Early Tiger 1 from sPzAbt 503

[Chris Quick]

Great work Chris
I love to see your Tiger

Groetjes,
Chris

[cahlfors]

Thanks Chris!
Glad you found your way to this desolate corner of the world!

After some waiting, I finally got a replacement sound card. The old one was beyond repair... And wow is it nice to see it steaming and hear it roaring again! Aaahhh! Silent movies just don''t cut it these days...
Too bad I missed this year's event at the Swedish panzer museum. Well, I was there, but the comments I got were "Wow, it sure sounds like a smooth runner" and "I can't believe how silent it is!". I'll tell ya...

Cheers,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

After a long gardening and house work summer (best summer ever! ), the garage season has finally started again.

After a while of working decently, I have had smoke problems again. It turned out that the Benedini smoke controller had a limit for the load it could take and that I had exceeded it. The result was that the smoke had a tendency to fade after a while of running, but of course, it gave up completely in the end.


Now, I have been experimenting with relays to handle the power instead:


This is not one of the tidier installations. Those of you who have done better can be really proud of your accomplishments. I envy you!

Relays seemed okay, since the technique employed is essentially just idle smoke and full smoke. However, it has turned out that just connecting the smoke elements in series to cut the voltage in half, produces too little idle smoke. Applying full voltage to half the smokers and turning the other half off completely at idle works, but has the serious disadvantage of having far too long latency to produce full smoke because of the cold elements. Some other technique is required...

The design work continues...

Thanks for your patience,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

While I am scratching my head over the smoker issue, I have started on something entirely different: The turret stowage bin.
There has been many years of head scratching over the bin as well, since I was not sure of what kind of bin my particular tiger had in july '43. Period photos give conflicting indications. At last I have been able to determine that tiger 131 had the standard bin at this time. There were other things that messed things up, such as an open tool box sitting on top of the bin in one photo, making it look very strange, indeed.

Anyway, assembling the turret bin is pure joy. Thanks Mike Stannard for producing such excellent etched brass kits! I am deeply impressed by the exact fit.

Here is the top under way:


A few more rivets and the lifting lug recess in place:


That was the easy part. Wrapping the sides around it proved much more difficult and is not completed yet. This picture shows the bin taking a cleanup bath after soldering:


Soldering is fun and I have learned new techniques. Again, thanks Mike for a great kit and for teaching me how to solder better!

Thanks for joining me in the bin!
/Chris

[cahlfors]

All wrapped up!


Rivets, rivets, rivets...


It's beginning to look like a - was it called a view master - where you could look at stereo photographs?

The gapth in the rivetth are intentional - the latches will go there eventually.

There has been plenty of soldering. Ohohoooo, what a little blowtorch can dohohooo...

Thanks for following!

/Chris

[mrTyko]

Great work
really like it

Robert

[cahlfors]

Thanks, Robert!

I wondered if there was anyone reading it...

/Chris

[mrTyko]

You're welcome
I like your Tiger a lot and likes to follow your work

Cheers Robert

[Deadbringer]

Thanks, Robert!

I wondered if there was anyone reading it...

/Chris

reading and admiring the Pictures

[cahlfors]

Thanks, guys!

Today, it's time to do the bottom. The wrap around the bin is made of very thin brass sheet, but the bottom is about 1mm thick and its soldering tabs have to be bent into position first. There are etched fold lines, so it's quite easy. You just have to make sure that they stand at exactly 90 degs. I used a small jewelers hammer and anvil to get it right. Plenty of metalworking stuff can be found here: http://www.konradw.se


Bottom adjusted and all set for soldering:


Here you can see the curved outer edge soldered in place. The yellow kapton tape holds the sides in place for soldering and can withstand temperatures up to 300 C:


The inside screws in place and has to be adjusted to fit. Each bin turns out a little different. I guess the idea to screw it in place, rather than soldering, is that you can open the bin up and do repairs etc, should it become necessary.


This concludes the big parts. I had to solder everything using a torch, despite Mikes explicit discouragement. My Weller electronics iron was just not up to the job, so I had no choice.

Next: The really tiny details with hatch lids, hinges and catches. The Weller will be perfect for this! May I not lose any of the details!

Thanks for checking in!

/Chris

[mrTyko]

Most impressive

You said that you learned new soldering techniques, you can share with you because I am a novice.
what materials, etc. needed. I want to solder brass

Have a nice day
Robert

Ps. By the way love the Cat

[cahlfors]

Allright - soldering school coming up! Watch the tips & trix section!

It turned out to be more torch work with the lids:


Hinges made and lids installed. Due to an error in the instructions, the hinges had to be repositioned, but once in place, they work perfectly without snagging anything.


Next, installation of the lid catches:


Catch you then!

/Chris

[mrTyko]

Incredible to bring the lid to fit the turret box so well
I think it's so neat with all the rivets you installed
Absolutely excellent job

Have a nice day
Robert

[cahlfors]

Assembling and tuning the catches took more effort than I thought.
When finally fine-soldering along the edges as per the instructions, it turned out again that my Weller was not up to the job.
The old torch again... The catches in place:


Final testing opening and closing hatches and latches. They work quite well!


Mounting brackets in place, test mounted on the model and now on to cleaning up the soldering with an abrasive wheel:


Down the hatch!

/Chris

[mrTyko]

I think I already have told you everything
So I just enjoy the pictures now

Hope to se your Tiger in real life some day

Robert