Matt182

Good choice Phil. Just a couple of pointers. The Henschel turret appeared in June 44 and zimmerit was ended in Sept 44. This limits you slightly on time frame and build features. Have a search for photos of the following units as they were all equipped with Tiger IIs built in this time frame. There are some great photos on the web that will give you a good idea of what to aim for. SS 501 in Normandy 503 in Normandy & Budapest 505 in East Prussia I only use vallejo acrylics now, mainly due to ventilation issues when using enamels. I would also recommend the AFV modeller forum that is dedicated to this kit. You will find information on just about everything Tiger II related there. http://www.network54.com/Forum/637977/ Cheers Matt

Lovely looking Tiger there Carius. Great attention to the finer details. I think the figures steal the show though, excellent. Cheers Matt

Phil, Anthony, thanks for your comments Phil, if I'm honest it is a bit of a mixed bag fit wise. Some parts go together well while others barely fit. Trumpeter seem to have a slight issue with the alignment of the moulds for many of the spurs so expect some flash, large mould seams and lots of pin marks. I guess the best advice is to dry fit everything. Do not chance it as in all likeliness, it won't fit! The kit, as it comes out the box is what I would call a workman like. The basics are there, it's just up to you how much effort you want to put in. I'm glad you are finding this build helpful. What do you have planned for your build? Cheers Matt

Hi guys, Small update. The turret shell is now done. On to the turret interior next Cheers Matt

Great work so far. The tracks look just right to me.

Nice job Mark, a great effort building it pretty much oob. It certainly is a beast of a kit! I'm not sure how accurate you wanted to be with this build but one thing that stands out to me is those front ammo racks. I encounter the same issue that the shells do not fit properly and they bow out of shape. Any plans to fix them? Would be interested to see some potos of the exterior too. Cheers Matt

Hi guys, Made a little more progress. I've been concentrating on the turret roof and outer shell. First I built the rear hatch pretty much oob. I will be sealing this closed when the build is finished so I didn't bother adding much detail Next I added the face to the front of the turret Then I went on to working on the inside of the turret roof. It is mostly oob again and the kit parts are actually half decent here. I then started on the commanders cupola. For some reason Trumpeter decided to mould the top half of periscopes with the top of the cupola. Quite anoying as they really lack detail. So, I cut them off and opened up the holes. The periscopes will be replaced with some resin items. Finally, I added the periscope covers, mg ring and all the missing welds Thats all for now. I'm hoping the have the turret shell completed shortly so I can start work on the interior. Cheers Matt

Great choice. I'm considering the T34/85 once I finish my Tiger II. Will you be doing a build log here?

It's certainly a good entry point to this scale, especially considering the price. It has some inaccurcies and compromises due to it's RC heritage but nothing too difficult to fix. There is a lot of aftermarket available for the Tamiya kit which could also be used on the hobby boss kit. You might also consider the Panada panzer 38T as I've heard good things about that kit or the Takom Renault FT17 which has an interior but is a rather small tank. Trumpeter do a T34 series and SU100 with full interior which look like very nice kits and can be had pretty cheap. They also do a Tiger II with full interior but that is a lot of work if your after accuracy. Can I just give one tip. Choose your kit carefully. Aftermarket in this scale can be very expensive!

Very nice indeed, really like the camo and weathering. Matt

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll give those a go. Cheers Matt

Hi guys, Can anyone point me in the direction of photos of early mid production tigers? I'm looking for photos of the first mid productions which had no zimmerit and the single headlight on the left side. So far i've only managed to find a couple of photos. Cheers Matt

Cheers Steve, glad you like the build Well, I got a little bored with the turret basket so I thought I would get started on the turret shell. First job was to hack it to pieces to make the cut away section. Initially I had thought about removing the entire roof of the turret but I wanted to keep the commanders cupola and loaders hatch. So I decided to remove the forward section of the roof and a large portion of the side armor. The tricky part here is that the turret shell comes in two pieces to make up the armor thickness making it rather difficult to line up the cut out. I also had to add some plastic card to make up the thickness between the two parts. Also added was some lead sheet to help counter balance the turret when the gun is fitted. Here is the out come. And here is how it looks with the turret in place. I think it has worked out rather well. There is plenty of room to view the interior without losing the external lines. Cheers Matt

Wow, just wow. You fully deserve the plaudits you have received. Your model is nothing short of museum standard. I would love to build this kit but the wife won't allow a 1 meter+ model in the house!

Ah, missed this one first time round. You've done a really nice job on this one, looks great

Hi guys, A little update. I haven't made any progress on the turret but I have been busy scratch building a stand for it. It should make working on the turret easier once things start to go together. It's a little bit rough around the edges but it does the job quite well. I'm quite proud of it! Now, back to work on that turret basket. Cheers Matt

Fantastic, really looks the part

Hi guys, Thanks for your comments With the basic construction of the ammo racks now complete I decided to have a look over the build to see what I still need to do. As far as components go, all that is left in the hull is the radio racks and hull mg. Of course there is still a myriad of smaller details left to complete but I need to have the major components painted first before most of them can be fitted. Not being in the mood for those parts my focus shifted to the turret for the last major components of the build, namely the turret basket, main gun and turret ammo racks. I decided to start on the turret basket. Trumpeter did quite a good job on the turret basket but surprise surprise, some improvements are needed. One of the stand out details that needs attention is the basket floor. In the real vehicle, the floor was made of sheet metal, 3/4 of which were anti slip tread plate. Trumpeter got the split in-between each section right but forgot the tread plate detail. Fortunately, Aber make some brass tread plate that is almost a perfect match. I removed the moulded on detail, cut some tread plate to size and added it to the floor. A couple of extra covers in the centre of the basket were also scratch built. On the real turret basket two on the rear sections fold up to allow access to some stowage bins and the batteries. I had to add some hinges for these. Next I started building some of the components for the turret traverse motor, gun elevation gear and gunner's seat. These parts a pretty well done and will only require a few minor improvements. Finally, a test shot with some of the parts dry fit in position. I will hopefully have some more progress soon. Cheers Matt

Thanks very much for your comments guys Fredben, I don't even want to think how much more there is still to do! Fortunately I can celebrate reaching another milestone as I've now completed the main parts of the ammo racks. I still need to clean them up a bit and add a few more details but the core work is complete So, here they are Note the two cut down racks at the front are to aid visibility into the hull. I managed to use the resin parts for these so that sped the process up a bit. Here they are fitted in the hull Finally, this is what it looks like with the roof on. So, I think I will tackle a less demanding task next, maybe just build some basic parts for the turret basket. Cheers Matt

I've mentioned before that scale effect and reality is often trumped by artistic license and it can be very difficult to make a model realistic and attractive at the same time. We each have our own preferences but I think most are driven simply by what they and their audience like. Many of the current trends are driven by forums like these and when you see the plaudits some get, many for hopelessly inaccurate models, it is no surprise that others follow suit. Then you also have some of the big brands like AK and MIG pushing this over weathering trend with all these new products. But is there anything wrong with this approach? Is it a problem that many models are far from accurate? No, not at all. There is no denying that heavily weathered / inaccurate model can look brilliant from an artistic point of view. I really admire the artistic talent of modellers who pull it off well as it is not easy to do. I also find that a super accurate build with all the right details and correct paint shades can be utterly dull to look at if you are not well versed in the subject. it's all down to preference. Personally I like to see a mixture of both accuracy and artistic license. Having said that, can we please see an end to every tank being attacked with a chisel or being sent to the desert / building site before being sent to the front line?

Hi guys, I'm about half way through the ammo racks now. 2 are complete and a third about 75% Here they are fitted Finally, I think this shot shows why the ammo racks need so much work. Note how the rounds are now angled inwards. This job is going a fair bit smoother than I was expecting but it is rather time consuming. I'm looking forward to getting this task out of the way! Cheers Matt

Sorry but I don't think there are any out of the pot paints that will work in 72nd scale. The real 'panzer grey' is considered to be quite a dark, blackish grey. In the modelling world it is often substituted for a medium bluish grey, mainly for scale effect and aesthetics. Achieving a good panzer grey finish in any scale isn't an easy task and the smaller you go, the harder it gets. Effectively you want to portray a dark colour without using a dark colour! I think this is why most panzer greys have the bluish tone, to try and maintain the depth of a dark grey when lightened for scale effect. As you are working in 1/72, you will need to lighten almost all the colours you use anyway. Either the Tamiya or Vallejo will do the job fine, it's just going to depend on what you lighten it with. The obvious choice is to use white to lighten them but I find this changes the hue of the grey too much. Maybe try using buff, tan or flesh colours and adding in some blue as well. Trial and error will be your best bet here. Try mixing up a few different batches and test them on an old kit. Also try some weathering on the test subjects to get a feel for what the final appearance will be like. Good luck!

Excellent work, the weathering looks brilliant. Proof that you don't need all the bells and whistles to produce a top model

Hi guys, thanks for the kind comments I've been slowly working my way through the first of six ammo racks. Firstly, I will just explain why the kit ammo racks need so much work. In the real tank, each ammo rack is made up of 3 parts: The nose, center and tail supports. Each round is held in place by wooden chocks which fold down to allow the rounds to be removed. This is where Trumpeter got it wrong. The nose chocks should be substantially smaller than the tail chocks but Trumpeter made them all the same size. The result is that all the ammunition sits parallel to each other as in the picture below. (My build, oob 3 years ago) This means that all the ammo racks are wrong. The two forward racks should hold 6 rounds instead of four. The nose racks for the center and rear are too long due to the over-sized chocks and snag on the turret basket when it is rotated. I had been hoping to just use the afv modeller resin replacements but my set is warped. I did try to reshape them with some success at first but after a few days they returned to their original state. Here is how the afv modeller ammo racks look, along with an example of the over-sized Trumpeter nose chocks So the solution. I built a hybrid, using the kit racks and the resin chocks. It's been slow progress and I've had to try a few different experiments but I finally have the first rack complete. Loaded with ammunition And fitted in place. So, that's one down, three more to go. The other two will only be single layers to aid visibility. Cheers Matt

Thanks Breaker, I think the larger scale is giving me a bit of a helping hand though! I'm not sure anything I scratch in 1/35 or smaller would be anywhere near as neat! Thanks Kev. For the cut out I used a Tamiya scribing tool. All I did was carve a light outline of where I wanted to cut and then repeatedly scribed the same lines until it cut all the way through. The trick is to do it slowly without appling too much pressure otherwise the blade may slip from the cutting line. I tried to speed things up and ended up having to fill a few unwanted grooves! This method can be done with any blade, it just takes a bit of patience. Also, remember the thickness of the blade will have a direct impact on how wide the cut will be. I your planning on having removable panels try to use the thinnest blade you can find to minimize the gap. Hope that helps! Cheers Matt