Vince's Tiger 1 late variant 2017

[Glen Clark]

Check out the Zimm on this Vince...

IMG_20191016_40229.jpg (87.76 KiB) Viewed 951 times

I worried how my Zimmerite looked untill I saw this.

Glen.

[mark lawson]

Glen the Saumur Tiger I has post war applied zimmerit this is not original, zimmerit was never near nor uniform in its layout, I still find it best to look at period pictures of zimmerit in books this is still by far the best way to see the layout.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Glen for the photo and Mark for the info.

Glen, did you finish yours also. Phil has finished his in super quick time and Brian has also finished his. I'm still lagging behind.

Vince

[Glen Clark]

Me too Vince,I'm playing with other toys at the moment so the tiger is on the back burner so to speak.



Glen.

[Vince Cutajar]

Even the best of plans gets shot down the drain!

I had hoped that this week I would finish and do a final assembly of all the mantlet components but it wasn't to be. All that remained to be done was to fit the six countersunk lock screws to the barrel sleeve. The countersunk screws I had planned to use started to look too large. So everything on hold and ordered some smaller screws from Germany and a very small carbide countersink tool from China. Still, I did a temporary assembly to see how it looks and also to see if there are any problems.

So instead, whilst waiting for the things to come, I started prepping the turret for paint and zimmeritt. Today I fitted the turret spare track links to mark their position and leave the lower bracket in place.

The modification I did to the upper track link holders worked like a charm and I do not need to screw the track links to the turret. I am now wondering if on the real thing zimmeritt was actually applied behind the spare track links? Trying to look for a period photo of a late Tiger with missing spare track links from the turret.

Fitted also the lower brackets of the turret bin.

Next was the escape hatch. Good thing I tried this because I found that with the parts painted, it did not fit anymore to the turret. I always fall for it. A little fettling and a touch up of the paint solved it.

As I was at it, I thought it would be best to check again if the turret roof still fitted.

It fitted nicely although there is a spot at the back where a little light sanding would not go amiss.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Just to answer my own question which I had in the previous post. From period photos, it seems that the zimmeritt was actually applied to the turret behind the spare tracks. I guess this is going to create another problem for me but we'll see.

Also, looking at these photos, would I be correct in saying that the zimmeritt vertical lines on the turret are spaced wider as compared to the hull zimmeritt??

Vince

[mark lawson]

turret zimmereit was done in two types of spacing the first being the same as the hull the second was wider and also had a larger spacing their should be no vertical lines , I will post a picture latter.

[Vince Cutajar]

That would be great Mark.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

So Mark, just to see if I have understood correctly, if I use the same pattern as the hull for the turret then I should be OK.

Vince

[Simon Peck]

Hi Vince,

I’m not home so don’t have my usual references to hand. It seems some Tigers had turret zimmerit that matched the hull zim, same pattern. While others (most it seems from pics) had a broader, bolder pattern. Why, I don’t know. All depends on which specific Tiger you’re modelling?

Hope these pics are of some help.

Cheers,

Simon

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Simon for that info. Would prefer to use the same pattern.

I am not modelling any specific Tiger although I have the paint masks for the markings of this one:-
2 .komp . schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 102, 04, 1944 France

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Yesterday was an especially good day.

Took a deep breath and did all the zimmeritt on the turret wrap. Everything went as planned and all the preparation I did was a great help. Today I cleaned it up a little by removing some excesses and giving it a light sanding. All but one of the spare track links still fitted perfectly. The other one needed some light fettling of the zim to make it fit.

That was a big load off my mind.

Vince

[Marco Peter]

Lookin' particularly nice!

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Marco.

Did you finish renovating your 'Konan'?

Vince

[Marco Peter]

Ongoing project haha!