…have I built here?
It is a December 1942 production, Ausf E, I can’t see the numbers so it’s impossible to tell which unit it may have served with.
(you should only have 2 cleaning rods in the brackets inbetween the tow cables, as this was not changed until February 1943, also you have the wrong front fenders, they should be the bent sheet metal type, armored foldable fenders were not added until January 1943, these are the only problems I’ve found- The modeler’s guide to the tiger tank by Patrick Stansell taught me all this[:D] GREAT book really, excellent for reference.
-Tigertankman
Not to get too technical, but the camo job appears to be that of a later type. The Germans switched to dunkelgelb in Feb. of '43. I suppose that one can say it got repainted after that time.
Hmm Patrick Stansells book is good … but has a lot of errors in it. He uses much of the information from Thomas L. Jentz’s book “D.W to Tiger !” but apparently he didn’t pay attention while reading it.
Lets have a look at my friend Michael’s fine model.
It has the Tiger I stowage basket, not the Pz.III type. This basket was introduced in Jan / Feb 1943.
It does not have the loaders periscope, which was introduced in late March 1943.
It has the exhaust muffler guard and deflectors installed, which was introduced in early January 1943.
It has 6 gun cleaning rods which introduced in Jan / Feb 1943.
It also has the mantlet reinforcements which was introduced in Nov / Dec 1942
All this fits with a Feb / Mar 1943 vehicle, except for one thing. The spare track links on the turret sides were not introduced until April 1943. However I do know that some units experimented with this before this time, this might be one of those vehicles.
As for the front fenders. No vehicles were produced with the early style fenders after Oct / Nov 1942.
The only other thing missing for this to be a Feb / Mar 1943 vehicle are the S-mine dischargers on the hull roof.
My reference is:
D.W to Tiger I : By Thomas L. Jentz.
Tigers in combat Vol 1 & 2 : By Wolgang Schneider.
Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger I Vol 1 - 4 : By Tadeusz Melleman
Achtung panzer # 6 : By Mitsuru Bitoh
Tiger I on the eastern front : By Jean Restayn.
Tiger I & II combat tactics : By Thomas L. Jentz
Tigers at the front: by Thomas L. Jentz
It is indeed a fine model, I’ll have to consider those references when I get some money, thanks for the tiger info[:D]
-Tigertankman
Any time Tigertankman. Tigers has been my hobby for 8 years and I have more than 20 books about them, so if you want a more detailed book list just hollar. I know there are others here with just as many books.
And what is the reference for the 4 prominent Philips screw heads on the back deck? Are they really there on the 1:1 version, or is this a motorized model that needs to be disassembled from time to time?
Eh, no, actually I meant to ask which model (i.e. Italeri, Tamiya, DML…) and scale… sorry…
Ho-hum… I’ll stop teasing and just come clean with it. Its the tamiya 1:48 Tiger 1E early… The camo is of one that serven in Russia summer of 1943… I’m still working on it and have to add some pastls here and there for rust and soot.
After post shading with a thin mixture of alcohol, red-brown and black. Then I did a wash with black and burnt umber oil followed by a light, light drybrushing of white oil. When that was on I mixed some buff with flour and attacked the lower surfaces with that for caked on dried mud. I proceeded with tapping revell dark earth over all possible surfaces where the crew would walk and added some scratches with a pencil. Next came a dusting with some buff over the lower half, running gear and rear deck. After that was a light overspray here and there on the mud and lower half with some thinned tamiya dark earth.
All in all I enjoyed both the build and the painting and weathering. As I said I just need to add some last details with some pastels and I can carve another notch.
Here’s some piccies:
Gosh…for a second I was wondering how you could build this great looking Tiger and not notice on the box what version it was? It was a test…which I missed on several points.
Glenn
TMN1, which of Jentzs books would you recommend to buy if you were only to get one? I have one of his books on the panther and it is great.
Hehe, nice curveball, should have seen that coming. It looks as though you have moved up from braille to quarter. Stunning little build. The mud and dirt look excellent.
Very nice Tiger. I think I saw a build like that on www.ww2modelmaker.com by jason white. He builds some nice tigers along with andrew dextras IMHO[^]
That depends on what you want to know about.
D.W to Tiger I. Covers the development of the Tiger I.
V.K 45.02 to Tiger II. Covers the development of the Tiger II
Tiger I & II combat tactics. This book has a technical describtion of the gun and armor, and then continues with the operational history of both versions of the Tiger tank,
Tigers at the front. Is a photostudy of the Tiger tanks, with lots of high quality photos.
Well I will say that it’s a smokin tank bro, looks like the 1:48 scale may be something I’ll have to try… though I’d feel like I’m on the dark side or something!
that is a great looking Tiger Michael. I really like all the scuff marks you have on the top of the turret in the first pic you posted.
nice job im building otto carius early tiger A at the moment it 99% done just getting ready to prime it then paint in dark yellow should post it in a week ok guys have fun modelling
I would have never guessed it was 1/48th. I was skeptical about this scale, but to see what people have done with them in the last couple months, makes me want to try one.
Also great tiger man. That camo looks great on the cat.