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Tiger 1 turret project

8K views 37 replies 10 participants last post by  47lincsled 
#1 ·
Last month I bought a FOA tiger tank turret,I assume it's probably an older unit,the resin castings aren't the best I've ever seen and the mantlet is blow mold styrene, at one point someone super glued the barrel directly to the turret,they must have used a whole bottle of glue, the outfit I bought it from removed the barrel and mantlet and busted it up pretty bad, since I am waiting for the paint to cure on my VW ambulance I figured I would get a start on the turret.
I decided when I bought it that since I can't afford the whole tank I would build it as a turret bunker! I'll cast a concrete bunker and mount the turret on top of that!
First problem was cleaning up all the excess glue so I could make the barrel move. It isn't going to be accurate because I don't want to have to cut the inner mantlet off the turret,so the barrel and mantlet will pivot on it, they used a piece of plastic pipe to make the inner mantlet and the barrel extended through a slot cut into it, which wouldn't allow the barrel to elevate or depress,so the first order of business was to open the bottom of the turret so I could get inside to work on breach end of the barrel,so I cut a 6 foot circle out of the bottom of the turret,those were big turret bearings! I'm going to use a spring over the end of the barrel with a piece of threaded rod protruding that I can use to hold the barrel tight to the inner mantlet and still get some movement!
At the rate I'm gathering big projects I'm going to have to build on an extension to have room for everything!
 
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#3 ·
I bought the turret in it's present form, there are a lot of little things I didn't like about the work done so far, hatches don't close properly,the solid barrel mount, none of the castings were clean up enough, so while I'm waiting for paint to dry on the VW I have plenty of little things to do.
 
#4 ·
I actually have a picture of a Tiger turret mounted on a concrete base on my website: Tiger I Information Center - Photo Gallery Page 2 Scroll about half way down the page. It looks like they have metal ladder rungs made into the side of the concrete.

As far as I know the Germans never used bunker mounted Tiger turrets in combat, but they did use them for training purposes as shown in this picture. In fact, this is the only photo I have ever seen of a Tiger turret mounted on a concrete base.

That should make an interesting diorama. Please post some pictures!

Alan
 
#5 ·
I have seen that picture of the training bunker,I've spent hours online looking at different turret bunkers,looking for that perfect bunker, I have a few in mind. I'll probably build it as a separate diorama then incorporate it later since it's going to require at least a 4X4 base!
 
#6 ·
You can see how they mounted the mantlet on this model,it should all be one piece but they made it into two.
I epoxied an extra piece if pipe into the back end of the barrel drilled a hole across it,cut out some big washers from thick styrene,found a spring and used a piece of welding wire as a pin to keep it all together,it's going to need a couple pounds of weight to counter balance the barrel,I'm going to sand cast one out of lead so it will sort of look like the breach block.

 
#7 ·
One of the little things that was bugging me was the escape hatch door,it didn't have any interior details, any interior for that matter,it was a concave disc,and since I found a really good picture of what it should look like I had to fix it,I found a plastic base from something that was close to the diameter and it was thick enough to give it depth,I sanded it down to the correct contour and epoxied it on, then created the rest of the door latch,which is just a big sliding bar,held open or closed by two really big wing bolts, I found some really nice little screws to make the bolts out of but it turned out they were stainless,so I wasted an hour modifying them for nothing,they wouldn't take solder,so today I found some mild steel screws and modified them and soldered some 12 gauge copper wire across them for the handles.
Since I have put so much work into the escape hatch I've decided I am going to display it opened with the turret burned out!
After studying a bunch of different Panzerturm picture I've decided on the portable unit,it came with a 1 meter tall base then was placed on top of a 2 meter tall base unit,which had the doors cast into them.
 
#8 ·
After spending hours on line looking at the different turret bunkers I have decided that I am going to build the portable unit that the Germans made. It was built in two sections,an upper box which was mostly to mount the turret and store ammo, and the lower box which provided housing for three soldiers. The upper box was steel and shipped with the turret already mounted,the lower box could also be steel or concrete, a hole was dug into a hill side both pieces were dropped in and backfilled around, there was an small escape door in the front and a larger door in the rear for normal usage.
I built the upper box out of 1/4" foam board,I found my wife's hot glue gun works really good on this stuff, and it doesn't take as long as white glue to dry! The bottom box I made from 1 1/2" styrofoam,I wanted to use the pink or blue foam,but locally it's $40 a sheet,the white stuff is only $17!
I've been playing around with different stuff the coat the styrofoam so it looks like concrete,I tried plaster but it doesn't stick very well,but thin set mortar works great.I found some 1/6th scale 2X12's that I'm going to use to impress timber texture in the wet mortar so it looks like poured concrete.
I finally got my milliput from England,I was able to get five boxes delivered for the price of one box here in the states. So while I'm waiting for mortar to dry I can start putting the zimmerit on the turret!
 
#9 ·
After getting my boxes built I decided it wouldn't be that much extra work to build the interior for the sleeping compartment,it also had a blast door inside and a little generator,I couldn't find any war time pictures of the interior so I don't know exactly what kind of gen set it had, but I found some pictures of what must be a fairly common set,it came in a box so it couldn't be too big,I figured this would have been a perfect set for the bunker so I have spent the last couple of days scratch building one,it started out with a .049 gas engine I had laying around,then a lot of built up plastic pieces,as you can see there are many different types of plastic used,everything from a pill bottle to bits of spue, from the pictures it appears they were painted either brown or blue,or a combination of the two,I like the field blue color.
I have also added doors to the outside of the bottom portion,there is one large door in the back and a smaller escape hatch on the front. I also added 8 lifting hooks, all hand built from styrene.
 
#10 ·
It's impressive as hell. I've seen pics of the Panther turret bunkers in Italy, this makes me want to snoop around to see just how far they truly got with a Tiger turret. I figure mailalan is right, but I have a friend outside this hobby, who is a Tiger fanatic. I'll ask him to dig thru his library.
 
#11 ·
I've spent hours online looking at pictures and reading forum post and I'm pretty sure they never used a Tiger 1 turret as a bunker. But why should I let reality intrude upon my world!
My theory is that it was late in the war,the Germans couldn't find replacement engines and the panther turret meant for this bunker got held up in delivery,so they used what they had!
 
#12 ·
I finished the generator set today,not a perfect reproduction,but I think anyone that knows anything about German equipment would recognize it.
I started on the coal stove this afternoon,they are WT80 blast proof bunker stove,once I found a number for it I was able to find a lot of great pictures,couldn't find any actual dimensions but based on stuff around them in the pictures I think I got pretty close.
I have the interior of the bottom bunker section covered in cement, I'll do the outside before I start on the interior walls and bunks. I'm still looking for some good pictures of the bunks,I think they were just tubing frames but I can't find a picture of how they looked back then!
 
#13 ·
The other distinctive interior piece in the German bunkers was the WT80 pressure proof stove,when I fist started looking for pictures of German bunker I started seeing a stout looking stove,finally I found the type number and was able to find out a lot more about them,they are cast iron with massive hinges and door closures so that if an air burst occurred it would blow hot coals all over the bunker.
I never could find actual dimensions for one so I estimated off of the pictures,I made it 32 inches tall and 18 inches across,I found that 2 inch PVC pipe was perfect,I chucked it up in a lather and cut the grooves around it,then scratch built the doors and latch mechanisms,I started with a block of laminated styrene then roughed it out on a band saw,then I used a dremel to finish the shape. My poor little dremel has been severely overworked these last couple of weeks and it sucked a contact brush! Luckily I have a good friend that has all kinds of weird bits and pieces and he had a selection of brushes I could use as a starting point,I had to file it to the correct dimension,then replace the spring with one out of my ball point pen and resolder the end back onto the wire in the brush!
 
#14 ·
I've had to deal with the real world for the last couple of weeks and haven't had a lot of time to work on the bunker,I did finish the stove and pipes for it and I got my interior walls built,there was a exterior door as well as an interior door,the walls inside was made from 1 inch steel plate!
I was going to build the bunk beds frames out of 1/8th inch wire like they used in their regular bunkers until I finally found a copy of the book that deals with just the turret bunkers,there was one picture in there that showed wooden framed bunk beds that folded against the walls so that is what I will be doing.
 
#16 ·
I figured most people have never actually seen a WW2 German bunker stove,so here is a picture,like everything the Germans did it was a over engineered piece of art,they are cast iron with massive doors and hinges in case there was an explosion close by the pressure wave wouldn't blow the stove apart and scatter burning debris in the living quarters! There was also valves you could close in the pipes in two different places.
The exhaust pipe outside was two pieces,the smaller piece would slide down into the bigger one for transport and when they needed to turn the turret,it also had a catch basin for hand grenades at the bottom,so they didn't roll into the bunker!
I never could find a good picture of the front door,so I patterned it after their regular bunker doors,it opens and closes and the latch works!
 
#18 ·
Jimmy Bob, I saw those and was considering buying a couple until I found out that the correct bunks for the Panthertum are wooden framed bunks with wooden cross slats,I assume they had a straw filled mattress onto of that,until I bought the book "tank turret Fortifications" by Neil Short I had never actually seen a fitted out interior of the lower box,which housed the sleeping quarters and the gen set,I was going to base my bunks on the standard concrete bunker bed which were a tube framed affair with mesh support. I've been ripping 1/4 inch thick boards down to scale 2X4 for the frame and making 6 inch slats for the sleeping surface,I'm still trying to figure out how they hinged them so they would fold up against the walls to give them more room. I bought chain and eyelet pins at the craft store last week,I always find good things that I can use in my projects by walking the isles at either Joannes fabrics or Michaels,the only two sources I have to work with. I post some picture when I get the mounted. My wives is going to make me some straw fill mattresses!
 
#20 ·
Thanks for that link and the proper name Action man! I've come across links to that site all the time while looking for pictures,but the threads seem to go on forever! I'll start at the beginning of that one and work my way through it though.
I had originally planned to use the tube frame bunks,they are the only ones I ever found pictures of when looking for "bunker beds",there just doesn't seem to be very many pictures of the inside of a pantherturm!
I finished building 6 wooden frame bunks with wood slats,and I picked up some good looking chain at Jo Annes last time my wife was getting fabric,depending on weather I hope to get the bunks all hung tomorrow.
 
#21 ·
Well the support chain didn't work like I had hoped,those links are too darn small,especially when you are working down inside the bunker,I had planned to attach the chain to each outside eyelet then use the eyelet holding the bunk to the wall, but my hands are just too big to get in and thread those eyelet pins with chain, I use black thread once all the bunks are set,the chains are black and you can't see the thread.
I had planned on having my daughter that does jewelry do them for me but she spent yesterday afternoon in the ER after getting her shoulder mashed!
 
#24 ·
Verrrrrry cool build buddy! Nice work :)
There's a guy on YouTube called WW2HistoryHunter and he has unearthed a few bunkers and gone inside, you may be interested in his videos as most of the bunkers are in quite good condition, also one bunker still has the stove in complete condition.
Also I hope your daughter is doing ok :thumb
 
#26 ·
Between the weather getting cold and trying to get Christmas decorations up it's been hard to get out in the trailer to get anything done,but I finally got a couple hours yesterday and was able to get all the bunks hung from chains,now that I have these done I can get the measurements from them and attach the chains to the rest of the bunks before I mount them to the walls!
 
#27 ·
I have all six bunks mounted and the escape door in the front mounted,I only have a few small details to finish so I started preparing the diorama site,this bench used to be my model rail road layout,it and another 300 square feet of table top,it was all built in an old mobile home I got cheap, I thought I would finally be able to build my dream layout,and I had a really good start on it,double mainlines with lots of sidings, until the first time the temps hit 100 then the track warped and bowed and ripped all the nails out,I fought it for a couple years trying different things and finally gave up,I can't afford to keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer,so it sat idle for a couple years until I got into 1/6 scale,I ripped all the train stuff out and sold it on epay,which gave me a good start!
These bunkers were placed in a dug out hole then back filled with only the turret left exposed,the basis for this diorama is that they were in the process of burying it when it was over run by the US,I'm going to texture the sides so they look like earth,my model railroad skills come back into use,only a much bigger scale!
 
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