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Return of the Tiger

Upper Hull

Back to the main deck details! I began with the Bosch light which is straight forward and includes the use of a nice piece of pre-bent wire for it. I did have to shorten mine a little for it to fit however. Then I moved on to the engine deck and once again decided to jump around on the instructions to get everything installed. Step 9 calls for the tow cables to be assembled and attached yet the instructions don't call for the metal grills until step 12. This seemed like it may be difficult to do after the cables were in place, so I went ahead and added all the details including the grills and then proceeded with the tow cables' installation. When it came to the on vehicle equipment, the choice of tools with molded on clasps or ones without and PE clasps needed to be made. While the plastic ones are not bad, the PE ones are obviously better and these are what I went with. There is a nice little jig included on sprue TA for bending the clasps which really helps things move along. One thing to point out, if using the PE clasps it calls for you to use the replacement pry bar TA2 without molded on clasps instead of K2 but TA2 is too short, so I just cleaned the clasps off the original piece and used it with the PE items.

All that remained to do before moving onto the turret was the hatches and the track cables on the left side of the hull. There was no problem with the hatches and the detail is nicely done on the inside should you choose to display them open. The track cables come with two choices, either a plastic molded set or a wire and PE one. I decided to give the wire ones a go, reserving the option to revert to the plastic ones should it prove too troublesome. I figured out a way to use the wire items that worked quite well and I liked the outcome. Using the plastic set as a guide, I laid the wire down on a sheet of plastic and taped it in place using thin strips at many intervals. Then, one by one, I glued the PE brackets in place, adding the pins which the end pieces hook onto. The results look quite nice if I do say so myself.

Turret Construction

Moving on to the last phase of the build which was the turret, I began by applying the zimmerit and then went on to the barrel assembly. The barrel included in this kit is plastic and made up of multiple parts which clean up fairly easily and will look fine when done. Although I imagine a lot of people will still be a little disappointed with the lack of a metal one, the assembly went well. The only thing I had to do was sand down the "u" clip that holds the spring loaded barrel in place. It was a little tight when sandwiched between the two halves of the recuperator housing but easily remedied. Once the main gun and mantle were assembled, I continued on with the inside of the turret by adding the seats and hatch details. The commander's cupola was a straight forward affair with no problems and following that I installed the turret bin and escape hatch. The spare tracks and brackets were installed and the spare tracks themselves are two piece with the guide horns being separate and hollow. Lastly, it was time for me to tackle the dreaded turret bin latches. These are PE and very small and tedious and my gnarled hands are more suited to hammers and nails than these dainty little objects. I did manage to fumble my way through them and they ended up looking ok, but in the right hands could look awesome. I did elect however to leave off the padlocks as I thought the latches looked fine as they were. I wasn't prepared to risk messing them up but again, in the right hands, they could look great attached. With a final good looking over to make sure I had everything on, it was time to call the build part of this project done.