Panzer Aces GB January 2007 to May 31, 2008

I think I'll build Carius' Jagdtiger as well.

Comet- put you down for Bremer's Puma.

Bobaily- I think someone was already doing  Werner Wolff's  251/10, but I suppose it would be fine for both of you to do it, unless you'd rather build a vehicle no one else is building, you could do Gerd Bremer's 251/9 Stummel with 75mm L/24. But the 251/10 is fine also.

As far as decals. most of the Dragon halftracks come with generic license plate and iron cross markings, and some of the kits have sheets of hull numbers. However Wolff's 251/10, and the rest of blowtorch battalion's halftracks, didn't seem to have any markings other than the iron cross and battalion emblem. If you choose to build Bremer's 251/9 I'll give you some info on his vehicle.

Doing some early research with Tiger's in the mud as my reference so far, I've pulled these pics:

This is his intial Tiger 213.  He comments alot about how dangerous the commanders cupola was on the early Tigers, since it opened straight up.  It was easily spotted on the battlefield and a target for the enemy.  He was even wounded due to the design when a anti-tank rocket het the hatch.

Here are some Hornisse/Nashorn photos from the 519 Schwere Jagdpanzer Abteilung (Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion) which I tracked down.  These all had a base coat of dark yellow with a winter camo whitewash with the possible exception of the last photo in this series. 

There is also a decent photo of Albert Ernst's Hornisse named "Buffalo" on page 378 of "Panzer Aces" by Franz Kurowski.

I find the photos from Germany's Bundesarchiv to be very helpful in this kind of situation, and best of all, they are all very large and high resolution.

The page on the German military is here:

http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktuelles/aus_dem_archiv/galerie/index.html

Of course it's in German, and I'm sure there is a lot more but I can't find it not being able to read German well.  Maybe if we all explore a little we'd find some useful pictures...

I've added a few more book references and websites, as well as a link to my pictures from the Aberdeen Proving grounds which may prove useful for tank details etc.  I think you'll find the Elefant photos at the bottom of the page particularly interesting. 

http://www.espins.info/aberdeen.htm

Check this monster out.  I'll bet this baby intimidated the crap out of those that had to go against it:

I've decided to model Johannes Hans Bolter Early Tiger 1 during the Leningrad offensive.  I will be getting more information.

Ron

Gun Tech wrote:

Hey Scott, how far are you living  from Aberdeen?

heh heh, just a few thousand miles away.    We went back to Virginia and Maryland summer 2006 for my sister's wedding, so I made sure we had time to run out to Aberdeen. 

I've updated the roster to reflect Redd-34 Tiger I early, Leningrad offensive Johannes Hans Bolter and Lethal 19 with a Panther Ausf. D #424 during Barkmann's battles at St. Lo.

Here is a little blurb I found regarding some of Barkmann's actions around St. Lo at http://www.geocities.com/desertfox1891/pzpanther/pzpanther-inaction.html .  Unfortunately it doesn't state which version of the Panther he used during the battles around St. Lo. 

And here is another great link recounting many of Barkmann's exploits on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.

http://www.geocities.com/alkantolga/panzerace/ernst.htm

I've added another online reference section with links to more info and tidbits of information regarding some of these Panzer Aces. 

Here is a great website that lists the top Panzer Aces and recipients of the Tank Destruction Badge.

http://www.hotlinecy.com/NeatStuff/PanzerAces.pdf

Hermesminiatures wrote:

January 1st! Can we start???

I know the feeling, I'm chomping at the bit as well , I have 3 other projects I need to get wrapped up before I'm even going to attempt to start on mine.  LOL 

In the mean time, I've been a researching fool.    I've literally been carrying my Nashorn and JagdTiger around the house, so I can study the directions and parts, as well as the laptop so I can keep looking for pics and references. 

espins1 wrote:

Hermesminiatures wrote: January 1st! Can we start??? I know the feeling, I'm chomping at the bit as well , I have 3 other projects I need to get wrapped up before I'm even going to attempt to start on mine.  LOL  In the mean time, I've been a researching fool.    I've literally been carrying my Nashorn and JagdTiger around the house, so I can study the directions and parts, as well as the laptop so I can keep looking for pics and references.

I'm in research mode as well.  Looks like Carius' Tiger 213 was an early Tiger.  Can anyone suggest the best kit?

The best kit is by far Dragon 6269, which is currently sold out but has a confirmed second production run coming in a few months. If you want it sooner, you can still get it on eBay, but there most sellers are listing it as OOP and it usually sells for $70 or so.

If you want it soon and don't want to spend $70, the next best is Tamiya 35216. It will need some AM to compete with the Dragon kit, but kit + Eduard won't be more than $55. 

Also, some more ref sites:

http://wilk.wpk.p.lodz.pl/~whatfor/pzkpfw_v_panther_ausf_g__sdkfz_1.htm

That one's in Polish but it has some nice Panther pictures, particularily of the night fighting version.

http://tanxheaven.com/referencepictures.htm

A great site with modern color pictures of over 100 WWII vehicles. 

I've heard that Dragon is going to re-release their Tiger I early sometime in 2007, and I would assume it would be a "premium" edition, which would include some added photo-etch and aluminum barrel as that seems to be their current trend with re-releasing some of their older kits, which isn't a bad thing.  Those kits were halfway decent to begin with.    I just picked up the Nashorn "premium" edition and that is exactly the case, magic tracks individual track links, lots of photo etch goodies and an aluminum barrel.

I also have two of Tamiya's 1/35 Tiger I "early" in the stash, one is the much older kit and the other is the more recent release.  They're both decent kits, typical Tamiya, well engineered, good fit etc.  I was trying to find some reviews online for these kits and much to my surprise I could find very little

I wouldn't bother with the older Tamyia Tiger. It has vinyl road wheel centers, molded-on cables, lots of "orange peel" and overall poor detail. The newer one is much nicer.

Also, Dragon 6269, the Tiger I early, was a "superkit" with magictrack, several frets of PE, an aluminum gun barrel, clear vision blocks, etc, just like the Late superkit. I don't think they could do much to improve on the already great quality, except maybe metal tracks

Hermesminiatures wrote:

I wouldn't bother with the older Tamyia Tiger. It has vinyl road wheel centers, molded-on cables, lots of "orange peel" and overall poor detail. The newer one is much nicer. Also, Dragon 6269, the Tiger I early, was a "superkit" with magictrack, several frets of PE, an aluminum gun barrel, clear vision blocks, etc, just like the Late superkit. I don't think they could do much to improve on the already great quality, except maybe metal tracks

Fruils man, Fruils!   I have those for my Elefant and one of my Tigers.  Time consuming, but well worth the results.   

Hermesminiatures wrote:

I wouldn't bother with the older Tamyia Tiger. It has vinyl road wheel centers, molded-on cables, lots of "orange peel" and overall poor detail. The newer one is much nicer.

Agreed, I'm almost done with that ancient kit, and am using it as a guinea pig to learn how to do a decent white wash camo. 

[off topic] If you want a really weathered look, I usually paint the normal camo, seal with flat lacquer, than airbrush a few coats of very runny and sloppy vallejo white, then blot it with a tissue dipped in a  50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water.

Works well for a  heavily chipped  whitewash. [/off topic]

I'm almost done with a 54cm Morser Karl that I'm building for a customer, and then I probably will start with Luders' Jagdpanther.

Your heavily worn whitewash looks great!  I think I'll try that on the old Tiger.  Thanks! 

Here is a photo of Alber Ernst and his crew with their Nashorn "Buffalo" being congratulated after battle.  I can't quite make out the actual text and wording of the "Buffalo" name.  Does anyone know what the German word for Buffalo is, and what the lettering looked like?  If I can't find the actual decals I'd like to have them custom made, but need to know more specifics so I can design them properly. 

oooooo, and look at all those beautiful track links and photo etch!  The tracks will be fun (albeit tedious) as the guidehorns will have to be attached to the track links (two per link that have guidehorns )

Buffel - and fortunately that's it, there aren't any contextual spellings like other German words. That is exactly what it looks like on the side of the vehicle.

As for font, I'd say that it is probably letterd with a 3/4" brush but painted with a little flair.

After studying it a little it looks about this:

There aren't any decal sets out there that I can find, either on Squadron or GM. So I would say the best idea would be to print it yourself. You can use the drawing I made or make your own, and scale it so the entire word is about half the width of the engine louvers (something easy to scale from in that picture) Just get some expert's choice decal film and print it on your printer's best setting. (do not, DO NOT use the Testor decal making kit. It is absolute garbage)

Or, if you don't feel adventurous, you can have it custom made.

Is it still possible to join this GB? I would take me a day or two to do some research before I would be able to decide on what to build. With all the links posted on the first page I sholdnt have too much trouble. I have plenty of Dragon kits at my work so if its possible to join id most liekly search through those to see what I can come up with... any suggestions.. that is if I can join...

James