CH (Dragon) Gruppe Fehrmann Tiger I

[wbill76]

AG, thanks for the comments as always!

Steve, a nice cup of Earl Grey with a bit of cream and one lump will do nicely! Story is about to heat up in the next couple of installments.

Andy, can't have a Tiger without its teeth!

[dierk]

Really am enjoying your detailed SBS of the construction Bill. Although you can keep your Earl Grey - can't beat Yorkshire Tea with milk and honey And because I'm not posh the milk goes in the cup first First non-British person to explain the last statement correctly gets a karma point

[wbill76]

Feb 5, 2016 12:22:17 GMT -5 dierk said:

Really am enjoying your detailed SBS of the construction Bill. Although you can keep your Earl Grey - can't beat Yorkshire Tea with milk and honey And because I'm not posh the milk goes in the cup first First non-British person to explain the last statement correctly gets a karma point

Every year I had to travel to Fiji for business (it sounds more exciting than it really was...the capital, Suva, is on the opposite end of the island from all the 'fun' stuff!) and the best hotel available was the Holiday Inn. They had this excellent breakfast buffet every morning that included access to the usual English tea stuff. It was part of my personal ritual each morning there to wake up with the tea and the sound of the surf coming through the open patio. The rest of the year it was always iced tea as a matter of course. As for your question about the milk going in first, I'm assuming that's because it comes straight out of the fridge as opposed to being in a 'special' separate container/tea set or similar?

[wbill76]

Today's mission was all about getting the rest of the turret done and ready to go. Building on the previous effort, I used a mechanical pencil and traced the outline of the pistol port so I could see it through the semi-transparent resin panel. This would help with determining what areas needed to be sanded/trimmed down later on. I also used the kit-supplied storage bin and outlined its edges to serve as a guide for where I needed to cut out the zim panels to show that bare area.



I started on the right side of the turret first since that panel was going to be left fully intact. Unlike the flat hull panels, the curves here plus the section I cut out for the exposed area at the rear made it more challenging to get it glued down. For these, I used a combination of CA gel and liquid glue along with clamps in different spots to get it to all snug down.



Once the glue had set, I added the Atak resin viewport in place of the kit's non-zimmed part.



Now for the left side. This one was trickier as I would be removing a lot of the panel in multiple spots. Before taking it apart, I took advantage of the fact that it has the slots already marked out for the spare track holders. This is something missing from the kit-provided turret because on the Late Tiger kit, there are molded-in depressions that take them, but that turret isn't used in this kit due to the hybrid combo. Mechanical pencil outlined the openings for the two holders that wouldn't have zim around them to create placeholder marks. The rear bin section was removed as well and some damaged area created at the top edge of the turret side.

After gluing the main chunk down with CA gel and liquid glue, I used the port opening in the turret side to cut out a matching opening in the zim panel so the port could install. The pencil outline created earlier let me know where to sand down the raised zim with a round needle file so the port would sit flush without having to cut a circular opening to match it. It's worth noting here that the kit instructions don't tell you about adding the port's plug, part A3, to the port itself (assuming you want to show the port closed like I do). I used some of the left-over zim to apply a pattern to the port itself after cutting out openings for its mount bolts and then installed the whole port into the opening with liquid glue. Worked like a charm!



Now that I was done with all the clamping and handling involved with the zim application, I added the remaining turret details called out in Steps 17-18 dealing with the hatches and ventilator. The commander's cupola is conveniently provided as a one-piece deal as a new part but it didn't quite match up to the opening in the turret roof. I had to trim down the 'legs' around its base so it would sit flush. I didn't bother with adding the clear glass or other interior bits since it would be closed up. I also added the bottom portions of the spare track holders, the top parts will get added later when the links are ready to be installed. The instructions can't make up their minds as to what these parts should be numbered as (first they are R4s, then one becomes G28, then they all switch back to R4s) in three different designations in the same step...I went with them all as R4s, so hopefully that won't cause an issue...it will be minor if it does. Last but not least, I used some scrap zim to create a small chunk on the forward turret area that more or less matches up with what shows on the reference photo as a little added detail.





And a quick little test to make sure everything is playing nice, I dry-fitted the turret to the hull.





Next up will be starting the painting process!

[Leon]

Nice work on the application of the turret zim Bill!

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon, always good to check off another milestone.

[wing_nut]

Milestones are always good. And you're handling them just fine. Looking good Bill.

[Jeff the 57th]

Coming together nicely. Can't wait to see how that Zimm looks under paint.

I remember I went to a fish camp with my Welsh grandpa when I was about 7 or so and all the dairy was in coolers with ice. Stuff got funky after a couple days. Gramps told me to add milk then tea to kill the bacteria if the milk was a little suspect. I'm not sure if that's something he picked up from a pretty modest upbringing or the war. Either way I just avoided the issue entirely and started drinking it black from there on out.

Jeff

[adt70hk]

Excellent work as always Bill!!

[dierk]

Looking splendidly tigeresque Bill! But WTH is a mechanical pencil? Is it one that works like a ballpoint: push the knob on the top and the stick of graphite gets pushed out the tip?
Solution to the milk question: when tea became affordable for the working-class masses, they still had earthen ware mugs that would break from the shock if you filled them with very hot liquids, so you put in a bit of milk first. The upper classes on the other hand got rich enough on the backs of the workers so they could afford bone-china cups, so they poured the tea in first and then the milk. Although everybody now has drinking vessels made from china the difference of pouring in milk first or last still remains - it's a funny old world, innit?

[wbill76]

Marc, right up until you have to leave the pavement!

Jeff, ah the joys of camp ice coolers. We used to go on annual fishing trips under similar circumstances but always with powdered milk.

Andrew, thanks as always!

Dierk, you've got it down on the mechanical pencil function. Makes sense on the tea/milk order, a British chicken or the egg situation!

[SMJmodeler]

wbill76: Here's that Earl Grey with a bit of cream and one lump for you, enjoy.  I settled back in and started sipping my cup as I read you latest update. Everything looks spot on chap!  My favorite is that small chunk of zim' on the upper part of the portside of the turret. Looking at the overall pic's with the turret in place it would've looked like something was missing if you DIDN'T add it.  Nice touch!

[wbill76]

Feb 8, 2016 10:19:45 GMT -5 SMJmodeler said:

wbill76:  My favorite is that small chunk of zim' on the upper part of the portside of the turret. Looking at the overall pic's with the turret in place it would've looked like something was missing if you DIDN'T add it.  Nice touch!

My thoughts exactly. That plus looking at the reference pics up close showed that the dark exposed area extended under the spare links convinced me that a small representative chunk could help explain why/how it was in that state.

[afvfan]

Great progress there, Bill.

[jsteinman]

[wbill76]

Thanks Bob and John!

[adt70hk]

Jan 13, 2016 11:15:06 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Andrew, this year is an interesting one. On the AFC side the teams remaining are the Chiefs, Broncos, Patriots, and Steelers. On the NFC it's the Packers, Seahawks, Panthers, and Cardinals. Hard to say who will make it all the way but my bet is Chiefs-Panthers or Chiefs-Cardinals.

Hi Bill

I thought I'd go back and check on your predictions for Sunday's game and I see you did manage to pick one of them for the final - just not the winners!!  

Andrew

[wbill76]

Feb 10, 2016 17:44:26 GMT -5 adt70hk said:

Jan 13, 2016 11:15:06 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Andrew, this year is an interesting one. On the AFC side the teams remaining are the Chiefs, Broncos, Patriots, and Steelers. On the NFC it's the Packers, Seahawks, Panthers, and Cardinals. Hard to say who will make it all the way but my bet is Chiefs-Panthers or Chiefs-Cardinals.

Hi Bill

I thought I'd go back and check on your predictions for Sunday's game and I see you did manage to pick one of them for the final - just not the winners!!  

Andrew

Not bad odds, while it may not have been the most exciting of matchups, I did enjoy the game. The Broncos definitely deserved the win!

[adt70hk]

Feb 10, 2016 21:08:47 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Feb 10, 2016 17:44:26 GMT -5 adt70hk said:

Hi Bill

I thought I'd go back and check on your predictions for Sunday's game and I see you did manage to pick one of them for the final - just not the winners!!  

Andrew

Not bad odds, while it may not have been the most exciting of matchups, I did enjoy the game. The Broncos definitely deserved the win!

Have to agree with you on the Broncos deserving the win.  Other than their one scoring drive the Panther's never looked like they were going to be able to move the ball consistently - I saw more than one shot of Newton on the sideline looking almost shell-shocked and seemingly bereft of ideas.

And it was definitely a game for the defences - I understand it was the lowest ever offensive yardage total for a wining team - just under 200? - and I also believe the highest number of sacks in the final game 11 or 12?   But speaking as a neutral, at least it wasn't a whitewash, it can get very tedious watching one team rack up dozens of points into the early hours of the morning.

What it did allow me to do though as a bonus was to get plenty of modelling time in.

My wife wife had long gone to bed.  My work laptop (much more powerful and bigger screen than my own) was set up in the middle set up of the dining room table streaming the BBC coverage and I was sat at one end modelling to my hearts content!!     I just wish they'd kick off at midday once in a while - going to bed at 4am gets a bit tedious even if you do take the next day off work!


Now onto the point of this forum - modelling!!  Is there any update on the big cat?

Andrew

[wbill76]

Not yet Andrew but should be able to get something new up in a couple days.

[reserve]

Excellent! You notice how everyone's doing Tiger 1's here lately?

Regards,
Mark

[wbill76]

Feb 12, 2016 16:40:50 GMT -5 reserve said:

Excellent! You notice how everyone's doing Tiger 1's here lately?

Regards,
Mark

Thanks Mark! Seems to have been a rather spontaneous phenomenon...kind of like trying to catch a bus I guess!

[wbill76]

Got the first round of paint work done today on this beast. First up is the ubiquitous 'wheels-on-a-stick' phase that is a requirement for any German WW2 tank project. Toothpicks + blobs of blue-tack poster putty and a block of foam sure makes life a lot easier. I used Model Master enamel Italian Dark Brown as my primer coat.



The turret and hull received the same primer coat treatment. Once that had touch dried, I used some small pieces of blue painter's tape to provide general masking and airbrushed a custom mix of enamel red oxide. The mix is one I keep on hand for needs just like this and is essentially a combination of Insignia Red and Flat Black at a roughly 90/10 ratio if I recall correctly...it's been around for a while!



This will get a chance to cure as I will have to do a lot more masking to preserve these areas with the follow-on coats of dark yellow and camo pattern colors. Definitely a start, though!

[Tojo72]

That wheel forest looks familiar.

[wbill76]

Feb 12, 2016 17:31:15 GMT -5 Tojo72 said:

That wheel forest looks familiar.

Deja vu for you Anthony! The only difference is I don't have to worry about rubber rims.

[c3p0.]

Feb 1, 2016 19:30:40 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

I spent some time today working on the main deck tool arrangements. These are dealt with mostly under Step 10 but also Step 12...and in a weird omission, the instructions have no Step 11. I think that sets a new standard of strangeness when it comes to Dragon kit instructions.

I filled in the mount holes for the S-mine launchers and added the kit-supplied PE mount plates as called out in Step 12. I also opted to use some generic Griffon PE clamps for the various tools as they are only 2-part vs. the kit-supplied PE clamps that are 3-part. I tested out each individual tool's placement and filled in a couple of open mount holes that weren't needed with Squadron White putty in different spots.

It may not look like much, but it's an important hurdle to clear. I still need to add the driver's and gunner's hatches along with the Bosch lights to round out this area.

Looking real nice with that PE! I have the same kit and my instructions have a step #11 but no diagram it says" Step 11 see what Bill does"

[Leon]

Nice to see the paint going on Bill! I like the red oxide.

[wbill76]

Glad to hear you've got that all covered now 3PO!

Leon, entering the fun stage now as I have decided to do two different camo patterns between the hull and turret. Lots to do!

[wbill76]

Round 2 in the painting department! This time around it was the dunkelgelb base coat went on. I used a custom mix of 50/50 MM Panzer Dunkelgelb and Light Gray and applied it in thin coats to build up the finish. The zimmerit dramatically increases the surface area in its own way vs. the normal flat panels so it also took a little longer than usual as a result.

Wheels-on-a-stick got their treatment first for the wheel surfaces that would be visible.



The red oxide areas on the hull and turret were masked off with a combination of blue painter's tape and poster blue-tack putty as needed. The masking is going to stay in place until after the camo is applied and faded, so I needed masking that was both flexible and durable.



Lots more paint work to come!

[Tojo72]

Looks good,I always thought MM Dunklegelb looked too much like pea soup on its own,your mix looks like it will stand up to weathering also.