1944 Group Build

SchattenSpartan

I finally got your Tiger posted on the front page, Doug.

Thanks SS.

Doug

Ken: You have made some very nice progress. That is solid work there.

Although it has been a while I have made some progress on the Hellcat. Applied a Mr. Surfacer 1200 primer coat. Fortunately no major flaws revealed and just a handful of small issues to fill and sand. With those taken care of with some Mr. Surfacer 1000 a final coat of 1200 went on.What was monumental for me was that I managed sand the fuselage seam without damaging the "raised" panel lines that represent the overlapping panels indicative of the Hellcat. Here is some progress pics. I welcome any observations to both the pro and con.

I have a question. I would like to build a Panzer or a King Tiger and need to know what would be a good kit to build that would go with the Ardennes or the Battle of the Bulge? I can not spend a lot of money on this kit but would like to be able to have a good kit also.

Thanks,

Doug

Hey Doug, Are you thinking 1/72 or 1/35 scale? Or maybe 1/48 for that matter.

1/35th

Thanks,

Doug

Doug, if you want a tank, you really have 3 options. Pz IV late version, an Ausf H or J. Panther G and Tiger II with the Henschel turret. Given you don't want to spend to much but still want a good kit, I would really recommend Tamiya kits. They have all of these versions covered, the trick would be getting the right markings. I know they have a Tiger II that's would work. There Panther late G has markings for the area in Jan 1945, but not sure about the BoB itself. Not sure about their Pz IV Ausf J either, but I can check my panther and Pz IV kits to see what they have.

Looking good there JOE.

Thanks Bish, I am hoping to get one ordered tomorrow. I will search all the hobby links to see if I can find the best buy. I am really looking at the Tiger II. I like the looks of it.

Doug

Doug, Definitely check ebay. I was looking around on there last night for you but, I have to admit I was concentrating more on Tiger I's. What I saw was running in the $30.00 to $40.00ish range. If I come across a decent bargain on a Tiger II I'll let you know. I do concur with Bish that the Tamiya's are likely to be your best bet.

Tamiya have two kit you can chooser from. This is the older one. I built this a few years back and its a nice kit.

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TA35164

And this the more recent one. This cost a bit more,

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TA35252

I have no idea what the difference is between the two, but I know for a fact the older one includes markings for a BoB vehicle. Like all newer Tamiya kits, they can be built up just as they are and produce very nice builds. So this are the two you should look for.

And if you are in a hurry, Sprue Brothers have both kits and the price looks pretty good. Certainly a lot cheaper than the Hannants price.

https://store.spruebrothers.com/SearchResults.asp?searching=Y&sort=7&search=King+Tiger&show=100&page=1&brand=Tamiya

I'm pretty sure both kits are the same apart from the bike and figures included in the Ardennes kit...

Well I did it. I ordered the 1:35 Tamiya King Tiger Sd Kfz 182 Production Version last night. Should be here next week. My wife almost killed me but she got over it. Can't wait till it gets here.

Doug

Nomad53

Well I did it. I ordered the 1:35 Tamiya King Tiger Sd Kfz 182 Production Version last night. Should be here next week. My wife almost killed me but she got over it. Can't wait till it gets here.

Doug

What, you mean you told her.

Which one did you order.

I had to tell her or she would have killed me on the spot when it came in. I ordered the Tamiya King Tiger Sd Kfz 182 Production Version. I will have a lot of questions with the build when I get the kit. Such as when to primer, paint and such. I do not want to mess this kit up at all or my wife would never let me order another one.

Doug

Well, you have to find a way to get it past her. When I was in the army I lived in barracks so all my model stuff came there. When I came out it got a bit harder. But then last year she decided she wanted a horse again. She had had one in her 20's, and now with the kids a bit older she wanted another one. So after having one on loan for a while, she decided to buy it. Of course, I offered to buy it for her along with the saddle. Now her livery, insurance, feed etc come to at least my monthly model budget, if not more. Result 

Ever since, she hasn't said a word.

As to primer, I know some people will say you must primer every model. But I have found that even with PE and resin AM, I could paint a model no problem without primer. But, saying that, there's always one time when it won't work. So a few months ago I started using it. So, primer is certainly not essential.

Doug, Good choice. I built their Ardennes version of that kit. It came with the production version of the turret as well. It's a nice kit. The instructions are pretty straightforward. I can't think of any place in the instructions that need tweaking. If the kit is as sparse on the internals as the Ardennes kit, you don't need to spend a lot of time detailing in there since you can't see anything in there without using a flashlight anyway. You can hit all the sprues with some primer before you remove the parts if you want to. The little spots where they are connected to the sprues won't really matter. They'll be plenty roughed up, and so take paint just fine, when you remove the vestiges of the sprues with your sandpaper, files, etc. As far as I recall, none of the pieces of the kit are so fine that you have to worry about covering up much detail because you added an extra layer with the primer. But you don't need to spray it on thick.

Good luck and best wishes. I'm sure you'll make your wife proud! And, at least, she'll know where you are.

Barrett

Thanks guys for the comments. I am going to start researching today and see if I can find a Tiger to model the kit after. Decals might be a problem tho as I do not have any decal paper left. That will have to come later I guess. Maybe the kit will have decals for the time period. (Fingers crossed.)

Sounds like you got it covered with the wife Bish. Good job. LOL

Doug

O I don't think you need worry about decals Nomad. I know the older kit and probably the newer one have markings of Tiger II's that are well documented in the Ardennes. They will be markings for vehicles of the 501st s SS Pz Abt which were a part of Kampfgrupper Peiper, the spear head of the offensive.

The original boxing, 35164, has markings for 332 and 222, both of that unit. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of mine and its in serious need of some repair.

332 was capture by US forces and is now at the Patton museum. there a photo of 222 with German paras hitching a ride.

That's a great choice Doug. I'm looking forward to watching you bring that baby together. I suggest also that if you have any questions on your Tiger that you also ask the guys over in the armor forum. They are an absolute wealth of information on painting and weathering. As far as dealing with my wife and my model purchasing, well, whenever I get something in the mail and she starts to give me the stink eye I simply suggest to her that we go inventory her shoe closet. From there I'm Golden!!!

JOE RIX

That's a great choice Doug. I'm looking forward to watching you bring that baby together. I suggest also that if you have any questions on your Tiger that you also ask the guys over in the armor forum. They are an absolute wealth of information on painting and weathering. As far as dealing with my wife and my model purchasing, well, whenever I get something in the mail and she starts to give me the stink eye I simply suggest to her that we go inventory her shoe closet. From there I'm Golden!!!

Isn't it nice to have something over them

But you got to love em.

Nice choice, Doug! If you need any references, just give me a holler. I got plenty of pictures of the Bovington King Tigers (they got 2, Porsche and Henschel) and I'm in the process of uploading all the pictures from the trip there to my Google Drive and plan on posting them here. It's gonna take some time though because that's more than 2000 pics I'm talking about...

Hi guys

Here is the latest on my build, I have been working (slowly) on the gun bays. I am calling them done for now, its time to move on.

Sorry about the bad pictures. 

I dry brushed some lighter color on them but it is not noticeable on the pics. Would you guys dry brush some silver on it?

Thank you for looking, and as always comments and suggestions are appreciated. 

Jorge

Primer: essential, maybe not, but the wonderful new Vallejo primers can be sprayed on so thin that almost no detail is lost and it would help a coat go down. You certainly want it on PE - I usually brush PE with lacquer thinner first to rough it up a little. I'd advise anyone to use primer, especially as it's no longer to required to use potent lacquer varieties. For what it's worth, armor guru Mike Rinaldi thinks its essential for the new "Spanish School" modulated finishes (I just got Vol III of Rinaldi's Tank Art and he's writing a couple of new chapters on how to model - guy doesn't sit still.) But I'd like to have a dollar for every good model made without primer. I think that good modelers can stretch things a bit because they know how to lay down a coat so well. Not in that class myself.

What German tank to build for the Bulge period? I've got a stash that is far too large as it is, so I won't be on the market for anything. (Unless somebody does a 1/350 USS Enterprise CV6). But if I was, I think it would be neat to try one of the 1/48 scale Tamiya renditions of the large German tanks. I'd guess a 1/48 Jagdtiger (two battalions were fielded in September 44 and at least one was in the West) or a 1/48 Tiger I (late production - most certainly at the Bulge) would be close in size to a 1/35 Sherman. I've seen some wonderful builds with them because it's a good scale for dioramas. Tamiya builds are so clean and the part count most reasonable that I think it would be a really fun experiment and could yield excellent results. And you'd even save some money at least if compared to other Tamiyas. (My last tank was a Tamiya Cromwell and the kit was close to perfection. I had idle thoughts of selling my Tamiya's for DML versions - no more.)

The real world has interfered badly with modeling. But in the next few weeks I'm going to beat a DML Gleaves Class DD into submission. A lot of very small parts but extraordinary detail and fine fit. I'm going to dress it for the dance at Normandy (much more interesting paint schemes in the Atlantic to my eyes, and heaven knows they earned their supper in that campaign. I'll post in a couple of weeks.

Eric

Well the kit came in this morning so now comes the questions. What color do I use to prime with? When do I prime? And so forth. I just do not want to mess this kit up at all. forgive me if it seem like I am asking questions that I should know.

Thanks again,

Doug

Nomad, there are a wide range of primers you can use. Some use Auto primer, some use model specific primer. As I mentioned before, I have only just started using primer and am using Mr Surfacer 1200.

If you do wish to prime, I would do it as the same stage that would begin painting.

Good to see you back J, look forward to those pics.

Well,, I am not sure what happened but when I put the primer coat on the bottom half of the hull I noticed that it was grainy. The road wheels came out just fine. Also the colors call for a dark yellow. I can mix this color if needed but was wondering if desert yellow would work?

I am so worried that I am going to mess this up that I am making mountains out on mole hills I guess.

Thanks,

Doug

Bloody hell, have you built it already.

What brand of paints are you using.

By no means no. I was working on the road wheels and lower hull. I have some Vallejo and some cheap acrylics that I use. I went ahead and used the desert yellow for the base coat on the road wheels and used hunter green and a mix of earth brown and red for the red brown for the camo. looks alright to me.

I will post some photos in a bit.

Doug