Lock Down Project - RMF 5003 Tiger 1 Early

[Matt182]

Hi All, 

 

I hope everyone is keeping safe and well. It's been a while since I have posted here, mainly due to losing all my motivation for modelling after finishing my King Tiger a few years ago. So, as I sure it has for many, the lock down has proved a good time to get a build or two completed. I started building this kit around 5 weeks ago and it is now pretty much ready to paint. I thought I run through notable points of the build but I'll say now that I didn't bother with the interior. If you want for see more on the that you will have to look elsewhere! 

 

I purchased this kit as to me it seemed to be the best value 1/35 early Tiger you can buy. In the box you get:

 

• Fully workable individual track links
• A near full interior
• Photo etch / metal tow cables and clear parts
• Plenty of options

 

Although the instructions are aimed at building specific eastern front Tigers, there are enough optional parts in the box to build just about any external configuration for an early Tiger. I decided to build a more generic configuration and while I did try to follow references, I wasn't too bothered amount absolute accuracy. Here's the completed build, running gear is just dry fitted for now.

 

 

 

 

While I think the end results are good, there are a few issues with this kit worth mentioning. Firstly, almost all the parts were miss-moulded to some degree resulting in some parts being thicker than they should be, while others had huge mold seams. I managed to clean up most of it with the fire extinguisher being the only part I had to replace. I'm not convinced by the gun barrel either and will see what it looks like under paint before deciding whether to replace it. I'm not sure if this is a common issue with this kit or whether I got a Friday afternoon job but it is worth noting due to the fit issues this created. The build took substantially longer than expected.

 

Also of note is that there are a design mistakes to the front of the hull resulting in mis-sized parts. First is the final drive housings. These are a different shape to the recess in the hull side and won't fit without trimming them in places. The gap that results is only noticeable when the drive sprocket is removed so not a big issue but you will have to modify the housing to get them to fit.

  

 

 

The other issues are to do with the front plate and upper nose plate. Both are slightly too small which results in the rest of the hull being slightly wider than the front and creates gap between the front plate and the side skirts. I fixed the front plate by adding extensions to the sides and blending them in.

 

 

I haven't bothered fixing the width of upper nose plate but l did have to fill the large gap at the front of the hull.

 

 

Fit issues aside, I enjoyed building this one. I plan to dust off the airbrush this weekend and get some paint on

 

Cheers

Matt

[Jasper dog]

Hi, nice clean build, looking at the photos you wouldn't have thought it had given trouble. 

 

Atb

Darryl 

[robw_uk]

Nice build, and yes lockdown kicked my motivation back on,,, look forward to more o fthis

[Phil1960]

Nice beast😊. Many interesting  details. I’m looking for paint and weathering.

ciao Filippo 

[Matt182]

Cheers guys, just got a small update today - the dark yellow base coat has been applied. I started with Vallejo 70.604 German dark yellow surface primer which goes on very smoothly and acts as a primer and base coat in one. It's quite a dark colour though so I went over it with AK Interactive 753 Dunkelgelb. I tried to lighten panel centres and give it a slightly uneven application to break up the solid slab of dark yellow. Pretty happy with it so for, hopefully will get the camo on tonight. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Matt182]

Hi guys, a change of plan with this one. Being honest, I made quite a mess of the camo so instead of starting again I have decided to do a white wash. As I wanted to make it look like it was applied by hand the first coat has been brushed on with heavily thinned Tamiya flat white. It's looking pretty rough at the moment but the next go other with the airbrush will hopefully tidy it up substantially! Lesson learned, practice first! 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Matt