Dear all
Do you do interior for the Tiger's turret?Any good suggestions?Also,how to make the kit barrel look perfect just like the metal one?Metal one is always better?How to detail the kit barrel?(especially the muzzle)Should i buy metal one for every kit?(Tamiya)
Thanks
Tim Lo

Two very subjective questions, and everyone will have an opinion...

As for turret interiors - well... Depends on if you are building an M10, Achilles, Marder, M36 or a Tiger? Ask yourself how much of the turret interior will actually be visible when your done?

I mean, if you add figures in hatches and the interior is not visible or even barely visible, then tossing time (and money) into doing an proper interior is IMHO, a waste of both.
If you want to justify the efforts to yourself with "I know its there", then have at it; it's your time and money.

OTOH, if you wanted to get clever - say with one of those Academy Tigers with the interior - and build a "cutaway" model that exposes the turret (and other interior areas) to view, well, then doing an interior makes sense.

Look at this excellent site for Tiger interior specs and correction ideas;

http://tiger1.info/

Or, accept what Academy dealt you and build it OOTB. If you do choose to go with an OOTB interior model Tiger I, the conventional wisdom is that the Academy Early Tiger I with interior has a more accurate interior than their Mid Tiger with interior kit. AFAIK, the story on the Verlinden Tiger interior sets were that they were less accurate than the Academy kit parts.

As for kit barrels vs metal bbls; that's your decison as to basic modeling skills or lack thereof, vs. time, money, and/or a desire to have the nicest looking barrel you can have.

I've used the metal barrels only if the kit bbl is absolutely unusable, - and I always at least give it a try to see what it would look like. But that's just me, as I'm cheap and don't like paying more for add-ons than what adding another kit to my collection might cost.

Some things I've done to salvage a kit bbl is to use fine sandpaper, and when I get it as true and round as possible the old fashioned way, I'll dip it in Future and let dry, then dip again and let dry. These coatings of Future help to fill out those fine scratches left by even fine sandpaper and make the bbl surface glass smooth.

In fact, I'm so cheap I don't use Future, but rather "Bissel Mop and Shine", a cheaper alternative to Future.
Another thing I've done is to chuck the bbl in a variable-speed drill, and wrap it in fine sandpaper while running the drill at slow speed. My poor-man's lathe.

JMHO!

What is Future?

I usually detail the barrel with Aber PE first and then use putty to do with the seam and sand paper to sand the barrel,i think it can make it in a better round shape and sand away the excess part.Give some opinion to my method please,also what i have to do with a metal barrel?just fix it?i think it is more challengable to make a kit barrel perfect,it is a test of your skills and it is just the same as the metal one right?
Give me some suggestions and opinions please
Thanks
TIm Lo

This should answer all your questions about this stuff and its uses.


http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html

How can it work?

Works like this :
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/227

You shouldn't have to do anything with a turned metal barrel, that's why we use them. Seamless, perfect shape, etc. On those barrels with muzzle brakes, you may have to glue on a plastic, metal, or resin brake (which would require cleanup), but the barrel itself just needs to glued into place. I've found that I've had to clean up the turret mantlet, as the metal bbls are not always an exact fit-replacement for the plastic kit bbl.

What you are already doing sounds correct, but I personally would hold off adding PE trim pieces until last, to minimize damage from handling/working the bbl.

Also, you can save yourself some sanding time by using acetone finger-nail polish remover on a cotton swab, to smooth out the dried Green Putty after you have done the heavier sanding. Acetone melts the Green Putty, and makes for a smooth surface. Just be careful as it has nasty fumes.

i have a New Connection metal barrel of Tiger I but no Muzzle Brake what cna i do?any Muzzle break i can glue on this barrel?
Thanks
Tim Lo

I would try to cut the muzzle brake from the kit barrel, assemble it and attach it to the metal one. Just have to make sure the end that goes to the barrel is flat so it sits right.