The track hangers droop down when they’re empty and the locking bar is not pushed in.
When they hold a track link - or when the bar is pushed in - their underside is exactly level. And the bar is at 45 degrees.
David
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David, thanks that will be very useful to incorporate in next Tiger build, probably a mid or a late.
I’ll make a jig for parts alignment to set the dangle angle and handle angle when scratch building the parts, next time around.
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Top of cupola
The commander’s hatch from the kit.
The SUCK is strong with the kit commander’s hatch. OTM provides a PE alternative with parts 37a to 37p plus scratch spings & pins to make a workable version. Definitely won’t be going workable, it might be durable if it was soldered, I’m very skeptical of that using CA glue.
Laminated parts 37a to 37c together to make hatch, cut a stainless steel pin for the hinge pin, bend annealed PE to fit pin and glue into place. AA MG34 mounts cut from stainless steel tubing.
Later I suspected the kits clocking of the hatch is slightly askew, probably ~25 degrees or so. I followed the kit’s part orientation.
Used styrene rod as hinge pin for the hatch mechanism, beading wire rolled around a dress pin for the spring and chopped out a small section of the dress pin to use as the spring pin. Tacked together with CA.
Additional hinge, prior parts assembled plus latch mechanism.
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Thats some very delicate work Wade 
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That is some incredible assembly Wade. What you’ve done there takes skill, which can be learned, but it also takes ingenuity, which must be a natural talent. You, sir, are very talented.
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Agreed.
Dude, I’m flabbergasted.
Edited to add:
There’s a word for this kind of work.
It’s chraftmanship
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Johnny, Matt & Al, thank you. The kind comments truly help keep the fires stoked on this grinding Tiger build. Likewise, appreciate taking the time to check the thread. A+++
With the rear stowage box remaining plus house keeping to replace a wing nut or two, there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel for the building phrase.
Just for fun, here’s my review of the 1970’s 1/35 Tamiya early Tiger 1 kit in today’s model building landscape.
Tamiya
1 Price ~$35 (fleabay + shipping)
5 Instructions - very nice vintage Tamiya
3 Molding Quality - flash, sinks but decent
2 Plastic Quality - hard & brittle
3 Parts Clean Up - usable parts, easy to clean
2 Ease of build - out box 5, very easy but tweaks needed are excessive and complicate the build
3 Accuracy - main gun way too big, wrong number of wheels, cupola no vision slits etc, would be zero but that bird bath recess around the loaders hatch is sweet and many newer kits don’t have that option. So +1 point for the old girl. Main parts like hull, turret aren’t too bad on a very basic inspection. The bones are decent.
4 Fit - it all fits surprisingly well
0 Doesn’t Require Aftermarket - every part needs help by today’s standards
0 Details built Out of the Box - very weak here
23 points out of 50 possible
Generally Not Recommended, far too many newer kits with better everything out of the box. Kit still occasionally has a place as a nostalgia build, challenge build or test bed.
Opinion from previously building this kit a few times and this build thread. YMMV
Cheers 
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I’ve said it before, your reviews are always fair and so concise. They really should be collated in a single place for ease of reference.
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Wade,
How do you do all this stuff? You do amazing work. I could never do what you and several others do on this forum. Wow!
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@Chepster , thank you. I try to be fair with my review comments. Eventually, if I get around to buying a PC/Laptop again, I’ll try to do that.
@RandyT , Randy, thank you. Majority of it is just basic techniques picked over time as Matt mentioned. With experience comes insights to breakdown the tasks so it’s just applying the basic techniques. The right tools, StarBond Black & debonder, small paint brush for applying and removing debonder, a cutting sheet, parts bender & good #15 blade make make working with PE parts pretty straight forward instead of a Nightmare.
I really hated PE until learning the StarBond Black technique.
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Slap the PE parts together with StarBond Black CA
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Say to yourself My God! That looks horrible with black super glue smeared everywhere! However, that’s the key as one can see the black super glue and can’t see the mess from regular CA.
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Put a little debonder on a small brush. Wipe away the excess glue. The result is amazingly clean and neat.
The white smoke dischargers on the Tiger were almost gray because I jacked them up with too much black CA then dropped them into a pile of plastic shavings on the desk. Whole mess wiped away nice with De-bonder including my fingers prints all over the parts!
There’s probably other brands that work as well but there’s definitely some border line products that won’t perform as well as StarBond.
Hopefully that helps, I tend to get long winded about products that work and make the hobby easier.
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Rear Stowage Bin
The rear stowage bin had four latches on the early model and following Tiger’s. The Initials and very early had other arrangements. The latch type on the rear stowage was also used in other places on the Tiger 1 like the air pre-cleaner hoses and a rear tool box. OTM plainly states in the instructions they DID NOT provide enough latches to do all the latches on the tank. I still find that statement as hilarious in 2024 as I did back in 1990 when the sheet was a new PE product. I mean I paid for a PE detail set and to detail the model but the set doesn’t include enough parts to do all the details, and tells you so. It does refer one to another OTM product to purchase for the missing latches.
I felt the best way to do this was to attach the hooks and hang the latches from them. The PE was lightly roasted with a Bic lighter to anneal it.
Placing the latch first and trying to fit the hook seemed a recipe for problems. Clamp the PE for the hook, lift edge, slip small stainless tube under PE and press to form hook.
All of the parts for the four latches are removed and deburred. I like to cut and trim on an acrylic tile as it doesn’t dull the #15 xacto’s as quickly. Then a light touch of file as needed for burrs. Working on tape sticky side up helps with positioning parts. It also makes keeping all the parts together and secure easy. Slid parts together to make latch, drop of black CA, followed with a drop of accelerator to set and lock parts together.
The complete latch is hung from the hook and a drop of black CA applied to the back of the latch. This allows the latch to swing into position and basically self align. Check and tweak as sometimes the part will self align slightly off kilter.
Hooks & latches in place.
Often the rear bin was pad locked 
. A small u bolt was located with the clasp handle to allow locking.
Red - Acrylic tile for cutting surface
Dark Blue - Small Shop PE trapper for holding PE part securely when cutting it off of fret or trimming.
Light Blue - reversed masking tape to secure parts while working and waiting their turn in que.
Yellow - small u bolt fiddle bits on PE fret
#15 blade, the curved blade allows alignment flush with part. When aligned a simple rock down motion with a sharp blade allows a very clean snip. Parts are moved and placed on tape until needed. I use perfect tip (hand ground British medical grade) tweezers to pick up PE U bolts, dip end in black CA and place in position. Once positioned, flow a drop of accelerator into area to set u bolt in desired position.
Apologies for the wordy text but wanted to try to explain a process for working with small PE parts for folks interested.
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Still have house keeping for the model plus a session in the lathe for the gun barrel but here’s the mock up. Left the wheels and tracks off as we’ve already seen that.
Turret
Turret & Hull
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Wade, your knowledge definitely deserves to be shared! I have a monster wicked fast massive memory desktop PC that I work on. But for working on the web, do what I did - drop $79 on a HP Chromebook and everything you need to do online will be at your fingertips for the price of a good kit. It’s the logical, economical choice and would make your life 100% easier.
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Another remarkable SBS Wade. Your ability to share and explain clearly is definitely appreciated.
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I second Matt. 
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This Tiger is going to be the same as that Pzr IV you added so much scratch building to … To paint it will be a shame as that amazing detailing shouldn’t be hidden …
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Wade I appreciate the info on working with PE parts. I have a lot of PE but only have dared to use the screens. When I start building some of my Panthers I will try to use the PE sets i bought years ago.
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I think someone said it earlier, it already looks so fantastic naked how many triples will you need to fire up the airbrush? If I’d done anything half as good as this, I’m not sure I could go through with it.
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Matt & Ryan, that’s a good idea on the chrome book instead of PC. I’ll have to consider.
Johnny & Tim, I have to admit I’m not too excited about painting the 1970 Tamiya Tiger. However, it would be sort of fun to build the newer 1997 #35216 Tamiya early Tiger 1, paint it and have the old & new kits sidy by side on the display shelf.
Randy sweet! Sounds good.
Speaking of PE, I had to tidy up the hobbyroom today. Had the 1997 #35216 Tamiya early Tiger 1 kit out and carefully looked it over…
…I nearly screamed 
because another set of that old On The Mark Tiger 1 Photo-Etch was in the bottom of the box!
Pretty sure he’s talking about being faced with doing his 3rd set of On The Mark Tiger Photo-Etch.
Hopefully, by mid February can start the paint work. Will be on a road trip for a little while. After 29 years of not working on a Tiger 1 kit, it feels good to have the construction wrapped on this one.
I’d planned to take a Sherman kit to build but I can hear #35216 calling…or was that #35146?
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