Hessler's King Tiger (original post)

Hi foks!
Here are some more pix of another model of mine you're probably sick of seeing! But I got some new pix, taken, so...

Yup, it's my old Italeri M-47 Patton, finished as "Hessler's King Tiger R-01" from the much-maligned 1966 Warner Brothers film, "Battle of the Bulge."
Here are the pix:







Much has been written about the myriad of glaring technical and historical inaccuracies in this film, the least of which (in my opinion) is the choice of M-47s as Tiger IIs and M-24 Chaffees as Shermans. What could you expect filmakers in 1966 to do? Sure, there were some Shermans available back then, but Tiger IIs? Where would anybody since the end of WWII get a bunch of Tiger IIs for filming? Anyway, I love this old film. At the very least, you get to see tanks, tanks, and more tanks!

Sure, sure, they painted 'em Panzer Gray, too...I know, I know. Who knows why? Stubborn director liked gray? At any rate, looking closely at the M-47s in the film, it seems to me that they made some effort to make them look a little more Tiger-like.

For example, all the bore evacuators have been removed, as have the rear storage bins on the turret bustles. They were probably just lucky that the muzzle brakes were of the more Tigerly design, rather than the T-shaped muzzle brake. Other than that, although the Panzer Gray is way wrong, they did appear to spray it on the rubber wheels as well, in what may have been an attempt to portray the Tiger's steel wheels.

This is of course all speculation on my part, based on details I noticed when doing the research to turn the Italeri kit into Hessler's steed. These vehicles may well have been simply in this condition when the filmakers took control of them for shooting.

The build is pretty straightforward, but I replaced the barrel with Jordi Rubio's 90mm metal item, using one of the muzzle brakes form the Italeri kit. I also used some bits from Eduard's M-46 PE set, added a wire and white metal cable to the rear, and added some other bits from other sources here and there.

This was the very first model I ever used an airbrush on, and I was just happy that there were no runs! The build has lots of little problems here and there, but I like the overall effect.

Looks like Hessler's King Tiger to me!
The figure, however looks nothing like Robert Shaw.
Must be the stunt double!

I'd love to hear any comments or criticism about this model.
(Give the flick a break though, OK? It's been bashed enough!)