Matt182

Looking good so far. Personally, I would build the whole assembly and then paint it. You shouldn't have too much trouble painting the tyres. I've always hated gluing pre painted parts together!

Hi all, Well, i've made quite a lot of progress with this one. First off I gave all the tools a base coat. Next I painted 40 tyres. That will be the last time i paint 40 of the tyres after the wheels have been glued on. It took bloody ages! Next came a coat of gloss varnish, followed by pin washes and oil dot fading. After that I did all the chipping and scratches followed by rain marks. The effect isn't that noticable in the photos Next up is a flat coat and some pigments. Still need to get those tracks painted. Cheers Matt

Not entierly sure what happened to the text size there! Which vallejo thinner do you have as they have a few different products. If it's the little bottles with the white-ish looking thinner, bin it, it is useless for airbrushing (decent for brush painting though). I think they released a new dedicated airbrush thinner not that long ago. I've actually been using their airbrush cleaner product. It works very well for thinning their paints and it seems to have no affect on the paint. I think their airbrush thinner is made up of a very simillar formula. Hope you can find something that works for you

Great work! that must of been a couple of marathon airbrush sessions. Re your problems with the vallejo paints, I find they are extremely sensitive to how they are thinned. If they are not thinned correctly they dry out too quickly and clog your airbrush. What thinner are you using? I heavily thin them and spray it on in thin coats to slowly build up the colour. It is more time consuming but the overall finish is good. Then again, tamiya with some thinner throw in is certainly just as good and a quicker way to go! Just one other thing. It looks like you have missed a couple of parts on the main gun. Where the larger rear section meets the thinner forward section there should be an extra part there. Also there should be a small part that sits behind the muzzle brake. In the picture below, it is the part below the forward part of the muzzle brake and the part just below the barrel to the right. You will need to remove the muzzle brake to fit these if you still have them. It's not the same barrel you have but they are all very similar. Sorry to sound like i'm picking again! Keep up the good work, it's really starting to come together

Thanks Jim, Wolkpack, fully agree with what you have said. It is assumed that tiger 217, photographed earlier in white wash is the same tank that appears in the propoganda photo's with Carrius. We know that Carrius received a new Tiger during a 7 week rest and refit, and some of the damage matches the eariler pictures of 217. It is also assumed that the tank was repainted during this period. What I do find strange is that the camo is very faint in the later pictures yet it is missing the tactical numbers. The main question here then is, were the numbers removed from the photos or was the tank purposely painted in faint camo and the numbers hadn't been applied yet? As for my model, I'm going to leave it as it is. If I were to be truely accurate I would need to remove a lot of the zimmerit as there are lots of chips in the photos. I'm not going to start messing with it now it is built and painted. I will however give the numbers a red outline as it seems highly likely that they were not just plain white. Judging from some of your posts i've seen, you are certainly into tigers! So any input is welcomed Cheers Matt

Hi guys, I managed to get some painting down today. First off was a coating of vallejo dark yellow Then, as it was pertty dark I lightened some dark yellow with white and sparyed it in the centre of all the panels. Then the camo was applied free hand by aribrush using vallejo light cammo green. Finally, I misted over a highly thined coat of vallejo buff to tie it all together and lighten it further. I think I may have to redo some of the cammo as it has gone very light in some areas. What do you guys think? Cheers Matt

Dan, I found them on ebay for £15 with £2 P&P, which was at least a £10 saving on the cheapest friuls. However, it seems like they are quite hard to come by as I can't seem to find any now. If you can find some I would recommend them, as long as your willing to put in the extra work with them. I do think that they have crisper details than friuls and the end product looks that little bit sharper. Thanks Courtney, I know what you mean. I find the more detail you add, the less you want to paint it! Cheers Matt

Thanks Dan, The tracks are just pinned with the wire provided with them. Unfortunetly, the Karaya tracks have the pin holes drilled through both sides so i'm left with holes on the outside edge of the track, where the ends of the track pins should be. Thats another area where Friuls are better as they have the end of the track pins cast into each link. I think I will just have to put a little extra mud on the tracks when it comes to weathing them to hide the holes! Cheers Matt

Hi all, I would just like to share with you my current build, Cyberhobby's Otto Carius Tiger. It's built mostly oob except for the following: Karaya metal tracks Metal barrel, tow shackels and antenna from dragon's Tiger late 3 in 1 PE for the track pulling cable from the spares box Overall it is a very nice kit to build and the zimmerit really is top notch. For anyone who has this kit and will actually build it, watch out for the hull side panels as they are slightly too short and will require some filler where they meet the front plate. Other than that it is almost a perfect build. Anyone thinking of buying Karaya tracks, be warned that every link has pin mark on the outter edge that needs to be removed. Sanding 190 links was not a fun task! They do look nice when they are done though and are a cheaper alternative to Friuls. So heres the pics of the built kit, ready for paint. I'm hoping the get the base coat down this weekend Cheers Matt

I'm certainly no expert, but I've built a fair few! Seeing as you've done such I great job so far I couldn't not point it out I'm looking forward to seeing this one painted. Have you decided on a scheme yet?

Great work so far. It's looking like a really promising build. One thing I've noticed is that you have attached the final drive bolt plates in the wrong positions. Take a look at this picture of a tiger, the lower front plates are clear. Those 2 parts should be flush with the final drive housings, below the tow hooks. Cheers Matt

If you do go for 1/48, get the Afv club kit. The Tamiya kits depict early tigers which were very unlikely to be seen in Normandy. The Afv club kit is also cheaper, has zimmerit moulded on, comes with PE mesh screens and is better detailed in almost every area. It is a great little kit that really delivers 'bang for your buck'

Fantastic scratch building! It really looks the part

Ah, sorry I mis read the question. The only one I know of is included in the atak resin zimmerit sets for the AFV club tiger late. Not sure where else you can fined one.

Lionmarc makes very nice MG barrels. Search for item LM10029, its the tank variant of the MG34 and will suit most German tanks including the Tiger.