1:16 Heng Long Tiger I makeover. Conversion to lateTiger I - FINISHED

This Tiger will be the last and will take a little while to do. It will have a full interior (got to do one sometime), and will involve a number of changes to the hull and turret. These will become obvious as we proceed. I have a number of items from the Verlinden Tiger that will fit the scale nicely, most particularly the later cupola and mantlet. I will order the aftermarket goodies at the end of next week. These will involve a lot of metal so this will be a heavy little beastie! I will plug away at this while I do other projects so I think it will be finished some time close to Christmas. I will be depicting one of those newish looking LAHTigers rolling up the hill heading towards the front in Normandy.
Photos to follow (I promise)

grover wrote: What scale is this Bish?

I do believe it will be 1/16 as I don't think hl do any others, makes me think I really should do something with my 2

Yep, 1:16. I should have loaded the photos and it would have been obvious. I've ordered the aftermarket stuff ahead of time so I have everything here I'm getting in for it. Then I can plug away at things at my leisure. Grover, it's the same Tiger as the other two, the Kursk early and the Hybrid F05.

The aftermarket stuff includes metal drive sprockets and idlers, metal road wheels as per F05, metal tracks (late) as I really can't get away with the plastic early ones as I did on the Hybrid, metal forward hatches so you can see something of the forward crew area, metal final drive protective armour covers (you'll see what I mean when they arrive), and a replacement barrel. This with postage, costs more than the tank, but that's okay, it's a one off. I'll need a crane to lift the thing, but thankfully the plastic hull with be strong enough when glued together to hold it all. I really wish I had blueprints, but I don't know how to get hold of them and I've spent the money on the aftermarkets. I'm really hoping that the engine I made for the Verlinden Tiger is not too big. I'll have to check it with the 1:35 ones I have. At least I know the layout of this interior like the back of my hand. I've built a few and they are pretty straight forward once you have the right dimensions. Lots of fun ahead.

And just two photos to show the before thingy. Its now in the usual bits. I need to completely clear the interior surfaces of the hull and turret. I will have the same problem with the turret as with the Hybrid in that I'll not be able to finalise things until the interior is completed. I will not need to create the false surface as I did on the hybrid as the zimmerit will cover up many evils. I am toying with the idea of perhaps cutting the roof of the turret away as I will need to do with the hull so that I can build things into place rather than trying to lower the walls down onto things. This may change things around in a happy way so that I can sort turret floor and walls before closing up. I shall see how it goes. Again, I'm super tired from work so am rambling here, it will all make more sense has I post update pictures.
First photos
What a new one looks like and the spare bits waiting for their hour.

Nice !
you should get this book .
haynes.com.au/prod2063.htm



www.scribd.com/doc/135852263/Tiger-Tank-...nual-Haynes-2011-BBS

I got that one, good book.

I should indeed. I shall look into it. Does it have all the variations?

All the bits are now in the mail so I've started where my fancy lays, getting the hard stuff done on the turret. I've called this post the Once and future turret. The turret has been cut up and the features removed from the roof. The bin cupola mounting has gone and the cast turret adjusted and installed. The mounting for the loader's hatch has been adjusted too, by removing the earlier skirt around the hatch and lowering the hatch into the roof to make it more flush and less of a target. This was the reason the bin cupola was ditched too. The periscope hole has also been drilled out forward of the loader's hatch. The Verlinden mantlet has been narrowed , it's height and width being spot on and the barrel has been removed from the kit mantlet and given a slieve as it should have, fitting perfectly to the mantlet. Once the replacement barrel arrives I will drill everything out so that it can be fitted. The kit barrel will then be cut away as per the Hybrid build. I'm still tossing up whether to make this a later late or just a middle of the run late Tiger. This will determine whether I use the kit muzzle as I did for the Hybrid or the later muzzle that comes with the barrel. The bin is too large for the turret, but will happily cut down to size. It is a real gift. I remember the pain I went through enlarging the kit bin to bring it up to production size.
It's funny to think that all this work is actually on the preliminary external work so that i can start the build.

Photos
The once and future turret

And



The work begins

No, that's being realistic about the fact that I can't keep building these large scale ones. This one is having everything thrown at it as there won't be any others no matter what I may want. I still have plenty of things I can do with all of them after this, but sadly I have to be smart about it. I also have a nice stash and a whole bunch of kits to finish so there is plenty of modelling to do in the coming years.

Heehee, the trick to carving this up is to make sure that you still have enough in place to provide the structure and strength you need to put it back together. This way actually gives you access to the bits and pieces to remove, I couldn't remove cupolas and crew hatches etc without out going this way.

I've resized the turret bin so I'll be able to move onto the turret floor and cutting out the correct sized hole in the bottom of it. I'll then cut out the loader's escape hatch on the turret side and attach the hull sides to the floor using the turret basket on the rear to give it all strength. I will add a strip of plastic around the inside of the turret to give extra strength and thickness. At present opening up the side of the turret will expose the thinness of the walls. This will look a bit better when I have added the inner strip of plastic and also the exterior plastic strip as per the Hybrid turret. The zimmerit will be added to this outer strip. I'll have to make the later flat turret side hatch as the one with the kit is the earlier version. The outer strip of plastic will also hide the holes where the commander's pistol port used to be. It was dropped on the later turrets. Photos to follow.

Bishop wrote: won't be any others no matter what I may want. .

How about this beast.

Torro makes an RC one of these that has the correct dimensions, but it costs a fortune. If I saw one of these Trumpeter ones I'd grab it with both hands. It would cost a fortune in postage as I haven't seen them in AU at all. That would be a dream build. The size of it is just wonderful!!

Interesting that the builder has made the old mistake of setting the barrel in just a little too far. Trumpeter obviously didn't get that quite right just as DML didn't

A large update as it is Christmas almost in July. The parts all came today. These include, wheels, tracks, front crew hatches, a barrel, and transmission armour plates and an air intake cover for the engine cover. I've sorted the barrel with the mantlet, removed the items from the hull top, finished the turret base, cut the hull top up, made the hole for the turret in the hull top, sorted the front glacis plate (opening up the MG ball mount and the driver vision block armour), and generally had a ball. Like a pig in mud. Gee I love these. I've also started on the hull floor and the clean out that is required. The front tow shackle mounts have also been sorted.

The aftermarket gear is a dream. Hats off yet again to Tank Army for the fabulous service. The tracks are amazing, and very very heavy. This thing will weigh a ton when done so I will have to make sure the hull in particular is very strong to support the weight. I have cut the roof out in such as way as to allow for this. Don't ask me how the crews ever lifted such things as tracks.
Photos







These wheels are gorgeous. The idlers are the later smaller ones

Next up the hull roof and the new hatches. These have great interior detail. Interestingly the mounting points for the hatches are molded into the underside of the roof yet the kit hatches are molded in place. All I need to do is add the rims for the hatches to sit on that you see around the openings. The hatches don't sit flush with the roof.
Photos

The road wheels as per the Hybrid and the amazing tracks. These are so cool. Also the hacked up engine deck covers awaiting their turn and the turret armoured ring that protects the base of the turret from shells. This comes from the Verlinden Tiger and so will need adjusting to get the size as required.
Photos

And finally the engine cover with intake cover just sitting there. It had six huge bolt heads which have been filed off and will be replaced. The second shot shows the final drive armoured mounting protectors you see on the front of the tank. Then there is the hull.
Photos







Before



And after

Xtr3meNZer wrote: Nice work, all those goodies look great! Those tracks are awesome - would they be used to RC? Look usable is all...?

Yes, these are the tracks you'd use force RC work.