PlaStix

I've been struggling with finding time to do much modelling over the past several months, so, when the Panzer VI Tiger STGB 2 Single Type Group Build appeared in the GB calendar, I thought this might be the oportunity to get something made! The start of the GB also coincided with me having some holiday time to use up and the Easter break was available too. I decided to make a 1/72 kit that I thought I could get built relatively quickly. So,, below, is the result of my efforts. I'd had this Dragon kit for quite a while and it turned out to be rather good. The original kit was released in 2010. The DS tracks were still okay. I know some people have had some real problems with DS tracks and I'd had one set where one run had crumbled before I got to use them fairly recently. But these seemed to work rather well in this scale. The kit also included some photoetched parts, which I think, added nicely to the detailing. The other thing was that I'd wanted to make a grey Tiger 1 for quite a while. As usual, everything was painted with acrylic paints, which were thinned with water, and mostly applied with flat brushes. I use fine pointed brushes for any detail painting. The only extras I used were the mud texture stuff, 'European Mud' from Vallejo and a brush bristle for the aerial. The WIP thread for this can be found: HERE And finally, to hopefully show how small a 1/72nd Tiger 1 actually is!: The Tiger STGB is still ongoing with lots of rather good modelling going on. Make sure you ccheck it out, or even take part, if you get chance. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Fantastic result Ian. Very impressive paintwork and finish. Well done! Kind regards, Stix

Good to see more progress Simon. Annoying about the torsion bar, which will hopefully work okay and I've not had a kit with a spring mechanism like that. Hopefully that will work okay for you too!

Good to see you are under way! Very impressive details.

Fantastic work on those tracks Stef. Lovely job.

Fantastic camo painting Ian! That's going to look superb. Looking forward to seeing your detail painting.

Hi @geoawelch, @SimonT, @Stef N. & @Keeff. Thank you very much, as always, for your kind comments. Well, believe it or not it's finished and in The Gallery! I have never been first in the Gallery before. I'm usually on the last page somewhere. This time I had few days here and there to use up as holiday, so I got on and got it finished. I have spent pretty much all day working on the final stages. These photos go back over the past week or so. With the base weathering applied I got the tracks glued in place. I took my time. I'd left the rear idler wheels off and then glued them in place, just before getting the tracks on. This meant I could adjust them slightly to get the tracks to fit better. They seemed to fit okay and they glued well with Tamiya Extra Thin: I think, for 1/72 band tracks, they work pretty well. You can see in the next pics, the build up of the weathering. I'm a bit rushed for time at the moment, but I'll go into more detail at some point, but if you check out any of my other AFV threads, the processes are the same. Hull top: Turret bin added and basic weathering underway: Test assembly, the upper hull plate is not glued in place: I also took a few photos in different lighting yesterday evening to try and show the weathering at that I had done at that point; And today, has been pretty much spent doing the final weathering and getting the tools and equipment fitted in place. Around about 5.00pm it was finished, although at some point I may do a few extra bits of touching up and I may make a display base, but probably not in this GB time-frame. So, a few photos of it here and then, probably later this week, I will post ALL the photos I have taken in a Armour Ready For Inspection thread. And finally, just to show how small a 1/72nd Tiger 1 is: Thank you to everyone who has commented in this thread. I have thoroughly enjoyed the build and am now tempted to see what other 1/72nd Tigers I have in the stash. There will be a few! Kind regards, Stix

Tiger 1 No.123, s.Pz.Abt.502, Tosno, September 1942 Dragon1/72 Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.E Tiger 1 Initial Production This is the first time I have been first in a Gallery! Thoroughly enjoyed making my Tiger 1. I have wanted to make a Grey Tiger 1 for a long while and this kit, in this GB, seemed the perfect opportunity. It's been a bit of a rush job, but I wanted to make sure I got something completed for a change! The Work In Progress thread can be found: HERE I reckon it's a nicely detailed kit for an older 1/72nd one. Sometime this week I will create an Armour Ready For Inspection thread.

Excellent progress there! Looks to be progressing rather well! Kind regards, Stix

Great to see more progress Stef. The upper hull and tracks are coming together very nicely! Kind regards, Stix

That really is a very well detailed kit and looking really good! Kind regards, Stix

Glad you got them sorted. I won't make any comments about how good mine are until I've started to try and fit them! Thank you! Right a few progress pics from over the weekend. First one shows the state of play at the start of the weekend, with all parts I wanted to attach, fitted to the upper hull and the turret: Then the base paint coat was applied to the relevant parts - Revel Aqua's 78, Panzergrau - thinned with water and applied with a 7mm flat brush: The upper hull part isn't fixed in place yet but I decided I ought to get my normal base weathering applied, including some dry-brushing, plus I added the decals: I also started some cleanup work on the tools and other bits that still need to be applied. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Annoying you had all the problems with the tracks but it is looking really excellent now.

You really are making rapid progress with all your builds! Nice attention to the details too. Lovely job! Kind regards, Stix

Excellent progress Bob! Kind regards, Stix

That does look to be coming together rather well. Kind regards , Stix

Good to see more progress and looking good from where I’m sitting. Kind regards, Stix

Hi @Skyf24 & @TheBeardedOne. I am sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this,thread, but I have now added you both to the list in the first post in this thread. I'm looking forward to seeing what you build. Hi Dennis. As Craig has already mentioned, of course that would be okay. Thank you to everyone who has been posting in this thread over the past few months. I'm going to try and keep up with this moving forward. Kind regards, Stix

Oh, very nice job with the wheel painting. Kind regards, Stix

Good to see more progress - bit of thinning helps with some of the parts on these kits. Kind regards, Stix

Yeah, it will make a nice change but it does feel a bit strange. Nice collection of goodies amd good you have made a start. Kind regards, Stix

Thank you very much Paul. I like the grey Tigers, just surprised I'd never got around to building one before! Thank you. Thank you Bob. With regards DS tracks; up until the last project I completed, I'd had really positive experiences with DS tracks. But, for that project, I'd got some left over DS tracks, which I was going to use to replace the vinyl ones in the kit. When I actually came to use the DS ones, they just fell apart. They had gone really brittle. I'd heard they can break up in the cellophane plastic they come bagged in and sometimes they react badly with some paints. Luckily, so far, the tracks in this kit seem okay! fingers crossed......... I haven't fitted them yet! Thank you Keith and you are too kind! Thank you Ozzy for your comments. Thank you SS. Yes, as I just mentioned above, to Bob, I have had a bad experience with DS tracks but, hopefully, so far, these seem okay. Thanks about the grey Tigers too. So, some more progress pics....... tracks as mentioned - painted with thinned, using water, Revell's Acrylic Anthracite and then dry-brushed with Humbrol's Acrylic Gunmetal: Then some washes of Humbrol's Desert Yellow, Railmatch's Light Rust and Revell's Dark Earth: A wash of Revell's Acrylic Gunship Grey, followed by some targeted application of a very thinned wash of Anthracite, in and around the details, with a dry-brushing of various lighter greys made up the stages before I painted the tires: Some closer views: As it will not be seem much, I only did dry-brushing on the lower hull: Some assembling: ....before fitting on the lower hull: I have also started assembling some parts on the upper hull, but nothing worth a photo yet. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Yet another old 1/72nd kit! Excellent! Kind regards, Stix

Great to see one of these Revell kits here. Looking forward to following your progress. Kind regards, Stix

Good to see another 1/72nd kit being built. Kind regards, Stix