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Zvezda 1/72 Tiger - Wittmann at Kursk


Matt_

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Thought I would take a crack a posting a WIP thread on here for the first time. Be gentle! 😱

 

My last few builds have been 1/72 aircraft, so for a bit of a change I thought I'd have a crack at a little 1/72 tank. And when I say little, I mean "oh, tanks are actually quite small in 72 scale aren't they?". The little chap is only about 85mm - slightly longer with the mighty cannon. *ahem* Any tinkering with this one is going to result in a few bits lost to the carpet monster.

 

Originally I was just going to do this OOB as a quickie before I start on the Kinetic FRS1 I have on the shelf. However things don't always go as planned. The initial slide down the slippery slope was grabbing an RB Model metal barrel, the rest will become apparent...

 

The first few posts in this thread will be a retrospective Work Already Progressed recap, as in actuality the hull is already mostly assembled.

 

I'm hoping to depict the kit as Michael Wittmann's Tiger at the Battle of Kursk. As there are no photos of his specific tank at that time, I'm going to try a bit artistic license and create some battle damage. We'll see.

 

Anyway, this is what we'll be working with.

 

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Right then, on with a bit of the action so far... :dog:

 

The kit is actually pretty good. It may be a snap-fit model, but it certainly isn't lacking in nice details. I will be gluing it all up though, both for structural integrity, and due to the fact that some of the mods prevent the tabs working at all.

 

First up we have the top of the hull.

 

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As I want to depict some general wear and battle damage, I'm going to replace those mudguards with some individual ones. Not only will that allow me to have one or two missing entirely, but it will also make it easier to bend and scratch the others.

 

So off they came. Then I sprayed the interior with some flat black, closed her up, and started to fit a few of the details. You can also just make out that I've used some sprue offcuts to add reinforcement between the top and bottom of the hull. Without that, the top of the hull was bowing slightly, but it also helps keep things braced when fitting the turret.

 

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Then I started cutting and bending some sheet brass to make those new side skirts.

 

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The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed I'd drilled out the handle on the assistant driver's hatch.

 

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Well, I wasn't really happy with that, so off it came.

 

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It seems however that it wasn't happy being given the chop and it's managed to sneak back into shot - it's sat right there in front of the tank.

 

A quick trip to the shed yielded some gardening wire. Some stripping, clipping, bending, filing, and much searching the carpet later.. and I have these.

 

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Okey dokey then. Happy Monday everyone. This is the last part of the catch-up posts.

 

Next up I grabbed some thinner garden wire and replaced the cupola hatch handle (that one's definitely a handle, right? :think:)

 

I'm not totally happy it's slender enough though, so I will have to have a rummage for something thinner.

 

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Then it was on to the loader's periscope cover. (Don't tell me I'm not a man who can spot an armoured pericope cover at a hundred yards 🙈 ) That got a twiddling with the pin vice and later in proceedings I think I will try to cut a small piece of clear sprue to slide in there to depict the periscope.

 

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As this little kit cost me the princely sum of 6 English Pounds, I'm not going to be splashing out on upgrade parts other than the thoroughly extravagant £2.50 barrel.  💸

 

So the lack of top grill covers and exhaust shrouds will have to be rectified with materials I have to hand already. First up will be the grills. I had some .7m brass mesh, so we'll see how that looks. It could probably do with being about .4/.5 to match the originals.

 

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And here are the fruits of my labour on that front

 

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I think it looks OK. The real things have a slightly wider edging strip around them, but at this scale I think that will have to suffice.

 

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Matt, why would Zvezda go to the trouble of moulding those lovely little s-mine launchers yet leave them solid right up to the end?"

 

Exactly! We must be on the same wavelength you an me. 👨‍👩‍👦 Trying to drill them out was non-trivial though. I think I need an optivisor. :crosseyed:

 

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And that's us nearly caught up. The only other thing I've done so far is what I'm sure most allied tankers would've like to have seen done to a Tiger - give it the snip!

 

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Thanks to @Soeren, I think I might have a crack at redoing those periscope covers using some sheet brass instead of the flattened wire. I think that may look more authentic.

 

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Happy modelling. :penguin:

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On Milmod there was a guy called SimonT, he always went berserk at  adding and changing parts at 1/72. If you go on like this with your first tank, you will end up like him 😂, having green(putty) white (styrene) and all kinds of other colours on your tanks...👍🏻🎉

I will follow with interest!

/Stef

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Tuesday update: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

 

1) The Good

 

Made a couple of new periscope covers

 

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2) The Bad

 

One of them was eaten by the carpet monster.

 

3) The Ugly

 

Test fitted the Feifels

 

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I think those hoses may leak. 🤔

 

On the real thing, there is a joint between the bent steel pipes that enter and leave the filters and the hoses that run along the deck. What I think I'm going to do is to cut the plastic that just doesn't quite reach to the filter at the same point as the gap in the other hose by the rear of the hull, then stick the cut piece in place on the filter. I will then add a small square shim in each hose to represent the real life joint, and lastly trim down the already slightly long support struts until the parts marry up.

 

Unless I have a better idea in the mean time... 

Edited by Matt_
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Hmmm. Yeah. That MG34 - or whatever it is that's poking out of the front - has been bothering me as well.

 

As I said though. I'm not sure I'm going to fork out on any more extras for a £6 snap-fit kit. I might see if I can spruce the kit part up a bit.

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Little bit of progress to report this evening.

 

I got down on my knees to pray to the benevolent god Axminster, and - 🙏 praise be 🙏  - the second periscope cover rose up out of the pile before my very eyes. A miracle!

 

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So then it was on to the exhaust shrouds. First I printed and cut out a template a couple of times to get the scale correct.

 

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I stuck a bit of masking tape to some A4 and printed it onto that. The template was transferred onto a piece of beer can, and the shrouds cut out.

 

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Bent the tabs out, formed them around an appropriately sized drill bit shank, et voilà.

 

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I think that will have to do for tonight, as one of the kids has just stabbed the other one with a pen.. :facepalm:

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Thanks. I did have a search for etch sets before I started. 'Part' do a full set including grills, shrouds, fenders, tools, covers, etc for the Revell Tiger 1 which would've given pretty much everything I've made. But part of this build was just to have a bit of fun with making some detail parts myself with what I had sitting about.

 

I have got a bunch of extras lined-up for the next build though - the Kinetic 1:48 FRS1

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Not much progress tonight. Just a little cutting prep.

 

As I wanted to do a Tiger with shrouded exhausts, I also needed to make the top cover plates and with the 5 support arms. I don't have a die punch, so I used a regular plastic circle template, and using a sewing needle held in the pin vice, scored a circle into some more of that beer can until it just about cut through. I trimmed it out with the xacto.

 

Then it was on to making 10 equal length support arms.

 

For this I drilled a .8mm hole into a hardwood off-cut, and used that as the depth gauge for cutting some .5mm brass rod.

 

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The tips get a little crimped, but they're hidden away anyway.

 

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I think I shall start assembling everything tomorrow.

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Evening all. Happy Telford Eve. 🎆 🎆 🎆

 

Time to start a stickin'

 

But first, I popped in to a couple of local charity shops this morning and came home with this lot for the princely sum of nine pounds.


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Hashtag bargain, as they say.

 

I cracked out the slow setting CA and glued the exhaust top covers.

 

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Hmmm. Not quite straight. Shall we go with battle damage? Yes, I think we will. :bomb: They're mostly hidden anyway.

 

I've also fitted one of the Feifels. I think the hose-joint clamp idea has turned out OK. I think the reflection of my desk lamp makes them stand out more than they do IRL.

 

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The other one has putty drying on it to fill a sink mark.

 

Happy Modelling. 🤓

Edited by Matt_
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Hope you all had a great weekend. Little bit of progress to report.

 

Got a few road wheels cleaned-up. Some sink marks in the inner sets that I will never be seen... but I will have to fill for OCD reasons. :laugh:

 

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I got the left-hand Feifel fitted along with its 'hose clamps'

 

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Next up was to attach the top of the cupola to the part that is moulded with the turret - where the 2 parts join leaves the tiny slits for the vision blocks - and tidied the seams with some putty. I also made another hatch handle from some slightly thinner copper wire and glued that into place. Lastly I glued the RB metal barrel into place with some tacky glue which allowed me time to get it aligned it in a blu-tac jig while it set. Even slow setting CA would have gone off too quickly for the amount of time I faffed about with it. The mantlet is just dry-fitted.

 

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I started to glue the muzzle brake, but was struggling to get a good alignment. I pulled it, cleaned it up, and upon closer inspection it looks like the machining is some way off. Quality control - nul points! 🙈 I will have to fettle that a bit.

 

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Happy modelling. :penguin:

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Hmmm. I was so focused on the fit at the joint, that I didn't even register that the drilling was completely on the wonk all the way through. 🙈 This is worse than the plastic part! :swear:

 

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There was some success tonight though. I had been procrastinating about gluing the skirts on, but I gave them a bit of a beating with the pliers and a file and fixed them in place.

 

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I think it turned out OK. :phew:

 

It's starting to look a bit like a tank.

 

 

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Some progress over the last few days.

 

I wanted to try to make the Feifel hoses look a bit more corrugated. I made a little tool by drilling a hole in some plasticard, chamfering the edges, and cutting it off to a semi-circle.

 

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That was then used on some Mr Surfacer 500 to add some texture.

 

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Since that picture I sanded some off the edges off and tidied it up a bit.

 

Everything got a once-over with some Mr Surfacer 1000

 

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And a base coat with a mix of XF-60 Dark Yellow lightened with XF-55 Deck Tan. I added a few drops of white for some minor variation. I didn't go mad with this as the camo will break things up. I did pick out a lighter panel for where the missing fender would have previously covered the paintwork. I will mask this before spraying the camo.

 

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You can also just about make out that I scribed some slits in the turret side vision ports, and drilled and scratched a few shell marks in the hull, turret, and road wheels.

 

Thanks for looking. :penguin:

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Why did I not just do Tiger 131? A simple dunkelgelb all over. That would be a nice easy introduction.

 

Oh no. My first tank and I do it in 1/72 with tiger stripes. :facepalm:

 

Please remind me to punch myself in the face if I think of doing this again! 👊 Thank you most kindly.

 

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