Hello Jan,

If my eyes keep going the way that they are, I might just have to shift to all large scale! lol Then the Henglong would be a viable option. I would already know what to look for to detail

Speaking of large scale, anyone know where to get a hold of a ToyStar 1/25th tiger? Sort of like the Henglong, but in 1/25th. i could use the tracks for this project.

You are correct, I hand load my rifle cartridges for hunting .280 Remington and .308 Winchester. Sharp eyes you have!

Thanks for commenting.
Matt

Matt ,-1-25 Toy star Tiger ? Where You hear about this model? I never seen them.
I have 1-24 Marui RC Tiger and his tracks look better then tamiya`s , but they are a little narrower . 1-24 should be bigger ,but they don`t . I remember disccusion on FSM about them ,and Friends wrote that is possible to exchange it .For me it looks no good,even Marui tracks are better.
Yes sure I help You with Pe kits to tiger,but please don`t buy "German Tool Holders after 1943 " kit now .Wait a moment ;-)
My 1-24 Tiger after repainting.
More more info please contact with me via e-mail.
Send reagards Piter

O`k Matt.
Here You are !
I waited long time for this kit PE grilles for Tiger .
Fited on without glue look like.


By the way it proves that grilles fit on to 1-24 RC Tiger I from Marui. :-)



To see You soon !

I would love to have work benck like that! With a wife and 3 kids, it's hard to find secure available space!

It sure is! Every guy should be the Mayor of their own Mantown

i have to say upon looking at all the work you've done, I must question your sanity. It looks great so far!

Is it just me, or does that Mr. Surfacer look alot like a winter whitewash?

Funny that you mention that Jon, checking out some of the other parts a couple nights ago, I was wondering the same thing!




Sort of! Hmmm give anybody ideas for a new technique?

Hi Everyone,

Been a little while since the last update, but that's due to having to actually BUILD before I can post!

After the supporting flanges were in place on the sponson, I had to make some bolt heads for the top chord. They were made easily enough out of little stubs of stretched sprue glued, then cut and sanded to height.



An overview of the finished flange in place:



Also note in the overview, I cut some disks from Evergreen to simulate the shock absorber mounting points. Anyone know if these were thicker than I've depicted?

The lower hull detail is almost done at this point with the exception of the track pin plate. It's made up of some Evergreen stock cut to size, short legs glued on the ends, then rounded the corners over.



Here it is in place with the (groan) weld beads.



Now I just have to finish up the other side ...

Jumping around a bit, there was some work to be done to the front end before I could move to the hull rear.

The insides of the final drives needed some bolt heads and weld beads. I used the bolts from an Academy sprue someone sent me. Think it's from a US M-10 or something like that???



And glued into position with the accompanying weld beads.



Looking at the model with a pair of somewhat fresh eyes, I saw a MAJOR weld bead missing between the bow armored plate and the hull sides. Here is a little SBS on how I added them.

Disclaimer: this is NOT my technique, but something that I've seen, and works for me. Tony Greenland's? Pat Stansell's? I forget, but definitely can't claim any credit on my part lol



1. Measure weld bead width.



2. Cut a V shaped notch into the plastic.



3. Clean out notch with motor tool.



(Said motor tool and bit)



4. Glue in half round Evergreen stock.



5. Finished textured weld bead from the other side.

That's about it for now, currently working on the driver's visor and MG mount. Questions, comments, corrections welcomed as always!

Matt

Some more excellent work matt, this is really coming along nicely.

Keep it up!

James

I`m here everyday and look at ,excellent , that`s all.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the March Update! The way things have been going, this could possibly be the only this month, who knows? lol

Updated some misc things.

Pretty much finished up the lower hull stuff on the other side.



Still need to add weld beads around the track pin bump stop, but added bolt heads to the flange and installed the shock absorber mounts.

Carrying on, I noticed the angle of the armor plate in the bow was off a bit, shouldn’t be vertical, but just off from vertical. This was a fairly quick fix, just needed a little geometry.





Have to drill out the holes for the tow shackles still, as soon as I get some more drill bits of the correct size!

I didn't like the detail on the bow MG, so I turned my own in an electric hand drill.



On the top is the brass tube stock, middle is the new barrel, and bottom is the kit part.

Here is a closer pic.



For the last week or so I've been in Road Wheel Hell. Why must I build German armor with about a million separate road wheels?

It took somewhere between 8 to 9 hrs to get all the wheels cleaned up and assembled. Generally, they look OK, even though there are some strange nubs on some of the inner road wheels. I just cup 'em off, as that area might be visible. Hope I didn't shoot myself in the foot there!



Fruits of slogging through the road wheel hell:



In the middle of the pic are exploded views of the two flavors of road wheel assemblies on a Tiger.

Think that's about it for this update.

Comments, questions always welcomed.

Matt

Hi Matt

I was only thinking this morning taking the dog for a walk that we'd not heard from you for a while. Thanks for posting. Looking good as always.

I have to say with the your attention to detail it's a good thing you are not going to do the interior

Can you see light at the end of the tunnel yet on this one ?

All the best

Alan

More excellent work!

How impressed am I at that home made brass barrel!!!!!

You are a true genius mate!

James

Hi,

Alan, still dark at the end of the tunnel. There is so much more to do, and I'm stuck on a couple parts.

1.I need to find or (somehow cast or fabricate) a couple of wing nuts for the Kugleblende, as I shaved the old ones off, then prompltly lost one to the carpet monster! Anyone good with resin casting?

2.Still need to attach the front fenders and won't do that until I get the hinges on the extentions. After scouring the dollhouse supply sites, it looks as if I will have to scratch that little detail... 8 times for both front and back fenders!

3. Finish off the Feifel's and their mounts. I haven't even posted that little mess yet lol

etc, so on , you get the idea. Thanks for the encouragement though, it definately helps me to keep on slogging through!

James, no genius here, just creative As a matter of fact, I see a few things to be improved on the barrel after looking at the pic .
REAL genius can be seen at this blog :

http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2875

Absolutely stunning what this gentleman can do with brass and a soldering iron!

Thanks for watching guys,

Matt

Hi Matt

Got to agree with you about yasuyuki watanabe. When I saw the posts last year I felt this is someone who is very special in his model making.

You can get very blase about the detail some people create, even whilst viewing his pictures. It's only when a scalpel blade or something like that comes into shot you are reminded and realise how tiny this stuff is and how fantastic the level of workmanship and skill this guy has.


Your dedication to this model shouldn't be sold short either though.

I'm worried that this thread will get lost somehow or won't be available when I come round to building mine. If it wasn't for other stuff I'd be following this with the actual kit modified as you are doing it.........but with a lot more glue splashed every where and the air bluer than the summer sky no doubt !!

Looking forward to the next instalment.

By the way I see Aber have released a engine grill set for this. No 25006
http://armorama.com/news/3550&mode=&order=0

You'll probably make your own though, weaving the grills from strands of wire

All the best. Great work.

Alan

Hi Alan,

Funny that you mention the Aber grilles. I had pulled a roll of storm door screening out of the shed last year for just such a purpose! The size and overlapping mesh would work perfectly.

As to the Aber screens, have 'em already. Piotr had posted about them in this thread on the last page down near the bottom too. Watch the home page for a review verrryyyy soon!

Check your PM as well.

Matt

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to April's update

After getting out of roadwheel hell, I decided to tackle those missing wingnuts. I tried many things, one sided casting with Silly Putty, frozen as a mold, some talc for mold release and super glue, then 5 min epoxy as a medium. Those attempts failed miserable
Decided to try scratching them from left over bits of PE frets. They took a while, but I finally came up with an acceptable rendition.



At the top you can see the plastic wingnut with a bit of brass rod attached. I used that as a stamp into the failed silly putty casting debacle. The two wingnuts to the left are the final ones. Also of note are the other failed attempts at making the wingies. I was very happy when they were done!

I attempted to mount the wingnuts on the glacis next to the kugleblende, but got immensely aggrivated trying to bend the tiny receiving brackets.

Moving away from those parts for a break, I noticed large holes in the final drive mounts that most definitely were not on a real Tiger! I whipped up plugs from turned down pieces of sprue in my handy dandy lathe.





(Like my hi tech lathe?)



The plugs were glued in and puttied up on the outside. I wasn't real neat at this area, as this is a very difficult area to see on the finished tank.

Not wanting to jump right back on the wingnuts, I looked around for something else to tackle. And oh boy, did I find a biiiggg problem. Is it me...or are the swing arms facing the wrong direction?



From my references, they are! This is one of those bugs that will be unmodified. There's just too much involved in repositioning the swing arms to face the right direction IE: cutting and relocating the locating tabs on the torsion bars, cutting and relocating the mounting holes for the torsion bars (which are unevenly spaced both horizontally and vertically when viewing from a grid), drilling new holes on one side, filling on the other. I'm afraid that I would butcher that terribly, and then all this work would be for nothing! Taking the "Discression is the better part of Valor" view on this.

Moving on yet AGAIN, time to tackle the exhaust. Why you ask? Take a look at the height and size differences. The left is the corrected exhaust stack; the right is the kit part.



That’s what I'm currently working on. I have one stack basically built, still working on the "flapper" on the top. When I'm done, will post some more pics of it.

Thanks for watching, and does anyone know where I could find a good clear picture of those "Flappers"? A weblink or drawing would be great!

Matt

Matt, you continue to impress!

Can't be any help with your 'flapper' i'm afraid, and I wouldn't worry about those swing arms, once the 3 sets of roadwheels are on no-one will ever notice!

Thanks for the update,

James

Matt, I `ve hiher Blood preassure when Your relation slowly ,daily does down.Please keep us update. :-)
http://krimi.tripod.com/sturmtiger/sturmtiger020.jpg.html
http://www.spookadvisor.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=14047
http://www.spookadvisor.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=14044

Some of the best work I have seen todate.

Matt
god that is Kitty is getting more stunning with each passing day you work on her... I'm glad you sticking with it man.

Chris

James, Chris and Sticky!

Thanks for the support guys, it DOES help me to keep on sluggin' through the build!

Piotr,

Thanks for the pics they should help! And take you blood pressure medication, I build verrryyy slowly

Matt

Hi Guys,

Another quick update on the exhaust.

Here's a pic of an "almost finished" exhaust stack, and an exploded view of the parts that go into it.



And the finished product.



I really have to experiment with a better way to take some pics, getting tired of all the "whiting out" on the scratch built parts. Hmmm a different color background perhaps?

I modified the armored exhaust pots a bit to fit the larger diameter exhaust stacks, as well as adding the lifting lugs and giving them a nice cast texture with the "liquid cement" method.



Note the grey putty on the front of the armored pots, there was a pretty significant depression from mould sink there.

Here's how they look just tacked in place with Funtack.



Sorry much of the detail on the top of the stacks can't be seen, more "whiting out". I'll work on it for the next round of updates!

Moving on, theres much to be done to the rear hull as well. A good place to start was the mounting plates for the rear fenders. These were totally non existant in the kit, so more scratchbuilding is in order.

A start on them:



That's all for now folks!

P.S. Any tips for solving the "whiting out " issue in my pictures would be welcomed.

Matt

Very impressive,more ,more please.
P.S. Did You find my e-mail ?

More excellent work Matt,
This is a great thread, I love reading your updates!

If I ever get chance I must try some large scale armour!

James