Operation Butcher

[Meter Rat]

Now both the Challenger and Abrams are running good, and because I live in Scotland, where the weather is none to clement I thought I would make a start on a project that has been languishing in a box in various houses for the last 3 years.
A while back the lady found an old Tiger at a car boot sale. She paid £15 for it. It was a bit of a wreck with broken, missing parts, no electrics, and poor repairs. But she liked the colour, and thought it looked like “the big one in the box, which I had started to build.
The main problem was a poorly repaired rear idler, which had been glued in at an angle. It succumbed eventually to bruit force and ignorance.
All in all, this old Tamiya Tiger looked as if it had come from the front. It did however provide a good chassis, so a plan was devised.

Continued in next post.

[Meter Rat]

Part 2.
The Hobby Boss Tiger was exhumed from the loft, and careful measurements were taken. Not! It was plonked over the remains of the Tamiya and it looked like it would fit.
So much butchering took place with a saw and knife. And with some careful trimming the rear panel was grafted onto the chassis, and to help align everything it was taped together with the body on. It fitted surprisingly well, with very little trimming. And a growing pile of spare bits. To be continued.

[Meter Rat]

Part 3.
An order was placed for some spare parts, and some detail parts.
Onward and upward. Next to come under the butchers tools was the back panel. I was working on the theory that it may be better detailed.

Marked up.


No going back now.




Again it fits, with a little trimming and filler.

More to follow. If anyone is following or interested in this rubbish.

[Panzermechaniker]

The Tiger 1 was my first Tamiya build and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Will be interested to see this re-build move along and the mods you do

[MrChef]

Me= "interested in this rubbish".

Plod along...

[Meter Rat]

Part 4 of Tiger bodgery.

Front mudguards were removed from the Tamiya body and fixed to the HB body.
Also modified to fit was the Tamiya gun and mantle. And the drivers vision port has been removed, to be replaced with a more detailed cast metal part. As the main gun, had been damaged at some point, and repaired with an external piece of tube, a better repair was made with an internal plastic tube. A lot of repair will be required on the gun brake.
So as it stands, we are progressing. Other small changes have been made, and a start has been made on the electronics..
More to follow, if you are all still awake?

[Meter Rat]

Who would have thought that HB track links would fit on Tamiya tracks? Then I got distracted by the PS Waverley passing the bottom of the garden. Regards Ian

[Meter Rat]

Part 5.

First issue. I had put the commanders hatch on the wrong way. So I corrected it.



Still not sure if it is right. Confirmation one way or the other please. Some scratch building was required to reposition the turret vent. And the hole filled in from the removed vent.



As I was unhappy with the repairs to the Tamiya gun barrel. The HB barrel was installed and connected to the Tamiya recoil mechanism, which thanks to help was made operational to the Heng Long receiver.



Finally, the escape hatch was installed, and made operational. I think this will be place for the on/off switch.



Next will be the installation of the turret turning motor, and the elevation unit. I was hoping to use the Tamiya elevation system, however it is too bulky to fit, so I will need to look at other options. Possibly using a Heng Long unit. As this is a budget build I do not want to invest in a servo elevation mechanism if I can help it. I also seem to have blown the circuit for the elevation unit, on the TK6.0 board. I will rob the TK6.0 board from my T72 as I want upgrade this to a TK7.1 so I can install some other functions to it. A flat plate will be made for the turret rotation motor, and it will be simply glued in place with a hot glue gun. No point in over complicating things.
Finally the lower hull and wheels have been sprayed with etch primer. Hopefully my parts from Forge Bear will arrive next week. And I need to go to the local motor factors to get some etch primer and red oxide paint



HMS Queen Elizabeth left Glen Masson, passing one of our local ferries and Jim Crow, where it had been rearming.


More of this rubbish to follow, if you are not all board or fed up.

[Meter Rat]

Part 5.
All electronics have been tested, and the tank has been ragged around the garden, on the pretence of testing. The bulk of the work has been completed, and after what seamed like weeks of filling and sanding and giving the etch coat of paint a week to dry, a coat of red primer was applied. Some of the smaller parts were also painted. Tamiya jack block has been used as it is more detailed than the HB one. Further research into the final colour is required.
And as I can. One of the UK’s Astute Class Submarines, with its attendant tug, passed by. The futility of war is never far away.

Regards Ian

[Meter Rat]

Part 6.
Proper learning mi duck, as we would say in Derbyshire.
Tank has been built up and ran around to ensure everything worked. Then taken back down for paint. Decided on sand coloured, and this is where it went wrong. I decided on trying to do some pre-chipping by using salt. Some bits looked good and I was satisfied with, the rest, because I rushed looked crap.



Happy with these parts, apart from then doing work on on the rear panel, where I needed to do some more work.



The rest looked even worse. So it was stripped back and I started again.



Salt was again used, in less quantity, and allowed to dry over night. Going to now paint in grey.
More of this rubbish, unless you tell me stop.

[SoCalBobS]

I've never used the salt technique. Looks good! (I do like your vernacularisms, too!)

[Meter Rat]

Over the last week and weekend I have managed to get some paint on. After being unhappy with the dunklegelb and my application of it, I decided to start again and redo it. Going back to plastic was hard work and the missus gen us a right row for waisting the oven cleaner. I’ll buy her some new, so she can get on wi cleaning the oven. Anyway it is now in grey, with some red oxide showing through. I still need to put rust on, the numbers and insignia need stencils. Tried to represent some battle damage with some shell impacts and I will damage the mudguards as though it has been in its first firefight and survived. Then because the sun does not shine very often on the west coast of Scotland, I took the opportunity to take somephotographs outside.

Regards Ian

[Meter Rat]

Took a five minute video of the Tiger yesterday, running in the cold and foggy weather on the Russian steppes.

https://youtu.be/n5lJHaVcOk4?si=N27kj3qD0I5_Kg9-

[SoCalBobS]

I thought that was called Scottish Sunlight!

[Meter Rat]

I thought that was called Scottish Sunlight!

🤣🤣🤣

It was the one day of the year, when the climate was not Tropical. Even the haggis were tucked in their burrows.

[cmdrcody]

🤣🤣🤣

It was the one day of the year, when the climate was not Tropical. Even the haggis were tucked in their burrows.

You put your national dish (savoury pudding) tucked away in a burrow? Who is going hungary tonight?

[Meter Rat]

It’s the end of the shooting season. Haggis hibernate this time of year. So all tucked up warm and cosy in their burrows. 🤥
One of Scotland’s other national dishes is on the menu tonight. Steak pie.