Dragon #6253 Tiger I Late Production-Complete 12-20-13

Hi Bill,

That scheme is a true nerve wrecker, but you have managed it very well  

Congratulations 

One thought - would the pattern towards the missing side shirt be a sharp edge or continue down to the bottom of the side armor?

And would the spare tracks have been taken off, over painted or painted around?

Looking forward to see how those primed inner wheels look behind the rest of the road wheels and some weathering.

Super blog as always - dropped everything else and pulled out 6383 in pure excitement 

Very Best Regards

Johan

Thanks Johan! You could have the pattern go either way depending on your view of the crew's thinking. My view here is that the skirt is gone and the crew didn't have time to repaint the pattern down to the hull or replace the skirt, so the pattern cuts-off where it would've normally been continuing on over the fender like you see with the other skirts that are still in place. This adds a little bit of visual variety and character to my Tiger I think, that's why I opted for that appearance. Since these camo schemes were field applied and the skirts were in place when vehicles were delivered, there's no reason to believe the crew would go to the trouble of applying camo under existing/in-place fenders on the off-chance that they might lose one down the road.

The spare tracks question is one that depends on what particular scenario or vehicle you're modeling I suppose and what photos do/don't show for a particular vehicle. The only times you see tracks typically over-painted to match the hull or camo pattern is if those tracks are fixed in place as add-on armor as opposed to being true spares...since of course, spares did often get used and you didn't want extra paint interfering with the ability of spare links to fit in with existing tracks, blocking up track pin holes, or other similar issues when you needed to repair a track in a hurry. Lots of photos out there with Tigers with the spare links on the turret showing they weren't blended in with the hull color or camo pattern from what I've seen.

The innermost wheels will all but disappear once the outer wheels and tracks are fitted, so you won't see much of them unless you behave like a 1/35 mechanic!

Yes, I was intending to mark this one as #213 with the sPzAbt 101.

Bill, very adept work here, and have to comment on how pristine the surfaces are, which is so crucial in the final stages.  Do you wear gloves or have some kind of special apparatus to hold the model when working on it?

regards,

Jack

Thanks Jack! No gloves or anything special when handling the model. One of the advantages of working with enamels I suppose, there's no real worry about potential for flaking paint or other issues once it's applied and fully cured.

Love the camo, and the choice of red primer in the inside wheels, Bill!

I like the lack of camo in the missing shield too! I see this alot in some old pics.

Myself being a cammo handfree challenged I can surely appreciate when this is done so nicely,

Those lines are clean!, and perfectly laid out.

Cant wait for the finished kit!

Karl

Garzon

A minor mishap occurred in the Tiger's progress today. It seems that one of the idlers managed to go missing and as I was searching for it, my 75 lb. Boxer named Brenda found it before I did. Here's all that was left after her adventure!

Thankfully the kit includes the larger idlers as additional parts but doesn't provide additional mount arms. Old kits in the closet to the rescue! I salvaged a mount arm off a previously built Tamiya Tiger and made some slight modifications to it so it would fit the Dragon parts. Installed the rear-most outer wheel to help serve as a guide for the idler's placement and did a test-fit with the MK track run. As expected 1 more link was needed due to the larger idler. Once that was added, the idler was glued permanently into position and left to set up and will get painted later to match the rest of the suspension. So now my Tiger has a little extra character courtesy of Brenda's 'assistance'!

Now back to work and what was actually scheduled for today...the markings. ;)

Nice save BIll! Dogs will be dogs wont they.

thankfully you have a well stock parts box

YOW!!! At least you had a replacement.

With me it is my 3 yr. old. A while back I was at the bench and he wanted to see if one of my planes could fly.

Yes indeed Eric, Anthony, and IB! Thank goodness for Dragon's overstuffed box of parts and the 'graveyard'  of older kits to bail this one out.

Despite the minor disruptions yesterday, there was a planned effort on the program that dealt with getting the markings on. First up was a sealing coat of Future to protect the paint work from the weathering stages. This was allowed to air-dry for about an hour or so and then the markings were applied. The kit-supplied markings provide the turret numbers as individual numbers so you can create your own chosen vehicle, mine is 213. Decals were treated with multiple passes of Solvaset and gentle prodding with a wooden toothpick where necessary to ensure they settled down correctly into the zim pattern. This is a time-consuming process that involves lots of waiting for the Solvaset to do its work. If you rush it, you can easily damage a decal beyond repair so lots of hurry-up-and-wait involved.

In between some of those hurry-up-and-wait sessions, I worked on the road wheels some more. They had gotten the Future treatment as well so I had the chance to apply a pin wash of enamel Burnt Umber to bring out their details before installation.

With the decals set and ready to go, the wheels were installed on both sides and a 2nd sealing coat of Future applied to get things ready for the weathering stages ahead.

The Future will be allowed to fully cure for at least 24 hours before moving on. Since this is a holiday week, expect more updates sooner rather than later hopefully.

Ooh, its getting close and looking soo good!!  Sorry about your canine altered idler Bill, but as usual, you've come up with a solution!  Question on the MK tracks:  I noticed on the replacement link that the guide horn is missing...are those added separately?  

Thanks Ernest! The doggy 'PaK of doom' could've been quite devastating! A new secret weapon...

The guide horns on the MKs are indeed added separately. I added the guide horns using some of the Dragon separate horns for the spare tracks since I'd run out of the MK supplied horns doing the hull front spare run earlier. The Dragon horns fit perfectly to the MKs without any issue.

That just looks great with those bright numbers, Bill. Those wheels are nicely detailed too.!

I dropped a seat from a Jeep the other day and my lab instantly retrieved it. Soft mouths my eye!

You have my sympathy.

Bill, looks you barely skipped a beat with that mishap, nice fix there.  It will lend to an interesting conversation piece if anyone ever notices the different idler.  

Those turret numbers do look bright, almost fluorescent.  No doubt the weathering will take care of that.

regards,

Jack

I like the pop on the wheels. Nice save on the idler too.

Really nice Bill,

  I MEAN IT!

  REALLY NICE!

Karl

Subfixer

Jack

Steve

Excellent work on your Tiger wbill76, after getting back into building I'm starting work on my Dragon Tiger I Late Production w/Zimmerit.  Along with five other tanks.  

Thanks FMS Model! Sounds like you've got a good production line going yourself.

Weathering process is under way with the Tiger, the first step being the application of an overall wash of MM enamel Raw Umber.

This was followed by a dot filter process using MM enamel Flat White, Raw Sienna, and Panzer Dunkelgelb.

Some additional blending and fading was added by dry-brushing the 50/50 base coat mix using a wide square-tip brush.

Then a pin wash using MM enamel Burnt Umber to bring out more of the details.

After touching up the pin wash a bit, everything was sealed in with a dull coat using MM Lusterless Flat in the spray can. The remaining clear parts were detailed and added for the turret and hull crew periscopes.

Next up will be working on the pigment weathering for the tracks and hull.

Well that toned it down rather nicely,looks great

OK...it appears you knocked the "stuffing" out of this one. The "gravy" weathering is excellent. Once you get the "drumsticks" on the road wheels you will be ready for desert. Things going forward should be easy as "pie".

Rounds Complete!!

Looking like it should, Bill! Nice way to soften it up a little and get some *** going!

They blocked out my "m o j o " reference?!?!