A King Tiger crew of the 1st SS Pz. Div (LAH) inspects their handiwork of a knocked out Sherman as they stop momentarily to check their maps during the early stages of Operation Wacht und Rhein, or as it came to be known-The Battle of the Bulge.
Second dio post this week with really great photo background. Nice work there. And good lighting too.
I really like your groundwork,and the camo on the Tiger looks really well done,but I must say I can’t see anything on the Sherman that would denote it’s destruction,is there a shell hole ? Also the Sherman stowage needs to be secured,can’t just sit on the deck.
Overall everything looks a little too clean,I do like the figures also,maybe a few more infantry around ?
But certainly these are just my thoughts,just offering advice to tighten it all up.
Outstanding work on the figures.
Echoing Tojo72 here. I was admiring the dio. but couldn’t figure the demise the Sherman’s downfall. Maybe the sight of the Royal Tiger scared it to death. I know pretty bad, but I do really like your dio.[Y] Keep up the nice work.
Disregard… all I had to do was look a little closer. upper right or left front depending on your perspective, just below the hatch, nice big 88 hole.
Yep you found it. [:)]
Very nice dio! The ground work tied into the background is outstanding! Great job!
Nice dio but it could stand for some improvements. The Sherman looks too clean yet nothing shows that it has been knocked out. The Tiger could stand to have more weathering as well. Mud, snow on threads comes to mind. Other than that, it’s a pretty good set up overall.
I have the same suggestions to offer as the others, it’s a nice start, but both vehicles could use a little more weathering, and the Sherman is a little too clean, for having taken an 88 hit. I think it ought to be a little more burned out, too. Shermans were notoriously flammible.
If I may offer a suggestion for your title, in case you print anything up like a name plate, it’s actually, “Die Wacht am Rhein”, “The Watch on the Rhine”, it was an older soldier’s song from the Kaiserzeit; its theme was the Germans’ readiness to defend their Fatherland along the old natural frontier, the Rhine.
Read RX7850’s post. 
I don’t see the hole from the 88 
It looks like a good dio with good paint and terrain. With that said, a hit on a Ronson lighter with the powerful 88 would have shown a lot of fire damage. I also agree with the suggestions of more weathering.
Great looking dio…Background is perfect for this layout. I agree with “Tojo72” that a couple of infantry soliders around would highlight the seen. Again, great job on your dio
Ha ha, you have a subdued approach to battle damage. The constructive remarks left by forum members are valid should you feel they are relavent to your overall modeling experience. Looking forward to seeing more of your work. By the way your knocked out Sherman reminds me of the one in this pic.
…and there it is. You see my diorama is a representation from a painting by James Wooten of the same title. The Shermans were hit and YES they had smoke coming out of them but were still pretty much intact. I feel that the Sherman should have more mud and weathering but the King Tiger is coming into battle after being staged in the remote areas of the Ardennes forest. With a lack of fuel, the Germans couldn’t do extensive training maneuvers. So although it has some mud on the road wheels and tracks “I” felt that the amount of weathering was perfect. Besides the weather was getting colder and the ground was freezing up. There wouldn’t be much mud on the wheels, even for a 68 ton beast like the King Tiger. But I do appreciate your comments and critiques. Thank you.
Really nice idea for a dio, I like your composition and the modelling is really well done. The only issue I would have with the Tiger II in regards accuracy is the Zimm.
Your right Bish,I didn’t even think of that.So can we be sure that there were no zimmed KT’s at the Bulge.
If there were any with this unit, i have never seen one. The 101st lost all its Tiger II’s that it had recieved in France by early in Sept. It didn’t recieve any new ones until Oct, and these were straight from the factory while the unit was refitting. Between then and 16th Dec, by which time the unit had been re numbered to the 501st, it recieved new tanks in dribs and drabs. It got its last tanks on Dec 9th.
In short, this is all after the application of Zimm was halted. And the 501st s.SS.Pz Abt was the only Tiger II unit in the Ardenne.
In response to your post, I’m taking an excerpt from the book “Panzer Colors III” by Bruce Culver published by Squadron/Signal Publications regarding the 501st s.SS.Pz Abt: “…It supported the advance during the German advance during the Ardennes Offensive… After the retreat from the Ardennes s.SS.Pz Abt 501 was sent to Hungary. The Tiger II’s of s.SS.Pz Abt501 had zimmerit, three colored camouflage schemes.”
Maybe there weren’t many with zimmerit paste but some did have it.
Tiger, indeed, that is very possible. Without having photo’s of every Tiger II in the Ardennes, its impossible to prove a negative. But I do think Culver’s wording is very misleading. His statement implies that all the Tiger II’s sent East had Zimm. But as they had 26 out of 45 tanks when they left the Ardennes, I find it hard to believe that over half of their tanks had Zimm and yet not one of them was photographed. But its all rather minor anyway and doesn’t detract from a really nice dio. Unfortunately I could not find any pics of 223, the nearest was some well known pics of 222, the same platoon but clearly not the same vehicle.