Daily updateee

I can't feel my fingers!

Today I wanted to get the entire running gear done, but there were some bumps in the road. 

Long story short, one track is on, the other is ready to be assembled.

But let's start from the beginning.

The first thing I did was to make the Tiger sit on its butt, which was a common thing on German tanks with "tired" suspension. This was done by gluing the last swingarm a little higher (I glued it to the bumper stop which prevents it moving any higher) and the front swingarms were glued in their "normal" position. The remaining swingarms were aligned using a metal ruler. So, how do you tell if the Tiger is tired? Its last roadwheel sits higher than the idler! 

Then I dry-fitted the 2 inner rows of roadwheels and superglued them together. The gaps between each wheel are quite big so I used a gel type superglue and CA accelerator which is this cool little thing that you spray on and the superglue dries instantly. The 3rd row was glued with regular liquid cement and the outer 4 wheels are just blue-tacked in place so I can remove them later for easier painting. Gotta say I'm a huge fan of this method and it makes building German armor way more fun and easier! 

Also the idler, or track tensioning wheel swingarm was left dry-fitted so I can adjust the track tension once the model is painted and weathered, as Friul tracks tend to grow or shrink after they've been painted. 

The Friulmodel tracks need some work. Every single link needs to be drilled out on both ends, almost every guide tooth must be re-opened and there are 3 stumps on each link (remnants of the casting sprue) which have to be sliced off. A common feature on worn Tiger tracks is the absence of ice cleats which are closer to the hull, this irregular wear was probably due to weight distribution. So these had to be sliced off and sanded, again one by one. And then of course I made a simple plastic jig to chop equal lengths of 0.5mm copper wire to connect them together.

So yeah, ton of work, my fingers hurt from all the cleanup, but tomorrow I'll get the other track done and then I'll move onto the turret.

Phew!