CH (Dragon) Gruppe Fehrmann Tiger I

[wbill76]

Jan 2, 2016 11:24:47 GMT -5 dierk said:

Just saw there was an update on this thread - got excited and clicked on it...only to find more blah...I'm with BigJohn on this one - disconnect your keyboard until you've got something to show us

Fair enough! Here you go...

Every build has to start somewhere and usually with a German tank that usually involves the road wheels. Since I'm replacing the one-piece DS tracks with the workable MK tracks, I built up a short section of 10 links on the MK tracks to use as a fit gauge to make sure everything would play nice in this department. The MK set includes a jig that holds 5 links at a time and the guide horns are separate parts, so it's important to get things to line up properly to avoid problems down the road.



Then the 32 road wheel parts were removed from the sprues, cleaned up, and their mold seams removed with a sanding stick. The middle wheel halves were assembled together while the inner and outer wheels were left separate for obvious reasons for now. Two different styles of wheels are provided in the kit, I went with the G2-G6 combo because I had to pick one so it was a coin flip decision. The sprockets and idlers were also cleaned up and assembled to round out the day's efforts.



Next up will be adding the suspension bars into the lower hull.

[Leon]

Off to a good start Bill! Always nice to get the wheels out of the way.

[pt109]

Nice start Bill per your usual......great looking tracks, I like the MKs as well.

Paul

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon and Paul, feels good to be back on the ground for this one.

[dierk]

Looks like those tracks will keep you off the streets and out of trouble for a while - worth the effort though as they look the business!
I wonder if the expression 'wheels withhin wheels' was the inspiration behind the arrangement of road-wheels of German tanks?

[bigjohn]

Ok, I feel much better! Got a Tiger "fix" this morning! Nice to see your done with the road wheels and can now make some progress.

[wbill76]

BJ, glad to be of service to avoid any withdrawal issues!

Jan 3, 2016 4:38:16 GMT -5 dierk said:

Looks like those tracks will keep you off the streets and out of trouble for a while - worth the effort though as they look the business!
I wonder if the expression 'wheels withhin wheels' was the inspiration behind the arrangement of road-wheels of German tanks?

Germans did love the interleaved wheels on their heavies but the crews hated them...especially when one of the inner wheels needed to be removed! Can't say I blame them.

[deafpanzer]

Sorry for being late... you know why! Had to catch up on 7 pages of unread thread for last two days. LOL

Believe me I couldn't think of somebody better to build this white box Tiger. I just wanted to show you my appreciation for your hard work running the forum and building that cool kits tracking database that I still use today.

You have been "bookmarked". You know what it means? I will be following you very closely! (evil laughter)

[wbill76]

Didn't think it would take long for you to find out about this one Andy! Glad you're back in the properly refrigerated environment.

[wbill76]

Finished off the remaining work on the first 3 steps in the instructions that deal with the suspension. First order of business was installing all of the torsion bars and their locking parts. That involved another 32 pieces but produces a nicely working suspension in the process so it's worth it. I used a pair of smooth copper clamps to ensure the final drive housings sat flush. Dragon designed the hull to flex inward at the top to help with the fit with the top hull and that will need a sprue spreader to correct but I'll deal with that later when I'm ready to construct that part.



I applied some careful amounts of liquid glue to the ends of the torsion bars that go into the locking parts inside the hull and dry fit the road wheels to make sure everything would set level.



That sets things up beautifully for the NFL playoffs as those kinds of games make for a great opportunity to build tracks in my experience while the game is on in the background.

[Tojo72]

Looking good Bill,I'm getting there also,probably at about the same stage due to some bonus bench time

[Leon]

Suspension is looking good Bill! I really like those clamps,better than the bulky clothes pins I'm using.

[Deleted]

Nice work so far Bill. I have a White Box DAK Tiger in the stash that I need to finish this year myself. Will follow your work here with interest.

[wbill76]

Thanks Anthony, this is always the slogging through part for a Tiger project.

Leon, those little clips work wonders. Designed for soldering but work just as good as ordinary clamps.

mimuteman, glad to have you along as well!

[reserve]

So another Tigger, eh? I note your extra goodies also. Be keepin' an eye out here, me

It's a funny thing, I have built five Tiger 1's since I restarted the hobby in 2010 and I don't have one left. People seem to like them quite a bit and I give them away. Guess I'll have to do another one then

Regards,
Mark

[wbill76]

Jan 7, 2016 20:38:35 GMT -5 reserve said:

So another Tigger, eh? I note your extra goodies also. Be keepin' an eye out here, me

It's a funny thing, I have built five Tiger 1's since I restarted the hobby in 2010 and I don't have one left. People seem to like them quite a bit and I give them away. Guess I'll have to do another one then

Regards,
Mark

Tigers seem to be hot in 2016! I don't build them often myself. Last one was in 2013 and this one is Andy's fault. Like you I don't have any others in the stash.

[dierk]

Well done getting the 'boring' part of the build out of the way. No need to mention that it's looking good: I wouldn't expect anything less from you.
If you're right about Tigers being hot for 2016, I'd better dress warm, my bench is going to be a chilly place to be - no Tigers in my stash (last one I 'built' was 1980-something-or-other) and no plans to add any.

[wbill76]

Thanks Dierk! No worries about bench heat, I'm sure you have plenty of other hot green options to choose from.

[dierk]

Jan 8, 2016 9:57:59 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Thanks Dierk! No worries about bench heat, I'm sure you have plenty of other hot green options to choose from.

Not only that - some grey ones too

[sturmbird]

Jan 1, 2016 3:10:16 GMT -5 wouter said:

Well, in Europe even the Rye Field Tiger comes at a staggering 70+ euros...little bit cheaper but not much...50 dollars or less is much more interesting...

edit: I stand corrected...the one I was talking about comes with a full interior, so that makes it cheap indeed

Cheers

I have yet to see the 5003 kit from Rye Field. No idea about the quality. I know the rivet counters knocked it for missing a few things like a fire extinguisher. My eyeballs are not good enough to see things like that thru the hatch! Personally, I'm perfectly happy with just about any Dragon / AFV / Zvezda / or Tamiya Tiger I. What we need for Tasca to take on the Tiger like they did the Luchs.
gary

[wouter]

Tamiya Tigers are alright, but not quite up there in comparison with Dragon. Can't comment on the Rye or Zvezda ones. Speaking of the rivet counters...well, Rye claim to be very accurate, so if you forget something like a fire extinguisher I can understand the fuss...then again...easily adjusted ey

Oh and nice to see the running gear out of the way Bill, now it can only get more fun ey

Cheers

[wbill76]

It does Wouts, will take about 90 or so links per track side.

[c3p0.]

Todd told me you were going to put this white box beast together after I ask him about it and advised you we the expert and I showed follow you on this build

[armorguy]

Modelkasten tracks...Bill fella you're the man for the job !

[wbill76]

Jan 9, 2016 19:09:13 GMT -5 c3p0. said:

Todd told me you were going to put this white box beast together after I ask him about it and advised you we the expert and I showed follow you on this build

Glad to have you along! I can't claim to be a Tiger expert, there are guys out there who devote their entire hobby efforts and beyond to nothing but Tigers and can tell you the exact timestamp when a certain feature or rivet was added/deleted/modified in the production schedules. Tigers have always captured the modeler's imagination out of proportion to the actual numbers of them built and that's not likely to change anytime soon!

Jan 9, 2016 19:35:18 GMT -5 armorguy said:

Modelkasten tracks...Bill fella you're the man for the job !

Whiled away a couple of hours today on them in fact while watching the Chiefs beat up on the hapless Texans...tomorrow will see more track-making since there's 2 more games I can use as background noise as well.

[bigjohn]

Ahhh Man!!! Road wheels on a Tiga!

[wing_nut]

Waaay late here. Gotta watch to see if you remember how to do a tank.

[wbill76]

Jan 10, 2016 17:54:59 GMT -5 wing_nut said:

Waaay late here. Gotta watch to see if you remember how to do a tank.

No kidding!

[wbill76]

Wild Card weekend was as good a time as any to begin the time-consuming job of tackling the tracks. Between the 4 games I managed to get the first track built. The MK set calls for 95 links per side but I found that only 94 did the trick nicely for the first one. Test fits with the sprocket and idler held in place with some blue-tack shows the sag produced using the large idler wheel option on the suspension.



One down, one to go! Since the fenders weren't fitted to the Fehrmann, the tracks are going to be an important visual detail on this baby given their exposed nature.

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

Hey Tex I think the tracks look much better when they are just touching the top of the third road wheel.

Uncle Tony