Small Scale Armor

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

I’ve rather taken to DML’s new 1:72nd scale armor range. I had completely discounted small scale armor until I saw some superb 1:72 models in an issue of FSM two or three years ago, and started collecting the new DMLs for their interesting variety and very reasonable price.

I’ve not seen a great many diorama accessories or detail sets in 1:72 so far, nor PE or other details designed specifically to fit the DML products, however I may just be looking in the wrong places. Does anyone know of specific detail upgrades for these kits? What about figures and other accessories for 1:72?

Cheers,

Tbolt379

2

PE, resin conversions, aftermarket tires, tracks, PE zimmerit, resin zimmerit, aluminum barrels and figures have been available for 1/72 scale armor for quite some time. I have most of the AM items made for Dragon, Revell, Italeri (ex-Esci) and Trumpeter kits.

Goffy Models does some resin: http://goffymodel.czweb.org/index2.html
Eduard has done a 1/72 scale armor PE line for a long time: http://www.eduard.cz
Legends does resin updates for the Bradley and M48A3.
Atak does resin zimmerit sets for Revell, Dragon and Trumpeter kits.

Verlinden just released a resin Bradley reactive armor set I reviewed on Armorama last week.
Mig Productions does Tiger engine and interiors for the Revell kits.

ExtraTech and Part are two companies that do a lot of photo etch for 1/72 scale vehicles. Armo does resin conversions.

Check out this site to see various manufacturers’ aftermarket items: http://www.tracks-n-troops.com/

Our main 1/72 scale site, http://ontheway.us is down right now due to technical difficulties, but should be back on line shortly.

Here are some other small scale sites that will keep you busy:
http://smallscaleafv.com/
http://www.72scale.com/index.htm

Armorama.com and Missing Links both have forums dedicated to small scale aka “Braille Scale”. Armorama has quite a few 1/72 scale reviews on site (I did some of them).
http://www.armorama.com/
http://www.missing-lynx.com/

3

Forgot to post the link to the Aber aluminum barrels: http://www.airconnection.on.ca/Default.htm

Edit: you can also see the Atak zimmerit sets at the above site by clicking “resin” and the Part PE sets are at “photoetch”.

4

Hi Rob,

Strike a light! Here I was thinking small-scale armor must still be a new field…! It’s come a loooong way since I last slapped together a “minute disappointment” as I came to think of them!

I shall peruse what’s avalable – I can see a beautiful Tiger II with PE, turned barrel, the works, on a diorama base, with figures, and the whole lot taking up no more than six inches of shelf space!

Now, if only my eyesight will stand up to it!

TB

5

It’s not called Braille scale for nothing!

It never really left, most folks remember the Matchbox and Airfix kits. The quality was kicked up a notch in the mid 90s when Revell of Germany entered the market. At first they tried marketing the kits under Matchbox and Monogram labels. Some of these were not too good. They even boxed some Hasegawa and Matchbox kits under their own name just to increase their range.

Most of their new kits are really nice. Dragon just entered the market and their first few kits were not that great. Diecast metal hulls and motorization problems with the Abrams kits were not fiun to deal with. Dragon’s later kits are pretty good although some still have hiccups here and there. Many of Dragon’s latest kits include PE parts.

Trumpeter threw out just a few, the Elefant, Ferdinand, Zil-157 cargo and fueler, CA-30 cargo and fueler and a really nice LCM 3 and Famo.

6

I don’t know if Rob got this one yet but I picked up some 1/72 resin stuff at a show recently from HQ72 Resin Products. Set #AC003 - German AFV Accessories/WW2 - Helmets, packs, blankets, fuelcans, etc. He had lots of other stuff too like dio components bridges, walls, etc. I think the website is www.hobby-online.com

Good to see all these Braille scale threads lately [tup][:D]

7

Hi Rob and I-beam,

I have a few of the old Airfix kits in the large cardoard box I call my “boneyard,” the sad graveyard of the schlepped-together styrene of childhood… They were just too small for a child’s fingers and eyesight to manage, I guess, and in those days the swanky “new” Tamiya 1:35s were a bit intimidating!

I remember the range in the 90s under the Matchbox label, I was almost tempted to give one or two of them a go, but never succombed to the lure as the small size continued to awaken memories of scale-dependent inaccuracy and the magnification of manpulative error that comes with decreasing size. These days I scratchbuild, and actually planned a 1:15 Tiger to be built completely from raw stock, other than for detail accessories. But as the small guys were too small, the big guy is too big to even start on if I want to avoid moving out and living in the garage…

But with the new generation of 1:72s, with their suitably crisp moldings, commendable attention to detail and the growing range of aftermarket details, the small guys really have come into their own. They’re still significantly cheaper than, eg., the new Tamiya 1:48s, and by the looks of the review of the 1:48 Tiger in FSM recently, the 1:72s are maintaining a nearly-equivalent standard of detail. Also, at least in the case of DML, the rate of release of genuinely new products is high (it seems about as fast as Trumpeter release 1:35s, which is nothing short of amazing).

I agree, this is a fresh and very interesting area of the hobby!

At my local major hobby store, the display case had an unusual diorama a couple of years ago, an item which I’m unsure if it was ever actually built: the projected use of twin Tiger chassis as cross-country bearers for a super-heavy gun – I have no idea of its designation, but it was pretty spectacular – and it had been built in 1:72, heaps cheaper than at larger scale, and the whole thing was less than 18" long on the groundwork. There’s probably all sorts of projects that are better suited to the smaller scale.

I’ll go check out hobby-online – thanks for the addy.

Cheers,

TB379

8

Hopefully, On The Way’s website will get back online. They have an excellent kit list that will tell you if a particular kit is a rebox of a 70s or 80s era kit or a new tool and the approximate quality of the kit.

Many of Dragon’s 1/72 scale kits are superb, some are not too great even though they were issued in the last year or two. Revell’s Tiger I Ausf H and E and Tiger II Ausf B Porsche and Henschel are really nice kits.

I have Dragon’s Tiger I Late and BergeTiger, I have not built them yet, but word on the street is that the tracks are too tight. I built their SturmTiger and Panther G and those tracks were way too tight.

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Hi Rob,

I’ve stockpiled seven or eight DMLs, and made a start on two, one of their Abrams and their Tiger II Henschel. From what I’ve seen so far, they’re very pleasing visually, and the fit has been fine. I’ve not done anything with the running gear so far…

TB375

10

Rob, having built the Bergetiger, I can say for certain that the tracks are too tight. I did manage to use CA glue to glue them to the back top teeth of the drive sprocket so that a semi-acceptable, and partially realistic sag did occur, but I don’t know how long that will hold.

If you wish to see pics, I’ll post them for you to see.

11

Hi Duke,

If DML have managed to repeatedly get their figures wrong for the track lengths, I guess the next question, in all seriousness, is when will ModelKasten or AFV Club start to release replacement track sets, whether vinyl, link-and-length or click-fit working. The market is certainly ready to absorb such products.

TB379

12

There are several after market tracks availble. I am unsure about the Tiger, but I know there is PE tracks for the Panther, Panzer III and Panzer IV. CMK also makes replacement tracks for the Panzer IV (vinyl) and there are several resin replacement tracks available as well. PST even started issuing their excellent IS II/III tracks knowing that modelers who owned the Roden JS 3 would purchase replacement tracks.

Since I knew that all the Dragon Tiger kits basically shared the same lower hull, I knew I would have a problem with the Berge Tiger and Tiger I. Fore warned is fore armed. I plan on moving either the drive sprocket mount or idler whee mount inward a fraction to give the track some slack.

13

Thanks for that little piece of ammo as I just ordered a couple of dragon tiger’s/

14

Hi Rob,

Excellent idea! Until Tiger sets come along, that’s the way to go. (PE tracks? That sounds like a migraine looking for someone to happen to! I’ll go with vinyl or solid-cast links, in the name of mental health!)

Did you get DML’s Tiger I with zimmerit? I have the kit but haven’t taken a look at the reproduction yet. Scaling zimmerit down to 1:72 will call for considerable finesse if the scale is to be at all credible.

Cheers,

TB379

15

Oh man, I shoulda thought of that! Thanks for the idea Rob!

I agree about PE tracks! I’m not sure I could handle them at this stage of my ability.

TB, Dragon seemed to do pretty well scaling down the zimm to 1/72 scale, as you can see on my Bergetiger:

As you can see, they did a very fine job of it on the zimm. Your Tiger should look the same. Enjoy the build! I plan on getting a couple more in their Tiger range myself, since I need a few more to complete my line of Tigers.

16

Hi Duke,

Yes, they did do a pretty good job on the zimmerit! Most impressive given the tiny proportions of the pattern – look forward to doing a fineline camo job over the pattern on the Ausf. E. Thanks for the photos.

I think I now have the full set of DML Tigers with the exception of the recovery vehicle and the Tiger (P)-based assault guns, if you want to consider them as part of the Tiger family. IIRC they were DML’s first 1:72 issues, and may suffer from early-days woes. Didn’t they come in for a re-tool recently?

I also have the Jadgpanther and Challenger II/KFOR, both of which should be colourful subjects under a fine camo-job. The great thing about small scale armor is the job is also appropriately small, you can launch a project and, unless you’re going to hyperdetail, you can have it finished in a few evenings of work. It would be interesting to compare this to 1:72 aircraft modeling, which, at least in my impression, seems to take longer… Anybody have any thoughts on this? A more direct comparison might be to compare 1:72 armor to 1:144 aircraft (small subjects), but the armor wins hands down as the sacrifices in detail in reducing, i.e., a Spitfire, to 1:144 are essentially prohibitive to realism.

Happy building,

TB379

17

Dragon retooled the Elefant but not the Ferdinand. The original Elefant and Ferdinand were kits #7201 and 7202 and only differed in a couple of sprue parts that were added or deleted depending on the version you purchased. The tracks were way too loose, almost a good 1/8 to a 1/4 inch. The instructions were vague and just used photos of the in progress kit to show part placement (not very effective in 1/72 scale armor).

The Elefant was retooled as part of their Armor Pro series as kit #7253. Dragon added link and length tracks in addition to the too loose vinyl tracks. They added some photo etch parts and did some retooling of the molds. Unfortunately, they did not add the zimmerit that was seen on Elefants.

I’ve got the original Dragon Elefant, the Trumpeter Elefant and the new Dragon Elefant. I think the Trumpeter Elefant is superior. I’ve also got the Atak zimmerit for the Dragon Elefant, Part PE for the Trumpeter Elefant, Eduard PE for the Dragon Elefant and the Eduard PE zimmerit set for the Dragon Elefant. There is no lack of aftermarket for the Elefant in 1/72 scale.

I’ve also got a couple of Aber barrels for my Elefant kits, 72L05: http://www.airconnection.on.ca/airconnection_aber_ab72L05.htm

18

BTW, the PE tracks are not that bad. They are laid out like a row of staples. You fold the ends into the center and the tips of the ends fold up to become the center guide teeth. The hollow horned tracks look really neat.

19

You’re welcome for the pics, Tbolt. Glad I could show them to you. In reference to a comparison to 1/72 scale aircraft, the smaller aircraft, (WWII fighters, L/O aircraft) usually don’t take me that much more time than Armor. Jets are usually about another 1-3 days of work, while big jobs like Bombers and cargo aircraft are usually a week or more. For instance, I’m working on a C-119 Boxcar that is taking longer than expected because I took more time to hinge the rear clamshell doors, as well as dealt with a few other issues in the kit itself. Hopefully, I’ll have it done in another day or so; I’m getting sick of picking it up!

Looking forward to seeing pics of your work!

20

Thunderbolt, was it a model of this:

If it was Wow, I’d would love to see that. It was proposed to build a K5 railgun with tiger II wheel/track mechs. It was never built though but that doesn’t mean a model can’t be made of it. Everything is already available to kitbash this thing in 1/144, 1/72 or even 1/35.

Ditto on all the comments about the short dragon vinyl tracks. The thing that gets me is they are so nice and detailed.

Here is my jagdpanther with the tight tracks
Here is the finished model - tracks tied down with thread and CA