Stik - thx for that link, never seen it before, but really is interesting to read.  Regarding the Bison decal sets, I consider myself lucky now, I had ordered them from a Canadian webstore just as this GB was getting underway.  I went to check for you if they still had some available, but they are sold out.

Eric - regarding tracks mounted on Kursk Tigers, there is a very informative thread over at Missing-lynx where member(s) have provided serials of the tanks present at that battle (and to which unit they were assigned).   Turret brackets for spare tracks was a modification incorporated with production models numbered 250207-251346.  So armed with that knowledge, just cross reference the two.  

That is an interesting statement from Jentz regarding two tone Tigers in Africa.  I agree that officially, the tropic scheme should be present on all equipment sent to North Africa, whether this was followed to perfection with every vehicle, I am not sure.  The Bovington Tiger was from the 504th battalion, arriving only in March 1943.  So it is being very confident to state that those that arrived previously (as early as  Nov/Dec.) must have been painted the same way.  I found this thread raising my eyebrow, and raising some doubts: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1350507698/Beute+KV2+-+is+it+in+grey+or+green-!

As I am writing this, an idea popped up like a light bulb - though  it possible it has already been put in words elsewhere - but consider when dunklegelb was intoduced in 1943, the factory did not apply any other camou colors, but instead shipped equipment with additional tins of brown and green so field units could apply as required.  Could this arrangement been a result of past experiences where vehicles were destined for one theatre, but then ended elsewhere, either due to error, but more likely a transition of priority due to battle losses incurred.   Essentially , I think it is possible some panzer grey Tigers were shipped to Africa, and while in transit, were at that point painted a more suitable color.  

regards,

Jack

Jack, if any Panzer Grey Tigers were shipped to Africa, it is likely they would have been battle loss replacements after late January 1943, as that is when units there began experiencing battle losses, and needed to make them up. Considering that the Dark Yellow changeover did not occur until February, this is possible. But from what I have read, the Tigers sent over in unit shipments were painted prior to leaving Europe.

Well for the past couple days I have been working on the Tristar crew figures

I actually got some paint on them, but Photobucket seems to have lost those photos after I uploaded them... really guys???

ok, this is real odd... these ones are showing on and off on my PB home page but not in the assigned area where I put all my WIP photos

anyways I primed the figures in Tamiya Buff

and then since I have a real preference for Gunze's Flesh, but it hand brushes badly and come out too glossy due to it's semi gloss finish, I airbrushed it on. I have never airbrushed any base colors on figures before so this will be an interesting task...

and the other side shot of the turret is floating around on and off PB as well... shades of that Star Trek episode where Kirk would appear and disappear...

Stik, the figures are looking good.  Many people do apply a primer with an airbrush at this scale.  Since your favourite skin tone is easier applied this way, it would at the same time, make a great primer for the figure as a whole.

regards,

Jack

SP: Nice work! I normally paint figures entirely with a brush but lately I've been applying the first coat of flesh with my airbrush too.

Funny, I've had some issues with Photobucket too, I tried uploading a photo about three times the other day and it never would work, still not sure why.  

I got the rear plate completed now (not that many parts) and I'll try to upload some pics on Sunday or Monday. I would do it tomorrow, but I'm spending the whole day at an airshow (yikes!). If anyone has some pics of whitewashed King Tigers, please post them. I want to paint mine up with some winter-camo, but I have no good pics of such vehicles... Any help on this would be much appreciated!

Cheers, Clemens

The track problem solved itself. Another one of the "issues" with the kit is the inability of the tracks to meet the track holders (top and bottom) properly and the requirement to dissect each and apply them individually. OK. Tracks on the front it is. I wonder what the genesis of this kit is. I wonder if it isn't considerably earlier than the Dragon Tiger I "Initial Deployment" Tigers. The instructions are beyond screwy and there are all kinds of little bits of really bad engineering. I'm sure if you'd built another DML Tiger it would help a lot, but I'm flying blind. Luckily, when things work they show impressive flair. DML and I am going to have to work out a proper relationship - this is my fourth and each one has included some of the best and worst features I've seen on a kit. I've got some of the newest DML tanks at home and we'll see what a contemporary kit offers. I even have a couple of Tascas to act as control. (I understand some of the other orange box kits are from the 90s and are more like Tamiya in build detail and ease. Hope so, because I've got a couple of those too.)

As per painting, when the factories began producing dunkelgelb AFVs, the units were given the other paints to allow for local conditions. Doubt fuel shortages were severe in 43 (although already a serious problem) - as I understand it later in the war units were diluting their paint with used fluids or even water - either would cause a very uneven coat. Almost like a land bound flying circus in some of the photos.

Eric

Jack, if the Gunze's flesh was flat, that would be perfect for a primer. But since it was semi gloss, I went with the Tamya Buff for the primer coat. I like the way it is turning out so far.

Gamera, lately I have been priming my figures about 2/3 of the time, so this was just an easy added step to add the next color and do the flesh base. since flesh is often a bit of beyatch to brush paint, usually requiring more than one coat, I may switch to airbrushing the skin tones as standard.

One good thing about this method, I like using Humbrol enamels for my uniform colors, so any accidental overage on the skin is easily cleaned up with a thinner moistened brush, since the base coat is acrylic.

Eric, at our AMPS chapter here, we are building almost every 1/35 Tiger kit under the sun for our GB there. There were many rumblings about the Dragon Tiger kits directions and their peculiarities. Beautiful kits, but difficult directions.

Strik

I'd like to know what the genesis of this kit is. There's a vendor in Japan that has almost every instruction available for inspection and I've looked over several DML Tigers and this one doesn't quite match any of them. A little befuddling because it's got the typical DML box load of extras. I'll give my sob story at length in a bit, but the "issues" with this thing go beyond the instructions and it certainly doesn't match the quality of the other three DML tanks I've built (a Brummbar, Alamein Sherman and Pz38t). Add complexity to bad instructions and some bad engineering and any driver error can blow up in your face. That said, when it's good, it's Dragon good. Just maybe not as good as usual. As noted I've never done a Tiger. It strikes me that there's a lot of duplication involved within a genre. When I built Academy's very good M-12 it certainly reminded me of the earlier Sherman - even if it had a Lee/Grant carriage.

Eric

I am not familiar at all with the Dragon family of Tiger kits. I know of them, but have never bought one, let alone built one. More than likely it is all theirs, but they have been revamping their Tigers for many years. My own experience with Dragon stuff is to study the directions thoughly, test fit often multiple times, before doing any gluing. Yes they are beautiful kits, but they are finicky, over engineered, and very prone to instruction sheet errors and tricky builds.

All of my Tiger kits are Tamiya and Italeri. And those are good enough for me without so many headaches... I would love to try an AFV Club one, especially their Sturmtiger. And after all that interior scratch work on mine I want to do the Acadmy Tiger with full interior for a deep involved project.

I know what you mean about family resemblence M12/M3/M4. I felt similar between my Tiger and Panzer III that I did last year. In a way you can see that they show similar traits in design as you build them up.

Military history is my field and I wanted a Kursk Tiger. Right after I bought the CH kit, Zvezda comes out with a Kursk version that includes an interior. I'm used to Zvezda strangeness and would not have been afraid, and an interior would have been good reason to leave the hatches open. (I could with the CH kit too of course, but except for the breach and a chair there's nothing to see.) Too late now. The thing is basically built so the interesting part will begin in the next few days.

Eric

Stik-figures are coming along very nicely.....I really need to give them a try someday.

Made some progress this evening-tracks are on the Panther....unpainted...will attempt to get pics posted before the weekend is over.

The Magic Tracks on the Panther aren't quite as forgiving as the ones on the Jagdpanzer I build a while back.  After fighting with the tracks for a bit, I decided to bite the bullet and paint them on the Panther.  Of course, had I followed the instructions and installed the tracks BEFORE installing the upper hull, it would have been sooooo much easier.  I ended up breaking the antenna (retracted) and a C hook on the engine compartment but I think I can find suitable replacements in the spares bin or scratch something.  I'm also giving thoughts to going ahead and attaching the tools and painting them after attaching...dunno.  Probably won't get any more accomplished for a couple of weeks-going out of town tomorrow for the weekend and then for the 4th weekend.....and I have a Fokker that needs to be completed by 7/31....

Eric, I would like to do a Kursk Tiger as well. I want to do one from Grossdeutschland. I did not know that the Zvezda Tiger came with an interior... nice! I like their kits for the most part.

Bob, you should try some figures. It's a definite steep learning curve, but very nice when they start to come together as you want them.

Eric, still planning a North Africa GB this fall, Armor86

armor86

Eric, still planning a North Africa GB this fall, Armor86

I might have to consider that one. 

Good progress for me today. All scratch work done. I built the brackets for the headlights based off of photos and drawings. I even used those Academy shave off details for the bolt heads 

and since my photos of the spare track brackets did not come out well the other day I took a couple more to better show the work...

and here is the part I added to the TC hatch for the pad on the inner surface

here is how it looks overall now. I still need to glue on the tow cables- there are only pressed in place for this photo... gotta wait on those grill screens to arrive

and my continuing work on the crew figures

and a new Tamiya figure that I bought the other night for this tank as well...

I am so ready to get this one finished! 

Looking nice, Stik!

I had a brief look at Zvezda's Tiger today. It is a great kit, but not perfect:

• Full Turret Interior with great details
• Better surface details than the Tamiya kit (the weld seams on the hull for example)
• Some simple detail in the driver's compartment
• All hatches can be built open
• Dirt cheap price tag

But the kit has it's shortcomings as well:

• At least 60 (!) sink marks on the hull (on each hull side and on the bottom)
• The instructions are poorly printed and much more confusing than any instruction sheet made by Dragon
• The decals are unuseable (they are badly printed and the carrier film has a strong yellow tint even though the kit is brand new)

Even with the mentioned problems, it's definitely worth picking up, as it's price is unbeatable (my LHS has only one of them, but sells it for only 15€!) and I can take the Decals from my Tamiya Tiger that is still awaiting some paint.

Cheers, Clemens

progress, well, a little

Schatten, I will keep an eye out for that kit when it shows up here.

Malone, your Tiger is looking very nice there!

Great work, Malone!

Sorry, no update today. I am ill ATM and don't feel like building at all...

I'll post some pics for ya as soon as I feel better...

Cheers, Clemens

Hey SP & MD, those are some sharp work! Really have to love all the little extra details you guys are working in there!

Clemons: Thanks for the short review of the Zvezda kit, I've only built a few of their models and have been more apt to go for known quality in Dragon and Tamiya. Might have to give one of theirs a whirl someday at that price, and zimmerit should cover up most of the sinkholes.

Thanks Gamera. I have fun doing that stuff- improving older kits. Much easier on the wallet than the Dragon kits...

Today was mostly paint work on my big cat- using the same improvised approximated RAL 8020 Braun I airbrushed it on the area around the exhausts- I figured that when they repainted the Olive Green in the field in Tunisia, they were were not too thorough and some of the original exterior Braun base color would still be visible there...

I am gonna tack the exhaust guards in place for the Green, but will remove them to paint the exhausts after the Green is on

and I primed up the head light/front plate area with Tamiya Panzer Gray and re did the inner surface of the TC hatch

and I primed up and began work on the Tamiya crew figure

It's getting there...

Stik - looking good.  Will you be adding some carbon soot to the rear? 

There is this photo of the Bovington Tiger, and looks to have some exhaust stains peeking out from those muffler covers:

------------------------------------------

Over the weekend got my decals made and placed.   Still having probs with the digital camera dialing up the magenta on the decals, even after purposely printing out the background a stronger green.  So have ordered some liquid mask to spray around the decal images and finally correct this bizarreness.

Also worked on the tracks, they are about 75% assembled - and finally figured out how to avoid snapping the pins when clipping them together - yea even soaked in boiling water did not prevent the odd one breaking.

regards,

Jack

Jack, yes I will be doing some exhaust staining on the rear, but that photos gives me a new idea there as well. That looks like heat discoloration on the exhaust guards- very interesting.

Thank you so much for posting it! An excellent photo!

Great scratchbuilding.

Thank you sir! I was raised on those Sheperd Paine flyers in the old Monogram kits and have been having lots of fun on recent builds doing that sort of thing...

I can't believe a year has passed by since I posted for this GB. Time and priorities have not been a friend for my hobby.

I did manage some progress in June and this month.

Here are some pics from June:

These are the progress pics from late June - today:

My goal is to have the ModelKasten tracks on by next week. Then I can weather it.

Please..,If you have any suggetions please share.

Ibuild48. I think it looks really good man. I don't have any problems with it at all. Nice work with the Zimm.  Also nice paint work.

Stik. The details really stand out .  It's easier for me to go with the photo etch. I just don't have enough reference stored up to venture off on my own like that. I like the way your headed with the paint work as well.

I Build, I like that camo pattern... sort of a tiger stripe design... perfect on King Tiger...

MD, I honestly had only one book and a few pages of some stuff emailed to me by a guy from our AMPS chapter here as my prime reference. All the other stuff was online just fom web searching. Tigers Im Focus is an excellent online resource for anyone building any Tiger kit. Using this tablet at the workbench definitely has its advantages... but thank you. I admire the PE work that I am seeing here on your build! That is looking real sharp!