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Tiger mid production


Tin_Bitz

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Hi All

I am planning on building Tamiya's 1/32 Tiger mid production tank. I plan to make a diorama out of it and would like to buy some figures to go with it, ie tank crew and may be some infantry. The question is when the mid production tiger go into combat and which theatres? Also any idea if some of these tanks did not have the zimmerit applied to them as it does not come with any.

Thanks for looking.

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More tiger tank info than you can shake a stick at:-

http://www.alanhamby.com/tiger.html

http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/tiger1.htm

http://tiger1.info

I've got a thread going in the work in progress section, about my mid production tank build.

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Photos of mid production Tigers without zim are rare, and even rarer on the net.

Production began in July '43, and depending on the source of when zimmerit was introduced (anywhere from August '43 to as late as Oct. for some factory), there is room for the possibility. Note though that mid Tigers had many changes incorporated over their production run, (consult the links provided in the previous posts). It's likely the very early mid Tigers were without this special anti magnetic coating.

I found this build, and the modeler quotes the researchers/authors Doyle and Jentz to back up his creation. So there is at least one example you can follow.

http://planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1383

regards,

Jack

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Many thanks for your input guys, I will have a read of the links. I thought that they would have a part in the eastern front. I am going to put a crew member or two with it and maybe some passing infantry or something along that nature. I guess I will be trying my hand at zimmerit on the kit......

...or I could go and get an early tiger and have a go on that first.

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Tamiya do zimmerit decals, they work very well. You can see the decals applied to the hull in my wip thread.

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Dragon and mini art do some nice tiger crew figures, dragon do some nice mounted ( tank riders) and dismounted infantry sets you may want to look at. I gets my inspiration from the books titled tigers on the eastern front or tigers on the western front, some good pictures and art work.

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Another interesting thread/post here, where an individual has gone to the trouble of listing possible units and numbers of Tigers received of the mid production type w/o zimmerit. Also listed is turret numbers from actual photos.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1006477191

One characteristic to look out for if you do model the very early mid sans zim is to move the kit provided single headlight to the left hand corner of the hull roof.

regards,

Jack

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Yeah I have built a few figures from Dragon in the past and have been really impressed. Some of their weapons sometimes seem a little on the small side. I have a load of old figures to practice on before I do the people for the diorama. Once I improve my figure painting I may even splash out on a few Hornet heads. I was thinking a guy out the top of the turret shouting to a guy on the ground.

I have seen a few images and read about a few mid production tigers without the anti magnetic paste on them. After doing a bit or reading about it, the model does not have to be exact as things get broken on tanks and things go missing. Also new equipment and kit does always reach the front all at the same time with this in mind I will probably have someone or something pre '43 on the diorama.

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The hornet heads are a good choice, they really portray atmosphere. As stated above some of the early mid production tiger, didn't have factory produced zimmermit, it was mixed and applied in the field. So that's the basis for a dioramor in its self.

My winter project is a late tiger command variant on a trumpeter flat bed rail car with dragons bivouac set at one end, using afv clubs transport tracks and their workable normal tracks.

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Ozzy, sounds like you have got the making of a good little project there. I think I will replace the Tamiya provided crews head with a hornet one, depending how the rest of the figure looks. Then may be a figure or two on foot. Going to make this one fairly basic as I am normally an aircraft guy and my diorama/tank/figure skills are fairly out of practice.

Thanks to everyone for chipping in their help, ideas and knowledge. I think I have decided to make the tank without the paste.

I will post my completed project on the forum once complete.

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any idea if some of these tanks did not have the zimmerit applied to them

I assume that you mean Tamiya's 35202 or 35194 ?

These represent Tigers from the end of the "Mid" period and they would always have Zimmerit. The paste was not used on some of the first Mids, but you would have to make quite a few changes to backdate the kit to that time.

David

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not a very good pic but this mid tiger of sPZ,AbT 503 which was knocked out at potash in early 1944 has no zimmerit applied.

rjjexu_zpsfd77451d.jpg

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Certainly seen better days that one.

Found this site today, plenty of photos and google does a fair job on the translations.

http://www.tiif.de/board.php?boardid=4&sid=e6510b1580abc5fb2ef218458a1837c6

Edited to add this find

Http://radekpituch.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Tigergrab%20%2744

Edited by andygif290368
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not a very good pic but this mid tiger of sPZ,AbT 503 which was knocked out at potash in early 1944 has no zimmerit applied.

It certainly looks that way, but I don't think the photo is clear enough to be sure.

All I can say is that the Tiger was supposed to get Zimmerit, and the unit had other, similar Tigers with the covering applied.

David

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there are other pics of this tiger in panzerwrecks vol 5 and it doesn't have zimmerit applied, there were about 50 mid tigers in use that had no zimmerit applied, heres one of an early/mid tiger.

tig1_zpsdcbc8861.jpg

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Yeah it is indeed the Tamiya kit, I was hoping to build an accurate Mid Tiger from the box without paste but it seems to indicate that I will have to apply some....

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