Mig Eater

Looks great 😄 the airbrushed camo espeshialy, I'd really struggle to paint that pattern at such a scale.

Great work and really fast! I really like the balanced level of weathering, it looks really dirty but you haven't hidden any of the small details under layers of mud.

It's amazing how much detail they managed to cram into this 1/72 kit, it looks better then a lot of 1/35 scale kits 😲

If you're really in need of late Tiger II running gear parts I have designed some 3D printable ones, you can PM me if you're interested.

Yeah the slats in the original grills were quite chunky & toy like 😕 If I hadn't 3D printed new ones I probably would have cut them out anyway and replace the slats with thin strips of plastic card so it looked more in-scale.

Yeah P for Porsche and H for Henschel, there is also DB for Daimler-Benz and M for MAN. I can understand the confusion, it can be difficult to keep track of the many tank designs when there might be only one number or letter difference in their names 😵 The VK 30.01 project was probably the worst example as all four companies entered into the design competition... VK 30.01(P) VK 30.01(H) VK 30.01(DB) VK 30.01(M), MAN's design won and it went into production as the Panther.

I decided to go ahead and 3D printed some new engine grills based on the original drawing. My first thought was to completely cut out and replace the engine deck & rear plate of the tank but that seemed like a bit overkill, so I decided to just cut out the kit's original grills & place the new 3D prints in the same place. I managed to printed a 0.1mm zig-zag mesh inside the grills too, a bit of it on the rear grill failed during printing but I might cover that up with stowage later... Before & after I've been working on this kit for 5 days now and I finally managed to glue the first parts together, hopefully the rest of the build goes a bit quicker 😅

He is talking about the the VK45.02(H) which is based on the Tiger I, the time line of it's development meant it would have used the Tiger's early rubber wheels instead of the later steel ones. You're building the VK45.02(P) which uses the same wheels as the Tiger P, Elefant and Ferdinand.

Looking into the development of the VK45.02(P) a bit more I can find two different drawings, one is an original drawing by Porsche and the other was made by Hilary Doyle. The main difference between them are different layouts for the grills on the rear of the engine deck. The Hobby Boss kit I'm building is based on the Hilary Doyle's drawing, interestingly the Dragon kit of the VK45.02(P) is based on the original drawings tho. Always looking for ways to make my life harder, I'm now thinking of modifying the kits engine deck to match the original drawing 😅 It will require some surgery to remove the kits original deck and then I'll have to design and 3D print a replacement... Top is Porsche bottom is Doyle.

Considering you're already building an entire tank that was never built, I dont see why there would be any problems with building a Tiger II with a few unfinished upgrades...

The brackets are for cleaning off any mud or debris that might get stuck between the sprocket, so they should have a close fit. They're a pain for model makers tho as they can make getting the sprocket on or off the hull for painting difficult 😩

If there is sometime left in the GB after I finish my main build I might get this Tiger off the shelf of doom...

Here is my contribution to the group build, HobbyBoss's VK 45.02(P) "Vorne". The VK 45.02(P) was an improved version of Porsche's earlier VK 45.01(P) updating the hull with a new sloped armour layout and a new turret equipped with the larger 8.8cm L/71 gun. Development of the VK 45.02(P) didn't leave the drawing board and it was canceled in favor of Henschel's VK 45.03(H) design which went on to become the Tiger II. I had originally planed to 3D print a VK 45.02(H) for the group build but due to some technical problems I was unable design the 3D model in time. For now I'll build its brother/rival the VK 45.02(P) and the VK 45.02(H) can join it in the future. Here are the obligatory sprue shots The hull is made from two upper and lower parts and not much more... Four sprues for the running gear, along with the few tools and handles for the hull. Most of the plastic in the box is for the turret which comes with a fully detailed interior. The tracks are individual links with each sprue containing four tracks with six connection points each. They should keep me busy for a few days... The kit comes with some photo-etch for the engine grills and also includes a generic set of number decals. Curiously they suggest painting the tank in Dunkelgrau even tho it had been replaced with Dunkelgelb by the time development of the VK 45.02(P) had started. Looking at the kit there are a few issues that stand out. The weld seams are very messy and misaligned, the ones on the side of the hull are ridiculously over sized too so I'll need to fill and re-scribe them all. The tank is also missing fenders over the tracks, I'll try to scratch build some from metal but I might also design and 3D print them instead.

In the last Tiger GB I made (but didn't finish) a Tiger 1 painted orange with black tiger stripes, no one complained then 😜

You can add me to the list, I have lots of 8.8cm stuff in the stash.