Nero's Tamiya Tiger 1 Ausführung E (early)

[nero]

Hey guys!

So this will be my entry for the SIG. I picked this (hopefully) simple build since I am still a newbie. I will try and add the Eduard PE, the replacement barrel and the Friul tracks.



I have had a quick peek inside the box and it all looks pretty good. I was a bit worried since the box side is a bit warped, but all pieces look to be in order. Only one of the turret sides seems to have come off the sprue. Can't wait to get started on this one!

Anyway, here are some more shots of the aftermarket bits I hope to use.

[rsrdevon]

Good luck with it. Thank you for joining in with us.

[nero]

Thanks for the comments guys! I am really looking forward to this build.

I think the am guns are rb models (not sure to be honest) and I got them from modellbau-Koenig. One of the two online shops in Germany which I like to use.

[Nige99]

Good luck with the build, hope it goes well for you!

[Coen]

Not treading lightly are ya Alex haha. That's a good base kit for all early tiger builds so you chose well. I've used it a few times myself.
Those after market sets should be interesting. I'm not a fan of Eduard PE myself, but I've never used any of their tiger I sets so I'll be interested to see how well they build for you.
Well chosen Alex.

[MarkVerploeg]

Nice goodies
What kind of Tiger will it be a east or west front Tiger
Still nice to see a grey Tiger , maybe i can "borrow" your painting method as i am terrible with grey vehicles
Good luck with your build

[nero]

Not treading lightly are ya Alex haha. That's a good base kit for all early tiger builds so you chose well. I've used it a few times myself.
Those after market sets should be interesting. I'm not a fan of Eduard PE myself, but I've never used any of their tiger I sets so I'll be interested to see how well they build for you.
Well chosen Alex.

Thanks for the kind comment, Coen. Yeah, caution be damned, i am going all out on this one! I am not sure all of it will make it into the build but we will see how I get on with it. I have had a look at the PE and the instructions and it does seem like it would go together well, without too much cutting, sawing, sanding and forcing it To be honest I have never used this much am and it is kind of intimidating but then its all part of the learning process for me, so no worries... Can't wait to finally get my hand on her ...

Nice goodies
What kind of Tiger will it be a east or west front Tiger
Still nice to see a grey Tiger , maybe i can "borrow" your painting method as i am terrible with grey vehicles
Good luck with your build

Thanks man! I like the grey look, and I am hoping to try a bit of modulation with it, but I am by no means an expert. Mostly I work by trial and error So I am not sure if borrowing from me is the best course of action... At least not until I have finished the error part of it hahaha

Also I think it is supposed to be early eastern front. So I will have to still find myself some eastern front mud. I hear its important to get the right shade of mud. (joking)

[nero]

Update 1


So this was not supposed to be the first update. I had taken pictures of the assembly of the two hull pieces as well as the lovely am MG, but somehow I managed to delete those pictures. I can't figure out how I did it but the pics are gone. Fortunately, there isn't really much to the Tamiya kit in the early stages... The suspension glues on to the outside of the lower hull and is not workable. Apart form that its just a matter of sticking the two halves together. The only thing that required a bit of work was getting the am MG to fit. Its real a bummer that I lost the pics for that because its a bit hard to explain how I ended up getting it to work. The replacement MG does not fit through the hole in the 'mounting plate' (forgive my lack of proper terminology) so I ended up drilling out the hole and fitted a new brace at the back to hold it in place.

After that and bit of filler I was ready to have a first go at the Eduard PE set. I made the fenders first. The front fenders require the kit fenders to be cut from the front plate. I simply traced the outline with the hobby knife again and again until it eventually fell off. This leaves very clean edges. The PE parts don't require much assembly but can be a bit finicky to glue in place as the gluing surface is rather narrow.

Anyhow, on to the back fenders. These do require a bit more work and need to be handled a bit more carefully. As you can see below, you will need to do alot of bending to get the desired shape. I did not find this too difficult though. Surprisingly, the difficulty was getting these 'struts' (# 58, 59 below) to adhere. Firstly, they need to be perfectly straight else they will not fit into the groove. That's easier said than done. Since I took these pics, one has come off again already...






The next problem was that according to the Eduard instructions, the fenders are supposed to go on top of that raised detail on the lower corner of the back plate. Now that was no problem on the left side as they fit perfectly. However they don't fit properly on the right side thus reducing the gluing surface significantly.



With the fenders done on both sides, I gave the hull a bit of a break and moved on to fitting the am main gun barrel. Now the barrel also came with a resin mantlet. I decided against using it however, because I wanted to retain the gun breach on the inside, and also it seemed to me that the resin mantlet was a bit warped. Although that could just be my eyes

The problem was that the barrel would not fit into the kit mantlet. I therefore sanded out the kit part and removed the braces on the inside. This ended up working well and I fixed the barrel to the mantlet with a few drops of ca glue through the back before attaching the gun breach. And the final result:











Thanks for watching!

[Coen]

Fiddly business but good progress Nero.

[Donkeywalloper]

Absolutely lovely Nero.
I have same model and aftermarket.
Really looking forward to opening box and letting rip.
You're doing a great job.
John

[nero]

Absolutely lovely Nero.
I have same model and aftermarket.
Really looking forward to opening box and letting rip.
You're doing a great job.
John

Thanks for the nice comment!! Its a really great kit and I have been enjoying it alot. I have another update ready and will post it soon.

[nero]

Update 2

A small update today. I finished with the smoke grenade launchers. These were part of the Eduard PE set and I think they turned out quite well.

I used a drill bit to roll the flat pe sheet until I arrived at the desired conical shape. After that I joined them to the PE base.





I quick comparison to the original kit part.



I used the same method also for the launcher attached to the turret. I used the kit part in order to bend the launcher brackets into the desired correct position and then attached the launch tubes with Tamiya's CA glue.

[Paul]

Great work, those smoke launchers look great

[Coen]

They look like smoke mine launchers to me.
You could plumb them if you want. A little piece of wire goes a long way.

[nero]

They look like smoke mine launchers to me.
You could plumb them if you want. A little piece of wire goes a long way.

Well I did just buy some wire... now I gotta do a little research on them. Thanks for the suggestion mate!!!

[Donkeywalloper]

Superb work Alex, really superb.
The trick with using the original part is inspirational (plus the tool bit).
I'm further behind on this model mate so am very impressed with your work.
John

[Donkeywalloper]

They look like smoke mine launchers to me.
You could plumb them if you want. A little piece of wire goes a long way.

Hi Mike

Being a font of all knowledge.
Trying to sound not to dumb, but what goes down the end of the Smoke Discharger?
I'm thinking a Coke Can sized object?
I suppose some would be "Primed" for use and some "Discharged"?
Can't find any photos showing this part with "whats down the end" so to speak.
Many thanks,
John

[nero]

Superb work Alex, really superb.
The trick with using the original part is inspirational (plus the tool bit).
I'm further behind on this model mate so am very impressed with your work.
John

Thanks for the kind words John! I hope I will be able to continue the build soon. Most of my hobby tools are still in transit along with the rest of my belongings. Hopefully they will arrive soon so that I can continue with the build.

Regarding the smoke mine / grenade launcher, I would also really like to know how the mechanism works. I think John you are on the right track though.

[PaulAyrey]

You're doing well, great work with the PE

[Coen]

Superb work Alex, really superb.
The trick with using the original part is inspirational (plus the tool bit).
I'm further behind on this model mate so am very impressed with your work.
John

Thanks for the kind words John! I hope I will be able to continue the build soon. Most of my hobby tools are still in transit along with the rest of my belongings. Hopefully they will arrive soon so that I can continue with the build.

Regarding the smoke mine / grenade launcher, I would also really like to know how the mechanism works. I think John you are on the right track though.

It was more of a large soup tin sized container than a pop can. Here's a schematic that the Master of Tigers Mr. Byrden did up. It give a good idea as to how they worked.
http://tiger1.info/EN/S-mine-launchers.html

And here is the actual mine itself. Though the small stem with prongs wasn't used on Tigers.

http://tiger1.info/EN/S-mine-for-Tiger.html

[Donkeywalloper]

Wow! cheers Mike. More than I could ask for mate.
Thank you so much for all of this.
Good to hear from you as well Nero.
John