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Wittmann's Tiger, or was it?


Maddoxx77

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Next project is a fun one. 

I wanted to build a Wittmann Tiger for quite some time, however i did not want to do his last one, the 007. So i started researching and i found the battle of Villers-bocage on 13th of june 1944. 

Michael Wittmann took out no less then 21 enemy vehicles including, 6 cromwell tanks.

 

So far not much controversy however when reading trough the battle reports and all that was writen after the battle there remained one big question: what was the turretnumber of the Tiger Wittmann used? And from there i went down the rabbit hole.

For many years it was concluded that Wittmann used Tiger 222, originaly commanded by Kurt Sowa. Due to maintainance issues with his own Tiger, Wittmann used the Tiger of one of his fellow commanders to start the attack on the allied forces outside Villers-bocage. This was common practice in those days because of mantainance, losses and lack of spare parts. 

 

Recent studies questioned the number 222 narative and it was because of this picture:

Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-738-0275-10A,_Bei

Here Tiger 222 is shown towing Tiger 231 after the Battle of Villers-bocage. This was very uncommon in those days. Tiger crews were instructed to leave their vehicles behind when knocked out. Under some circumstances it was done, as seen above.

Due to this photo it is believed that Wittmann commandeerd Tiger 231. That could explain the fact that it was towed by Kurt Sowa. Wittmann achieved a great victory and the german propaganda machine could use that to support the narrative that the Allied advance had been halted. 

So, Tiger 222 or 231?

It is still debatable and to this day it's not 100% certain. 

That concludes the history lesson. If you want to know more, check this website:

http://www.panzerace.net/biography/normandy-1944/villers-bocage/

 

 Now on to the project. Using the Photo above i decided to use turretnumber 222. I will not do an exact replica of the photo ( i could not find the right figures to do that ) but i will try to capture the 'feel' of the image. 

 

And here is the hardware:

20221028_130524.jpg

A Tiger 'late' from trumpeter. Workable tracklinks  voyager PE, towing cables and cleaning rods, resin tools, custom decals and a german tank crew from miniart.

 

In this project i won't do custom zimmerit. I will use the zimm sheets trumpeter have pit in the kit. 

 

I think this will be a long build but i'm looking foreward to start. 

 

Feel free to tag along and as always, comments, tips etc. are welcome and much appriciated.

 

Cheers! 👍👍👍

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So, first update. This is my first kit from Trumpeter. I noticed that the plastic is a bit thicker then i'm used to. The parts itself look clean, few ejector pinmarks or excess sprue.

I started with the hull and the swingarms. No issues there. Then the backplate. Here i encountered my first PE parts. That went..... uhm shall we say...tricky. Having not much expirience with PE this is a whole new challenge. It gives the word 'small' a whole new meaning! Oh well, we all have to learn....

So i got some hits and some misses.... 

And i ended up with this.

20221031-160629.jpg

The exhausts are dryfitted so i can work on them seperatly. 

I work in short stints to keep the concentration level where it needs to be. 

The zimmerit sheets Trumpeter provided with the kit work really well! The fit is great and it looks the part. 

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers! 👍👍👍

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6 hours ago, CE1 said:

Trumpeter quality seems really variable. I am just finishing a T-54B and the kit was terrible. Your tiger looks very good!

The fit is great. It's just the thickness of the plastic that makes some parts hard to clean. 

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No photo's this time. Just a little update. While PE parts provide alot of detail to the kit, i'm pretty new to the stuff and i find myself struggeling with it. The parts that are really small and need bending in all sort of shapes is a craft of it's own. So rather then frustrating myself i've decided that i'll use what i can produce. I want to enjoy this build and do it justice. So some PE will be placed and i will definetly try to work with it but if not then not.... in the end this build is not the build to expiriment. 

Just wanted to trow it out there. 

 

Tnx guys!

Cheers! 👍👍👍

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9 minutes ago, Maddoxx77 said:

While PE parts provide alot of detail to the kit, i'm pretty new to the stuff

Makes (at least) two of us. I'm putting off several builds because PE will be involved - some of it quite critical to the structure. 😓

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40 minutes ago, echen said:

Makes (at least) two of us. I'm putting off several builds because PE will be involved - some of it quite critical to the structure. 😓

It's not that i don't like the stuff. But in building several pieces i broke half of them. The backfenders were a 2 day struggle and that's when i remebered my mantra "Keep it simple stupid" 

So i'll do what i can but i won't put on PE for the sake of putting it on. I'm jealous of some of the modelers here that master the art ( or magic, witchcraft even! ) because i know what it can do but for now i won't sacrifice the joy of building. 

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I'm thinking of doing a Tiger from the battle of Villers-Bocage. Your build will be very interesting to me and maybe I can get some inspiration. 
The discussion on which Tiger Wittmann was using in his charge into the village that day still continues to this day. The top contender is still 212, but, like you said, nobody can be 100% certain. 
For my build, I think I will go with 231 even though it wasn't Wittmann's mount. 

 

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1 hour ago, Stef N. said:

Some PE can be really tough and frustrating and sometimes it can click together. But if it's spoiling your build then stick it back in its packaging. 👍

Is it normal that PE parts are "off" scale? I noticed that the fenders were smaller than the kit parts and now i'm butchering the fire extinguiser to fit the PE holder. ( i got spares so if this doesn't work i can replace it.)

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53 minutes ago, Nanond said:

I'm thinking of doing a Tiger from the battle of Villers-Bocage. Your build will be very interesting to me and maybe I can get some inspiration. 
The discussion on which Tiger Wittmann was using in his charge into the village that day still continues to this day. The top contender is still 212, but, like you said, nobody can be 100% certain. 
For my build, I think I will go with 231 even though it wasn't Wittmann's mount. 

 

It's funny because, lately the historians think he was on the 231. The problem is that this number was not on the list of Tigers that were operational, however the question remains why the 222 is towing the 231 in the photo? That was against regulations, altough it is possible that there was a engine issue and the number of tigers they had was not very high so maybe it got towed because it could be repaired..... We'll never know for shure. 

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7 minutes ago, Maddoxx77 said:

It's funny because, lately the historians think he was on the 231. The problem is that this number was not on the list of Tigers that were operational, however the question remains why the 222 is towing the 231 in the photo? That was against regulations, altough it is possible that there was a engine issue and the number of tigers they had was not very high so maybe it got towed because it could be repaired..... We'll never know for shure. 


Yes, I think it was Dan Taylor who favour 231 being Wittmann's mount, while Yann Jouault is in favour of 212. Many evidences are also in support of it being not 231.

Here is some information from the latest discussion I've seen on the topic of 231 (around 2018).

According to Yann Jouault, "In recent years, new information was obtained pertaining to the involvement of Tiger 231 near Villers-Bocage : on 13 June 1944, this Tiger was actually commanded by Oscha. Georg Lötzsch and, according to his original account that I was made aware of, it was one of the few tanks that supported Wittmann's attack (only the very early stage when Wittmann departed from its original location) but Tiger 231 NEVER left the Ancienne route de Caen / Les Hauts-Vents Farm (it had a faulty drive sprocket /track problem). During the initial fire exchange with (at least) one British tank of A Sqn, 4CLY (most likely the Firefly nicknamed "Blondie" which was eventually hit), Tiger 231 received several hits. None of them seemed to have impaired this Tiger but due to a faulty drive sprocket that caused the track to 'jump', it had to be towed back to the Werkstatt and this was done the next day, on the 14 June."


"Lötzsch was then SS-Oberscharführer. He had taken over Tiger 231 shortly before reaching VB. He couldn’t remember the reason why. He said his Tiger had a faulty drive sprocket which meant that they were prone to throw a track at any moment. As a result, he was not very mobile and had to drive very carefully (in his book, the German author Patrick Agte simply wrote that Lötzsch’s Tiger had track damage)."

 

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39 minutes ago, Maddoxx77 said:

Is it normal that PE parts are "off" scale? I noticed that the fenders were smaller than the kit parts and now i'm butchering the fire extinguiser to fit the PE holder. ( i got spares so if this doesn't work i can replace it.)

Fenders are normally a good fit I find, but some of the other stuff you need to chop up the plastic a bit. Aber I have recently realised that they can be a bit over scale, especially clamps. 

Is your Voyager set specifically for Trumpeter kits? Worth checking if some parts aren't fitting. 

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Tnx @Nanond that's very usefull. For this build i'm sticking with the 222 turret number. 

Also because i had to go full darkweb to find 222 decals 🤣

1 hour ago, Longbow said:

Wittman's mounts at Villers-Bocage are a veritable can of worms, which have still not been categorically sorted out.

Good Luck !!

Absolutely! But it is such an interesting can..... 

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So, tonight i did some work on the upper hull. It's far from finished but i made good progress. The detail of the parts is verry good i must say. Trumpeter did a really good job there. 

I used some PE parts. The cleaning rods are a nice addition as are the engine covers. 

20221101-225656.jpg

i tried my best to fit the fire extinguiser with the PE holder but it just didn't work. So i grabbed one from the spare box. 

 

Also, i think i solved the PE fitting problem

20221101-220510.jpg

Above is the Trumpeter PE. Below the one from the voyager PE set. Altough it says 1:35 scale my gut feeling tells me this could be 1:48. 

Anyhow, 24 euro's straight to the spare box. The detail on the parts from trumpeter make up for it. 

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers! 👍👍👍

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Workbench update. Apart from some minor details like the bolts on the rack for the cleaning rods and some other small stuff the upper hull is finished.

20221102-101855.jpg

I really like the look of the towingcables and the brass rods. 

I will leave the hatches open so i gave the inside of the hull a coat of black primer.

20221102-113227.jpg

After that was done i put the upper and lower hull together and made a start with the turret.

20221102-115835.jpg

After the initial setback with the PE i now really enjoy this build. 

Now it's time for real life stuff.....

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers! 👍👍👍

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1 hour ago, Maddoxx77 said:

i gave the inside of the hull a coat of black primer.

Not sure how much is visible through the 1/35 engine deck vents but I mounted folded pix of Tiger fans and radiators on a frame made from sprues under my 1/72 Tiger engine deck vents.

I've tried to embed the pix here - without success. I'll try and pm the jpgs if you're interested - they're in the Tiger Superthread somewhere too.

 

 

 

Edited by echen
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26 minutes ago, echen said:

Not sure how much is visible through the 1/35 engine deck vents but I mounted folded pix of Tiger fans and radiators on a frame made from sprues under my 1/72 Tiger engine deck vents.

I've tried to embed the pix here - without success. I'll try and pm the jpgs if you're interested - they're in the Tiger Superthread somewhere too.

 

 

 

That's a great idea however  i've tested the look and there is nothing visible. I think in the end with everything fitted and the figures etc. It will look great.

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