Dragon Tiger I Late 3-in-1

[wing_nut]

One way or another, I plan on watching this one. I still can't believe i've never built a Tiger. I will have to live vicariously through you...fr the moment.

[Deleted]

Have'nt built one myself, but will watch, because they were an awesome Tank!

[Deleted]

Update Bill ?

[wbill76]

Dupes, yep, it will be a squiggly Normandy three-tone pattern.

Nemo, that's the spirit! Glad to have you along!

Marc, happy to be of service! I think there's a written rule that you have to build at least 1 Tiger sometime in your lifetime, so you've got plenty of room to maneuver still!

Bruce, hope you enjoy as well, Tiger's have that mystique about them that's far greater than their actual contribution in terms of numbers and combat effectiveness...but they are still an awesome piece of hardware for their time.

Chris, welcome aboard as well!

Carl, incoming...see below.

[wbill76]

Off and rolling with the usual bane of German tank models, the road wheels! Following the instructions in Steps 1 and 3, the road wheels, sprockets, and idlers were assembled. I opted for the G5 style of wheel appropriate to a standard Late Tiger I as well as the small idler wheels consisting of parts B2-B3 as those are the correct type vs. the larger idler wheel option of G8-G7. I also assembled a short run of 10 of the MK workable links to ensure the sprockets would fit and were spaced properly as well as to test the fit of the paired road wheels.



Step 2 involves the installation of the workable torsion bar suspension, so the first order of business was removing the 16 bars from the sprue and cleaning up their three attachment points.



The bars were installed with glue used only on the square ends of the bars to allow them to remain workable. The road wheels were used to ensure the bars and suspension arms sat at the right height with no floaters and the glue allowed to set up.



Sunday's are the perfect days for working on tracks as I've found that football games make for great background noise and help break up the tedium of track assembly. Today had some good games on and I had the house to myself, so I started in on the MK workables. The set provides a jig for assembling 5 links at a time and the guide horns are separate. Both the MK instructions and the Dragon instructions call for 95 links for the full track run, but that works with the larger idler...the smaller idler doesn't need as many. I initially assembled 90 links and then a test fit revealed that another 3 were needed for 93 total on the left side. The right side may need one more due to the offset of the torsion bar system but I won't be sure until I build that track run next.



Test fit of the first track run with the movable idler and the sprocket held in place with blue tack showed everything playing nice so far.



Next will be finishing up the 2nd track and beginning work on the rest of the lower hull.

[TRM]

You snuck this one in there while the Boss and I were off messing around at the show!! Put me down on the passenger list....I will be taking this ride!!!

[bullardino]

Off to a very nice start, Bill

MK had the right idea, five pins in one time cuts a lot the assembly and makes it a lot easier. Are the pins fragile as always or did they improve them too?

[Deleted]

I like the looks of the MK tracks Bill .

[wouter]

oh yeah, glad to see the kitty with it's shoes on!

Cheers

[Deleted]

Nice!

[losboz]

I have yet to build this one so I'm along for the ride also

[elco]

I just love the running gear of this baby's. Great work so far ..almost reached my box with the Tige...nononono next year next year
Just going to enjoy this one!

[wbill76]

T, only just, you're right on time to catch the bus!

Luigi, the pins on these are pretty good sized. Have to make sure they are seated firmly all the way in though but that's not uncommon. The 4-pin sets work great to make the 5 link sections, they also provide the single pins needed to join up the sections together with handles, always a good thing. This is one of the very first sets MK produced, the number on them is SK-1!

Carl, thanks! They sit perfectly on the sprockets and road wheels and even have a nice weight to them for the full run.

Wouts, just one shoe...the other's in the works! Poor tiggy has to limp along for a little bit until it's finished.

Bruce and losboz, glad to have you along as well!

Elco, stay strong buddy!

[Deano]

Nice tidy work Bill , tis a great feeling to get the running gear out of the way on the big cats great pics too!

Deano

[thug626]

Yup! That settles it! I'm gonna have to find some MK's for the big Kitties in my stash! Gorgeous work!
Dave

[bullardino]

So they forgot, instead of learning

[wbill76]

Deano, yep, a necessary evil but one that opens up a lot of possibilities!

Dave, thanks as well, MK's have become my preferred mode for workable tracks. Since they are styrene, they don't require any special treatment in terms of painting and weathering but they can be a little more fragile vs. metal tracks, so there are trade-offs as always with this sort of thing.

Luigi, it depends on the set! Some of their sets have the pins to scale and on individual handles as opposed to the 4 at a time while others still use the same multi handle approach. Tiger tracks are pretty hefty so the pins match that size...now on a Pz I or II, the story will be different...on some of those sets, one pin is already molded on and you only have to add the 2nd one to make them workable for example. Each set is different in its own way as a result.

[`Boots`]

Great start so far Bill......so count me in , don`t ya just love that wheel and torsion bar prep work ..

[Deleted]

Bill , speaking of the weight that's the one beef I have Friuls is their weight . It was a problem on the Sd.Kfz. 7-2 build . The weight of the Friuls kept causing the idler to loosen and over sag the tracks .

[Leon]

Nice work on the shoes and running gear Bill.

[M1Carbine]

Ooooooooooo a big kitty cat....Im in for this one

Bob

[wbill76]

Boots, great to have you along as well! The suspension and wheels are nice but you've got to pay your dues to get the benefits!

Carl, I hear you buddy. Always a trade-off when it comes to using AM stuff that the original kit wasn't always designed to handle on its own.

Thanks Leon and Bob!

[detailfreak]

Awesome bill,you should easily finish this long before I even come close to completeing the Kurzmaul tiger.LOL which should be a breeze.

[panzerconor.]

Even with football on tv, I'm not sure I could do all those links and come out with my sanity. So props to you, sir. Looking forward to the next installment.

[bbd468]

WHOOO HOOOO....IM STOKED!!! Bill, its like a dream come true, your buildin a Tiger and i get to watch. About damn time Mr.!

Im really lookin forward to this Bill, ya got it off to a great start.....IM TOTALLY IN!!!

[Tobi]

Great work so far Bill! Looking forward for the camo job of yours.

I have some MK's myself, mainly for Shermans, but havn't tried assembly up to now. I find (in your case) the idea of gluing guide teeth to track links shocking to say the least. Those Japs and their Origami-tracks must be crazy.

Simply love my Fruitloops, and as soon as they have some Sherman shoes with duckbills the MK's will move to the garage sale, I'm quite sure.

Cheers,
Tobi

[Keith Christie]

Hey Bill, nice job so far,

I do like a nice tiger, count me in for the duration.

Best Regards

Keith.

[wbill76]

DF, I have every confidence that your Kurzmaul Tiger will get completed, just don't ask me by when.

Conor, just a matter of getting into a rhythm with the assembly process. Like any repetitive task, once you get in the groove, it goes pretty smoothly. Football games provide the perfect block of time plus background noise...just have to choose games when the Niners aren't playing!

Gary, LOL! Glad to have you on board. A Tiger build is a rare thing for me so glad you're getting the chance you've been waiting for.

Tobi, MK Sherman tracks can be a brutal assembly process from what I understand and I don't blame you for potentially swapping them out. Given the technological limits of molding open horn guide teeth at the time the MK molds were designed, separate horns were their only real option. This was before the advent of slide mold technology and things like Dragon's Magic Track approach of course!

Keith, welcome to the party!

[danb.]

Great start on the Tiger Bill now that the wheels are done and dusted the fun shal now commence keep the fine work coming buddy

Dan B

[wbill76]

Thanks Dan! Dealing with the wheels and suspension is still 'fun' in terms of it being part of the build...it gives you time to sit and ponder the meaning of the universe while doing the repetitions!