Yesterday I received the turret roof and pannier floors back from the cutters.
Both these parts on in the original kit were made from 3mm steel. As I'm trying to reduce the steel content in the Tiger to save weight and reduce the rustablility, I drew up replacement parts to be cut from aluminium.
The pannier floors are quite straightforward replacements. This turret roof is a bit more involved, as the loaders hatch sits in a recess on the roof. This is quite obvious when viewing the roof of the Bovington Tiger, so it was something I decided to build into this restoration.
The turret roof is made from two sheets of aluminium, the lower one is 2mm, the upper 1mm. The idea is that the two will be bonded together to make a single rigid part.
This is Mike Stannard's excellent loaders hatch sitting in its nice new recess:
This is view from the rear of the Bovington Tiger:
And this is a similar view from the rear of my replacement parts:
The upper section is 5mm smaller all around, so that I can include a weld seam which is integral to the the turret lid. The sloped front has the holes for the gun travel lock, as well as another lateral 5mm gap for the front weld seam.
Adrian.