Normandy Hedgerow - 1/72 M4 Sherman vs Tiger 1

[PlaStix]

It has been a looonnnng time since I've posted anything in this section but I have managed to get a couple of builds finished as part of the D-Day 80th Anniversary GB.  Both the Heller M4 Sherman and Dragon Tiger 1 were good kits to build, if a little fiddly in places.....but that probably down to my old fingers!

 

WIP Thread: HERE

Kits: 1/72 Heller M4 Sherman and 1/72 Dragon Armor Pro Tiger 1 Mid Production with Zimmerit

Paints: Revell, Humbrol, Citadel, Railmatch and Vallejo - all acrylics and applied with normal paintbrushes

Base: Foamboard, frozen pizza styrene packaging, Polyfiller, plus scenic materials primarily from Woodland Scenics & Army Painter 

Figures: 1/72 Zvezda American Infantry

 

The first set of photos were taken against a sky/scenic photo backdrop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next set of photos were taken against a white backdrop to show the overall base:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone who commented in my build thread and to @JOCKNEY for hosting the GB.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Milan Mynar]

Nice diorama.

[JOCKNEY]

Congratulations Stix

That looks superb 

Cheers Pat 

[GREG DESTEC]

Excellent work as always Stix. Looks like the Tiger is in for a tough time of it! 

Well done 👍 

 

Cheers Greg 

[Pete1961]

Superb work!

[mick]

great work

[Keeff]

Fantastic work @PlaStix!  A great finish on the tanks, and a scene where you can almost see what happens next .... 

 

Keith ☺️ 

[StuartH]

Lovely work with an excellent composition 👍

[Bullbasket]

You've really nailed it there Stix. Great models, and excellent figures and base. Great work all round.

 

John.

[FrancisGL]

Hi Stix,

I'm glad to see a new work of yours, each time smaller...lol
As always it is an exceptional work, I really like how the set turned out, and the figures are incredible to be at this scale.😲

Cheers

Francis.👍

[Stef N.]

A fantastic scene Stix. Top, top modelling. 👏👏👏

[Lightningboy2000]

Brilliant work! 

 

[echen]

Another fabulous build!

Great setting and finishing on the AFVs.

Well illustrates the downside of keeping the turret lid closed..............................

[alexb2611]

One for me to aspire to - looks great! 

 

Cheers,

Alex

[Ozzy]

cracking build

[PlaStix]

On 15/09/2024 at 14:15, Milan Mynar said:

Nice diorama.

Thank you Milan.

 

On 15/09/2024 at 14:24, JOCKNEY said:

Congratulations Stix

That looks superb 

Cheers Pat 

Thank you very much Pat and thank you for running the GB!

 

On 15/09/2024 at 15:42, GREG DESTEC said:

Excellent work as always Stix. Looks like the Tiger is in for a tough time of it! 

Well done 👍 

Cheers Greg 

Hi Greg. Thank you. Hope you are keeping well.

 

On 15/09/2024 at 17:43, Pete1961 said:

Superb work!

Cheers Pete!

 

On 15/09/2024 at 17:46, mick said:

great work

Thank you Mick.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[PlaStix]

On 15/09/2024 at 18:45, Keeff said:

Fantastic work @PlaStix!  A great finish on the tanks, and a scene where you can almost see what happens next .... 

Keith ☺️ 

Thank you very much Keith.

 

On 15/09/2024 at 19:40, StuartH said:

Lovely work with an excellent composition 👍

Thank you for that Stuart.

 

On 16/09/2024 at 06:50, Bullbasket said:

You've really nailed it there Stix. Great models, and excellent figures and base. Great work all round.

John.

Thanks John, you are too kind as always!

 

On 16/09/2024 at 08:40, FrancisGL said:

Hi Stix,

I'm glad to see a new work of yours, each time smaller...lol
As always it is an exceptional work, I really like how the set turned out, and the figures are incredible to be at this scale.😲

Cheers

Francis.👍

Thank you Francis. Hope you are keeping well.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Armor Novice]

Such an amazing build. I really like the scene, the Tiger prowling the Bocage, unaware of its end coming from higher up, from the next hedgerow

[PlaStix]

On 16/09/2024 at 08:56, Stef N. said:

A fantastic scene Stix. Top, top modelling. 👏👏👏

Hi Stef. Thank you very much.

 

On 16/09/2024 at 16:05, Lightningboy2000 said:

Brilliant work! 

Thank you!!

 

On 16/09/2024 at 16:44, echen said:

Another fabulous build!

Great setting and finishing on the AFVs.

Well illustrates the downside of keeping the turret lid closed..............................

It certainly does!! Thank you very much echen!

 

On 17/09/2024 at 09:26, alexb2611 said:

One for me to aspire to - looks great! 

Cheers,

Alex

You are too kind Alex, thank you.

 

On 17/09/2024 at 16:04, Ozzy said:

cracking build

Hi Ozzy and thank you.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Kingsman]

That is very nicely done.  My inept fingers and failing eyes gave up on 1/72 a looooong time ago.  If you didn't know it was 1/72 it could easily be1/35.

 

However, US Forces did not actually encounter any Tigers until mid-August, close to Paris and after Normandy.  Tom Hanks was not facing Tigers at Carentan on D+3 before being sent to save Private Ryan.......  That first encounter was with 4 Tiger B's that had already been destroyed by their crews after running out of fuel.  British forces did not meet a Tiger for 2 weeks, at Villers-Bocage.  The 3 dozen Tigers in France on D Day from SS sPzAbt 101 were almost all - if not all - lost in the fighting against Commonwealth forces around Caen and Falaise and replaced by Tiger Bs.  Tiger production ceased entirely in August.  When 7th Army was forced to make up a scratch force to face US 1st Army's breakout to the South - Op Cobra - they could only put together 3 dozen tanks to face a whole Division, mostly Pz IVs with a handful of Panthers.  Predictably all were lost.  1st Army faced almost entirely German infantry with a few PaK guns.

 

[PlaStix]

On 18/10/2024 at 18:33, Armor Novice said:

Such an amazing build. I really like the scene, the Tiger prowling the Bocage, unaware of its end coming from higher up, from the next hedgerow

Thank you very much!

 

14 hours ago, Kingsman said:

That is very nicely done.  My inept fingers and failing eyes gave up on 1/72 a looooong time ago.  If you didn't know it was 1/72 it could easily be1/35.

 

However, US Forces did not actually encounter any Tigers until mid-August, close to Paris and after Normandy.  Tom Hanks was not facing Tigers at Carentan on D+3 before being sent to save Private Ryan.......  That first encounter was with 4 Tiger B's that had already been destroyed by their crews after running out of fuel.  British forces did not meet a Tiger for 2 weeks, at Villers-Bocage.  The 3 dozen Tigers in France on D Day from SS sPzAbt 101 were almost all - if not all - lost in the fighting against Commonwealth forces around Caen and Falaise and replaced by Tiger Bs.  Tiger production ceased entirely in August.  When 7th Army was forced to make up a scratch force to face US 1st Army's breakout to the South - Op Cobra - they could only put together 3 dozen tanks to face a whole Division, mostly Pz IVs with a handful of Panthers.  Predictably all were lost.  1st Army faced almost entirely German infantry with a few PaK guns.

 

Thank you very much for your kind comments and the interesting information! 

Kind regards,

Stix

[LeeM]

Crack dio. Very atmospheric.

[Nenad]

Fantastic dio Stix, great work as always. Cheers!