PROMISED PICS, LET ME KNOW IF I SHOUL;D FIX ANYTHING...

Wow that is looking good Malone! Beautiful work! 

Well all fenders and most hull fitting pretty much attached. I am holding off on pioneer tools/stowage until I decide on which turret number this tank will be. There was some variation in that on the Tigers in this unit.

I need to scratch build some brackets for the spare track shoes that were carried on the rear hull by the 501st Tigers

and I worked on the turret interior detail painting...

Monday will probably be my next major update...

Nice progress Stik.

Thanks. It's finally starting to look like a Tiger now...

Nice work guys!

MD: The PE screens look good! And I like the power cable to added to the front plate light.

SP: Good looking interior there. I've kinda passed over the Italeri kits but the interior detail there looks great, more than I've seen on a lot of Dragon and Tamiya kits.

Looking really nice , guys!

I've made some progress on my kit as well:

The turret is completely build except for a little handle at the loader's hatch (I'll make that one out of wire), the muzzle brake and some seam filling on the bottom. The gun and mantlet are removable.

Here are some pics.

Those seams need some work:

I also glued some parts to the lower hull, but I want to finish the suspention first before taking some pics.

I'm not sure on how I'll paint my Tiger, but I think I'll go for one with white camo. If you have some tips on painting white-washed vehicles, please let me know.

I hope you like it (my first tank of that massive size...)

Cheers, Clemens 

Gamera, thanks! I added about 1/3 of that detail to the turret interior to make it better. but once it's all glued togethr it will be very hard to see much of it without a light. I tell you what though, this makes me want to get one of the Academy Tigers with the full interior and go all the way with that...

Schatten, that turret is looking real good there! Now where is the hull? ;-)

Today's work for me was limited to finishing up the paintwork in the turret interior. I wil get pics posted of my progress tomorrow before I get it all sealed up.

Malone-continuing to impress-PE makes a world of difference....still don't see how you guys can paint the tools when they're attached...

Stik-love the interior detail-it's a shame to have to button it up...

Clemens-very nice job on the turret

Now with markings - 132 - 'Tunisian' Tiger - started family vacation ... back to it in a little more than a week and should have it complete by end of July ... photos below a little with getting hull side decal with cables .... couple more items to install (extra track) and finish with weathering it. See a lot of great work going on even tho there's only 2 months left. Armor86

Clemons: Nice work there on the KT turret, it's about the size of a M5 Stuart isn't it?

Dan: Good looking camo!

Nice work guys. Keep plugging away.

Thank you very much, guys.

Stik: The hull had a little "accident"... Just kidding, I'll add the parts of the suspention today. The whole hull should be finished untill Sunday...

Gamera: Yes, it is about as big as the hull of a Stuart! That tank is going to be huge!

Cheers, Clemens

spartan, that big guy is looking real good man...

armor86...  it keeps getting better and better...

 as for me still plugging...  some pics tomorrow...  as for the tools, its easier for me to add them before paint cause i usually gum things up when i try to add them after. plus i feel by adding them now the primer and paint layers help hold everything together better.

Thanks for the insight Malone-I'm going to have to try that on the next build.

Right now I'm struggling on whether to attempt to piece the tracks together in sections, remove, paint & re-assemble or just assemble the tracks on the Panther and then paint....time to get the decision making nickle out....

Most impressive! Almost 190 pages of Steel Cats!

Page 190

As promised yesterday, before I was out and about on my morning errands today, I took photos of the finished turret interior before it was all closed up...

then I glued the turret roof on and went about my morning/midday errands, one of which was a stop by my storage unit for these guys...

once I got home I finished up the turret

and this is what you can pretty much see thru the open turret hatches... just a bit more in person

then it was time to work on the hull... using a few references I placed the tools as best I could and replaced a few of them that I could with some Tamiya tools for a Panzer IV OVM Tool set because they were better detailed. I also added the wiring plugs for the headlights using some styrene nubs cut from parts in my spares bin

now Academy's Sherman & Tank Destroyer kits come with some beautiful detail parts that you shave off of the sprue

using those (and the handles from the kit wire cutters which I replaced) I created these toggle bolts for a cover near the hull MG mount

and I used some to make the latches for the turret bin

Initial Production Tigers used by the 501st in Africa had a hinged exhaust flap that was not included in my kit, so I raided my spares bin, modified some armored filler cap covers and glued those into place

I still need to scratch build some brackets for spare track shoes on the hull rear

and I need to scratch build some brackets/bracing for the headlights and add the wiring, and add the tow cables and engine deck grills, but as of now, this Tiger is about 97% built

Looking great, Stik!

I got all the suspention arms glued to the lower hull and moved to the rear plate now.

Cheers, Clemens

Hey guys, good to see some new blood joining the group.

Stik - clever work with the interior, showcasing quite the resourcefulness with the scratchbuild and sparesbox.

Dan - that two tone camou looks quite convincing, I like it.

Malone - keen work with the PE.

Clemens - very nice, a clean construction goes a long way towards an excellent build.

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

I am back to finish my cat.   Was away to meet another GB deadline, but now can focus back to this one. 

First task to tackle is those home made decals.  My new approach is to use clear film, so have painted the required areas white, as inkjet printers cannot print that colour (turret numbers are only white outlines).   Pictured below is where I'm currently at.

regards,

Jack

Clemens, that sounds good about getting your suspension arms done.

Jack your Tiger is looking great! I really like that base. Thank you for the kind words.

Jgeratic. Ditto for me man. That base and tiger sure are sweet.

Stik good work man. You're making that kit work!

Oh it is taking over my thought process here MD.... and I am not letting myself get sidetracked on anything else!

jack: your Tiger looks great.  Love teh name plate on that base. Are you doing "731?"  If so, Archer has a set of complete markings here www.archertransfers.com/AR49004.html

Stik: you Tiger's looking marvelous!

Your Tiger and it's base are looking awesome, Jack!

Jack & Stik-I have to agree with the rest of the group-both Tigers look great.  I especially like the base you've put together Jack....it really adds to the Tiger.

Yeah great job there on the Tiger Jack, and the base really sets her off to best effect.

Bob and Pyr, thank you for the compliments, I am really loving this build now.

Minor progress on the tank itself today- I made the rear hull spare track shoe brackets

and added a spare track shoe on each side of the turret based off of photos of 501st Tigers in Tunisia

and I have been working on the Tristar crew figure set. Oh those are some beautiful figures... too bad my photo of my work on them so far was so badly focused...

more to follow in a day or two... tomorrow is back to my work routine...

Continued great work Stik.

Glad to see you back Jack.

Everyone, thanks.

I'm building the second vehicle for the 501st battalion hq, numbered 02.  

I did order  Archer's generic set of 1/48 German white outline turret number's, but they look small compared to photos and scale comparison with Bison's product, which is 1/35.

regards,

Jack

I dug up this related thread last night regarding Olive Green Tigers in Tunisia. Lots of good informed posts, but still no definitive hard answers.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/86794.aspx

BTW, those Bison decals look awesome- too bad they are OOP and sold out, they would be perfect for my build. My prime reference source, "The Tiger Tanks" lists the 1st company of 501st being sent to Africa originally in overall  Desert Brown with white outline turret numbers and later in Tunisia they had the red centers added.

OK: Am seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel on a Cyber Hobby "Kursk" Tiger I. It's a dumbed down version of the early "Wittmann Tiger" that was selling for about $800 on eBay recently. The original kit had "issues" concerning fit and despite having some invaluable build notes there have been times when I've almost broken my vow of never abandoning a project. (And then broken my vow to never break windows with models flying through them.) In near future I will share some woes as Dragon doesn't make many $30 Tigers and here we've got one. And Kursk - that's history. So some others might take the same journey even though they may be better off with a Tamiya or the new Zvezda.

The kit has pretty indefinite painting notes - more or less calls for nearly everything (except the jack) to be base color. I've seen enough color pics of olive drab shovel handles on Shermans to accept the verdict that the grounds that war is the enemy of art. That said, some wise heads here and on Armorama have assured me that I can paint accessories which will add some visual interest. (Not really sure a Tiger I needs it - it does embody "tankness" regardless of what color the shovels are.)  

Am kind of stuck on a point. The kit calls for extra tracks mounted on the turret. There are a lot of photos of Kursk era Tigers and a few show this arrangement. Far more show the extra tracks mounted on the lower front hull. (Several show both - I don't doubt they used extra tracks.) The kit does have extra parts to fill the turret and presumably have you mount them elsewhere - it also has brackets for turret use. Art wise I'm very torn. On one hand, the tracks on the turret would add little to complication and would add something perhaps to visual appeal. On the other, I like the idea of ending up with "plain Jane Joe Tiger" showing a busload of dirt and dust. In any case, if there some of our residents are sitting on top of a Jentz volume or something like it, I'd be glad to let actual employment guide my decision. Otherwise I'll flip a coin.

Speaking of Jentz, I emailed Bovington concerning his claim that ALL German tanks in May-June 1940 used a gray/brown camo even though (as even Jentz claims) it's invisible on photos. The gent from Bovington admitted that Jentz's early claim concerning the light green/desert brown scheme, despite being invisible in all the photos, was actually proven true during restoration of the Tiger. So I guess if Bovington is right, and you want the right scheme for a Tunisian Tiger you can check their museum piece. (I'm still unconvinced about 1940.)

Eric