One for all you Tiger experts, I came across this colour picture of an early Tiger that I though would make an interesting model.
I dont know anything more about it though ie what prodcution batch, mid or late war pic, serving tank or just publicity shot etc ?
Has anyone seen this pic before and can they shed anymore light on it
Cheers
John
…looks like a basic early model, as evidenced by smoke discharders, early cuploa, etc…seems as though the chassis has been either sprayed in dark yelllow or slathered in a nice coat of mud, ala Afrika Korps style…if you look closely, you can see that the right side smoke discharger has also been painted yellow…hmmmmmmmm
The picture is quite well known and has been used on the cover of a Japanese book in the 80’s i believe. The problem is that it might have been shot in black and white and then later colorized, but we don’t know. I have found no caption yet that tells us why it has this unusual color scheme. Some say it might be mud, but it looks to uniform in my eyes … byt thats just my oppinion. Another explanation could be that it has been fitted with a new turret, this did happen from time to time.
No matter what, it will just be guess work, no one knows for sure, but it does look like an interesting subject.
The hull is a pretty early production one as well – featuring the notch above the front tow shackles and the KFFZ periscope openings on the glacis.
…I agree; I believe this is an intact vehicle that for some reason has had the lower chassis repainted in dark yellow…I initialy posted that it could also be mud, but I doubt the mud would have also covered ONE of the smoke dischargers on the turret…it may have been an in-process paint job shot mid-way to show the contrast in the two colors (grey and dark yellow) being used at the time, the grey being phased out…
Warsaw maybe. I saw a similar pix
I managed to find a picture of the Japanese book that used it on the cover. As you can see the book is from 1972 and is one of the few books about Tiger that i don’t have.
I will make no further guess about why the tank look the way it does. A while ago i started a thread in Axis history forum about this tank, it quickly turned into a flame war where i was told to shut my mouth and accept that it was mud and not paint that was on the tank. Needless to say i left the forum shortly there after .
It’s definately and early model Tiger, both the hull and turret. The turret has early style cupola and dual port gun sight flat against the mantlet.
I believe that is yellow paint on the hull, and even a few patches on the turret. It’s way too uniform and too light in color to be mud. Look at the dark mud in between the track treads. It’s very dark, and you can see a little bit of the dark mud splattered on the front lower hull plate. With the mix and match turret and hull I wouldn’t be surprised if this vehicle was being used for testing and development? [%-)]
Too bad about the flame war you ran into. Thank goodness that happens very seldom here. [:)]
Cheers for the replys, the caption with the pic on the site was
This formidable frontal view of a Tiger tank was one of the images included in a photographic portfolio produced by the German High Command in 1942 to tout the latest weapons in their arsenal.
I think i’ll do it as a yellow hull ( i dont belive its mud either). It may not end up being accurate but I doubt any ww2 tank model is truly accurate (we still argue even when we have pictorial evidence and first hand accounts!)