Farmersboy

No updates as yet, I am very undisciplined and easily distracted by all the other kits I'm working on! I must sort things out...

They are an absolute pain to put together. Fiddly connecting pieces between each link, and no template to set them out on. I have a pet hate with individual links in kits, as they are either nigh-on impossible to put together, or they don't articulate. What's the point? And when you're done you've still got to paint them. Save on the cost of the kit by just having vinyl tracks, making it more economical to buy aftermarket tracks like Friul, which are easier to assemble, are fully articulated and sag properly, and can be easily burnished instead of painting them. Some kits you have to glue the track link horns on, which is technically known as taking the piddle. Sorry, rant over.

OK, more discoveries. The instructions tell you to fit the turret front plate without the gunsight aperture. I did this. Oops - you need to fit the other one included (shown here on top of turret), as the rangefinder does not replace the monocular gunsight, it compliments it. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, drill it out and fit the rain shield, or ignore it. Also, if you fit all the little mounting plates for the track skirts, you'll need to sand off the little triangular mounting stubs on the inner face of the track guard - I can only assume it's an either/or, either use the little stubs, or sand them off and use the mounting plates. Friul tracks arrived today, set ATL-37, which are the late model single link tracks with 2 18-tooth drive sprockets, which are also in the kit (standard was 9 tooth I believe). Hoping this will help out people who are looking t build this kit.

It would be progressing even better if I didn't keep buying kits and starting them!

I realised that I hadn't posted any progress, so let's redress that. The kit all seems to go together quite well and the surface detail is crisp. Everything is there to make the 'what-if' late-model Tiger Ausf B as shown in the excellent Lentz and Doyle second volume on the Tiger, bu there are one or two things to note; you should omit the jack and wooden block, and this model was supposed to have been equipped with a Stg. 44 in the bow, not an MG34. If there is anything else in error I either haven't spotted it, or I'm not going to address it - it's a paper panzer after all. From the photo you'll see I've tried putting the kit tracks together, and let's just say a Fruil set will be on its way - they are a nightmare to assemble compared to metal links and some wire!

Alright, I'm game, this is a rare shot of me (unmasked) enjoying my other hobby - paintball.

Yeah, those tracks...I just tried putting a couple of links together. It's going to be my favourite - Fruil - I'm afraid.

Hmph, I paid a bit more than that, but I still thought it was a bargain, it's a lovely kit.

One of many bargains I've found on eBay recently, this does indeed look like an accurate representation of a late model Tiger Ausf B. I'm sure several of you guys have already built it. So, the obligatory sprue shot -

I've just checked the kit, and it has steel wheels for the front 2 bogies, so I may as well try to use the kits parts, if the vinyl tyres aren't too bad.

No worries Stix, I will hold off, I only have a dozen other kits to work on! I guess I'm still learning the ropes here, it's a bit different to Reddit. Das Abteilung, yes, the old Tristar kit, all the sprues still have Tristar on them. The tyres are vinyl, and I think they all are. I will look at aftermarket wheels, I'm sure somebody like Royal Model or Panzerart make some. As for the tracks, I agree with you on Fruil - they're superb, but you tend to get through a lot of burnishing fluid!

Well, this is my first WIP post here, and this is also going to be my entry for my first Group Build, so I'll start with a gratuitous sprue shot. Like all the Hobby Boss kits I've seen so far it seems very well detailed, but I'm not sure about the real rubber tyres for the road wheels. Also, it going to get a metal barrel, and I suspect I'll end up replacing the tracks with metal links from Fruil.

Oooh, right up my street! Put me in for this, but I haven't the foggiest what I'll build yet, there's so much to choose from!

Jut a quick hello from a new member, here in the less-than-sunny Nothamptonshire countryside in the UK. Been an on/off modeler since I was 7 (I'm now, um, 48) and my passion has always been all things German - tanks, aircraft, submarines, the lot - but at the moment I am having a major go at tanks, 1/35 scale. Hopefully I can post WIP and completion photos as I go, and if anyone is looking for info on German tanks, I have built up an ever-expanding library (still hunting down those last few out-of-print Panzer Tracts!).