I just picked up the Tamiya Tiger 1 Early production kit. Nice kit, but why on earth do they mold the shovel and axe on the hull? Would it really be that much more trouble to separate them?

Know what you mean Rob, that's the only thing that can say against what is in the main a nice little kit.

I will cut / gring them off somehow and replace I think.

M.

I used The German tank tools set from Hauler.

I think it was Bruce Culver mentioned a technique of using the tip of a scalpel to scrape away the excess material under the tool. Takes a careful hand, but it works really well if you are gentle, and use a sharp, very pointed blade. Swann Morton do some wicked-looking hooked blades ( I think medically they are for cutting through sutures/stitches) which might give better access to items moulded close together.

Tim

www.fighting48th.com

that are excellent for this undercutting. You can use the hook blade, then deepen the cut with a fresh #11 to get the best separation. After painting and weathering, you will NOT be able to tell the tools were molded in place. Another trick is to take some fine brass wire, wrap it around a square mandrel (a square section rat-tail file would work), then cut the wire down the center of one of the sides and slip the new "tool clamps" off the mandrel, cement them to the side of the tool, and add a small chip of thin styrene or even wine bottle foil to make the clamp strap. It's easy and quick, faster than cutting out and cleaning up those PE clamps Aber is so fond of..... If you use a length of .010" (.25mm) thick Evergreen strip the right width, all you have to do is clip off as many pieces as you need. You can even adjust the length to fit the tools being "clamped." After you paint and weather, no one will know you spent about $.07 for an entire tank's worth of tool clamps. If you're really good, you can even make the clamps look open or closed, depending on which position you need. HTH, BC

Thanks Bruce for the tips.