? Easy to do, and looks convincing, especially in 1/25th scale.

At this juncture., i would like to apologise for some of the pics, the are a little whited out, but I hope everyone will get the general idea.

After the moulded on weld beads were retextured, I added some around the vision ports and the gun trunions. Welds were added using the tried and true method with streched sprue, liquid cement and a broken tip #11 Xacto blade to provide the texture. Later on I fould that one of the vision ports should have been moved back, but was just about done with the turret at that point. Oh well, chalk it up to being blonde

Lots of detail was missing on the joins at the front of the turret. I glued some stock on there and added some more beads from Evergreen stock. The whole thing was coated with liquid cement and allowed to set overnight. Before detailing, the stock was cut ot length and sanded at an angle.



Using a peice of brass tube cut so only a radius remained, I textured the cheek welds with it.





More welds were added under the turret chin, and on the sides. In general, any tan weld beads are made from streched sprue, any white ones are made from Evergreen stock.



Once the basic welds were detailed on the front half of the turret, it was time to work on the smoke dischargers. My "customer" wanted a Das Reich Tiger from the Kursk era. Looking at lots of pics I noticed that a couple of the Das Reich Tigers had the smoke discharger brackets cut clean off, not just the discharge tubes removed. Fine by me, that means less to rebuild

It was easy to attach a piece of stock, add a weld bead around it, then hack it off! The ends of the remaining peices were also textured to resemble a flame cut. sometimes hard to see in the pics, but it's there.






Enough rambling for today, lunch is over
Another update soon!

Matt

Hi

hahhah too true.

Your turret mods are what I would do so you seem normal so far

I will enjoy watching this. Good to see that you do not need a super duper ultra detailed kit to create a nice looking vehicle. Kudos for taking on the challenge.

Tom

Hi Matt

I'll be watching your progress with great interest as I have this old girl up in the loft waiting for me to get my finger out and make it. Mine is an original from when it was first released, I know because my hard earned pocket money brought it. I stopped serious modelling over forty years ago but kept a few of the unmade ones.
Back doing it a regretting the missed years.

I do get slightly upset when I see this kit criticised, partly due to the cost when I brought it and because at the time Tamiya was "the" manufacturer of large scale kits.

I'd love to get it out and correct it's faults ( within reason) and add detail such as you are doing.

You did mention the list of faults as being long, but could you or anyone else be so kind as to list these so I may take a view as to what to try and what not to as regards correcting them.

At this stage I'm not considering a full correction of the interior detail as like most people I've only so much time available for modelling and I'd like to see most of my collection built before Lucifer shows me to my reserved parking space.

Good luck with the build, I hope your friend appreciates the time and effort you are putting in, I certainly know I would.

All the best

Alan

Hi Alan,

I would be happy to provide a list as I go along of things that I feel aren't up to snuff. Please keep in mind that iIam NOT attempting any interior on this one, as my friend requested.

Look for that list soon, it will need to be transcribed from my chicken scratched notes at home.

Thanks for your interest,

Matt

Hi all,

Todays Update:

Commanders Cupola!

The cupola turned out to be a mini kit in itself with the amount of detailing it has received.

First thing that didn't look right to me was the vision ports. After looking at a 1/24th Jentz and Doyle poster I realized what it was. The line where the cupola was bolted to the turret in real life was ABOVE the vision slits., This would mean that the vision slits would have been part of the mounting ring welded to the turret roof, when in reality, they were on the cupola itself.

Easy fix ...sort of. Just shave off the stubs that were supposed to represent the vision slits and create new ones in the drum cupola.



A tab was added to the inside ring on the turret roof, and corresponding slot was made on the cupola itself with some Evergreen stock, to keep the correct orientation,



A weld bead was added around the mounting ring as well, Here is a pic during the attachment of the streched sprue.



On to the cupola itself once the base had been corrected. When in postition, I noticed the two short pipes for the commanders sun shield were no tin the correct position. These were cut off and sanded smooth. so were the bolt heads as well. Replacements from an old On The Mark set proved to be the proper size. New holes were drilled for some brass tube cut to length.



Some brass stock was soldered to itself to obtain the correct thickness for the fixed part of the hatch hasp. Sanded to shape and drilled out, it was attached to the cupola. Rainwater drainage holes were also drilled into the cupola rim at this point.

Using some plans from The Modelers Guide to the Tiger Tank, I laid out the positioning of the vision slots. A small drill bit was used to remove the majority of the material, and an X acto knife for the rest.



They looked pretty ratty after the rough cleanout.



With a piece of 80 grit super glued to a thin brass strip , they cleaned up nicely though.



The hatch itself was devoid of any detail, sans one bold under the handle. Bolt heads were shaved from other interior parts that were not to be used, and streched sprue. The keylock and its bolts were again from spare On The Mark PE.



A wire handle was fabricated and weld beads added to its base. The attachment points for the large sliding hinge were added and given their subsiquent weld beads as well. A hand cut brasp hasp was also added.

Somewhere during thtis process, I wrapped wire around the large sliding hinge to simulate the springs present on it. Also fabricated was a brass pin to secure the sliding part.

When these were dry, a light coat of Mr Surfacer was added for that rolled steel look again.




( just a test fit in this pic)

During this whole schmeil I noticed that the actual hinge molded into the hatch wasn't anywhere close to being what was actually produced.

Those brass tube parts were added to the cupola, adn some of theslot for the kit hinge pieces filled in. I glued the hatch in place at this point, cause I dont have 3 hands to keep it all lined up!

Using my refrences, I fabricated the front half of the bottom hinge.



The rear half was made from some heavily modified (read : sanded angularly) Evergreen rod and putty.



Here's another view from the front.



Have to finish up the cupola assy in tomorrows installment.

Matt

wow!

This thread just gets better and better! Your attention to detail is excellent Matt. I'm really enjoing reading this!

Keep the instalments rolling!

James

Wow. Fantastic work. The cupola is a piece of art by itself!

Marty

Back again to finish up on the cupola assembly.

During the construction of the hatch bottom hinge, I noticed that the other hinge's ( I'll refer to it as the "sliding hinge" for lack of a better term) legs were now far to wide, These were fairly easy to refabricate from evergreen stock. The hard part was filling the remaining gap in place without damaging anything else. With a little patience, some 600 grit sandpaper and some Mr Surfacer, the job was done. Sorry, no pics of the actual hinge leg, but heres one if the completed hinges assy.



Some other things to note, I layed a weld bead around the base of the hatch bottom hinge as I had seen in refrences. Also in the last pic is the hatch holder, the piece that holds the hatch upright so it dosent slam down on the commander!

This was fabricated out of sandwiched brass stock soldered together to obtain the proper thickness, and some bending, shaping and sanding to get the hook part to look decent. Let me tell ya, it was a lady to get the angle of it right! More weld beads were added around its base.

I added a thin piece of wire and some more weld beads for the commanders diirect sight somewhere along the line too.

The very last detail to add was the catch that engages the hatch holder. I has a hard time finding any clear pics to create this from, so it was interpolated from many sources. It's simply made from Evergreen scraps adn one strand of 24 awg stranded wire to simulate a spring. These pics are horrible, but you'll get the idea. I had to decrease the brightness so you could see more than a white blob lol.





With that done, it was fitted and glued to the hatch, completing the cupola assy. After painting, I think I will go back and add some clear plastic painted to simulate the glass view ports in the commanders cupola.

Here's a few different views of the completed commanders drum cupola.







Tomorrow , given time, this blog will go over the Rommelskiste. If not, the next update will be on Monday, as I'm going ice fishing over the weekend!

Thanks James and Marty, glad that I'm not just wasting time by posting all this!

Matt

~sit's here stunned~
The level of detail your adding to this old beast is amazing so far... I'm almost afraid to see what's next with this kit...

beautiful work!!!!!!!!!!!!

ditto!

keep em coming, i'm really enjoying this thread!

James

Hi All,

Thanks again James and Chris for following along with my build.

Todays Update: Misc Hatches and Rommelskiste (I hope that I'm spelling this correctly!)

To start, I have to mention that these pics and the assembly sequence are not nesscessarily in order. I'm really looking through my pics and describing whats modifications I've made in a very non linear form. Once I get up to the point of construction that is current, the blog will be sequential.

'Nuff said, get on with it!

THe escape hatch on the turret rear was missing a very noticible weld bead around the hinge join, so this was added with the "sprue 'n glue" method. Also, texture from some more Mr Surfacer 500 thinned with laquer thinner was added.



Here it is mounted on the turret, with more welds around the bolted hinge. You can see the slight rolled steel texture to good effect.



For a kit with an interior, it struck me as odd that the pistol port did not have any sliding port cover detail on it. If left like this, there would be a hole in the turret armor large enough to chuck a grenade through! Easy fix though, just glue a piece of Evergreen scrap there to cover the hole.



Looks like it was meant to be there from the exterior!



On to the Rommelskiste. The rear most lifting lug needed some attention. Had to fill and sand a large divit in its face, as well as add a weld bead around the base of it. No one will probably see this, but I'll know it's there.



There was a bit of work that needed to be done to the Rommelskiste itself. When fitting the top ( the part with all the hatch and hinge detail) to the bottom, the alignment was WAY off! And it wasn't just a matter of lining it up properly, the bottom part did not match the top! This resulted in a LOT of sanding to get the two parts to match, followed by fitting, puttying, more sanding, fitting, puttying, on and on.



After attaching the bin to the turret, I saw in my refs that the hatch lids on it did not sit flush like the part had depicted, so a couple of hatches were made up from some Evergreen plastic. Now I had to figure out what to do about the hinges as well. Taking a piece of thin Evergreen, cut to size, I cut some small slots in the end to simulate the top of the hinge. Pressing against the edge with a metal ruler bent them enough to make it more convincing. The hinges were then attached to the lids, and bolt detail was added. In theis pic you can also see even MORE weld beads were added where the Rommelskiste attachment tabs joined the hull.





Yet another detail missing was the brackets that the storage bins sat upon. Some bent Evergreen strips were glued in place, bolt head detail and weld beads were added.



Here's a quick pic of a piece of sprue bent to shape for one of the welds.



Next update will be on approx Tuesday.

Enjoy!

Hi Matt

Great stuff.

I love the bit about detailing parts you know won't be seen but "you" know its there.

Could you tell me the main sources you are using to get your information from please ?

This is making me want to get the old girl out from the loft and make a start on her right away but I have a few other non modelling priorities to sort first and some started stuff I've got to finish before I dare open another box.

Keep up the good work, shaping up to be a classic thread this.

Alan

HI

Everything is looking really impressive so far !

Tom

Matt...

It just stuck me , In the book, by Sheperd Paine, " Modeling tanks and military vehicules"
There is a short reference on this very same model.
You can see , how he build it , with zimmerit and re-done fighiting compartment.
The pictures are small, and few , but worth taking a look , if you have the chance...

Great effort from your part, on this one , keep up the good work....
Cheers

Marc

Hi Matt,hello Marc and another 1-25 scale funs.
I`m very happy to see Your great efforts on this old model,but why not at Large Scale dep.?
I have been on winter vacation ,and after my come back one friend send me link to this relation.Another way ,probably I never see this relation ( :-( ).I can tell You that I wait for new PE kits to this model from Aber.It will be able in Panzer Hobby Art shop and the same moment I plane to reactiveate and continue my relation.

Hi Alan,

Refrences used off the top of my head are as follows:

Byrden Tiger1e.com website
Ryton Tiger 1 and Sturmtiger in Detail
Jentz and Doyle DW to Tiger 1
Schneider Tigers in Combat I (softcover) and II (hardcover)
Stansell MMiR Modeling the Tiger Tank
and probably the most used is the Tiger 1 1/24th poster from Jentz and Doyle.

Here is a list of all the errors I've found so far with the kit. By no means is it comprehensive or mandatory to fix any of these. Also, none of these have anythign to do with the interior, as I'm not using it. Some tell me I have a bad case of AMS, but I hope that dosent mean I'm a rivit counter too!

Turret vision port off on one side (to far forward on the escape hatch side)
Turret shell too tall
Turret front not the right shape (the angles are off etc)
Loaders hatch recesed in roof where it should be flush
Trunions too low for main gun
Cupola too tall
Mantlet too tall
Mantlet "cheeks" not the right shape (need bevels)
Posts for commanders rain shield in the wrong position
Smoke discharger brackets too short
Hinge on commanders cupola not correct
No detail on commanders hatch
Rommelskiste hatches not correct and bin is a bad fit
Feifel's too tall and not wide enough
Exhaust stacks too tall
Missing detail on inner of final drives
Many weld beads missing
Fenders too thick
Holes in the pannier that need to be filled
Missing scalloped reinforcements on panniers
Missing track pin bump stop
Tracks and drive sprockets ( something seems to look "funny" about them, but I haven't quite gotten to that stage yet)

I'm sure theres more, but thats all that I've seen so far.

Hope this helps!

Matt

Hi Tom,

Thanks for taking time to comment!

Hi Marc,

I think that book is in my LHS, I would definately like to see how the "master" handled this kit!

Matt