Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger

[cph64]

Many, many years ago when I had an attic man-cave and had gone over to the Dark Side I thought about building a big diorama based on the Russian Front (yes Martin I know it's hard to believe). A consequence of this was that I collected a large number of vehicles and figures from both sides, some of which have already been seen in other builds. I recently came across the release of decals by H Models covering s.Pz.Abt.503 'Feldhernhalle' during the battle of Kursk in 1943 and the paint scheme for one the Tigers caught my attention. So knowing I had one in the stash I dug it out to have a go.
The kit is the 1991 Hasegawa release which I bought from Croppers for the princely sum of £1.59 and consists of 4 sprues of grey plastic and one of vinyl for the tracks. The decal sheet has markings for various units, none of which are identifed in the instructions, but as I'm not using them that doesn't matter. There are some knockout points to deal with and detail is 'if you can see it it's there, if not..'. An example is the middle two sets of road wheels which should be doubles but which Hasegawa have modelled as single thicker ones, see the photo for what they should be.

[zak]

Great!

[MSea]

Get on with it Chris - I am watching hohohho

[Bigkev]

Many, many years ago when I had an attic man-cave and had gone over to the Dark Side I thought about building a big diorama based on the Russian Front (yes Martin I know it's hard to believe). A consequence of this was that I collected a large number of vehicles and figures from both sides, some of which have already been seen in other builds. I recently came across the release of decals by H Models covering s.Pz.Abt.503 'Feldhernhalle' during the battle of Kursk in 1943 and the paint scheme for one the Tigers caught my attention. So knowing I had one in the stash I dug it out to have a go.
The kit is the 1991 Hasegawa release which I bought from Croppers for the princely sum of £1.59 and consists of 4 sprues of grey plastic and one of vinyl for the tracks. The decal sheet has markings for various units, none of which are identifed in the instructions, but as I'm not using them that doesn't matter. There are some knockout points to deal with and detail is 'if you can see it it's there, if not..'. An example is the middle two sets of road wheels which should be doubles but which Hasegawa have modelled as single thicker ones, see the photo for what they should be.

Can't believe you spent so much! Hohohoho!
Watching another oldie kit being transformed.
Kevin

[chriswil42]

Put your skates on to keep up with Dave!
Looking forward to your diorama.

[cph64]

Everything went together reasonably well so it was time to paint. Initially I tried 'reverse' masking putting the Olivgrun (homemade mix of light camo green and olive drab) on then masking, followed by the Dunklgelb, more masking and then the Panzergrau. When I removed the masking it didn't look right and there were paint ridges to contend with so the model was sanded down and I went back to what would have been the correct order, Panzergrau/Olivgrun/Dunklgelb. Details were picked out using black, oily steel and dark earth. Onto the vinyl tracks. These had been pre-painted using black and oily steel and were joined with superglue. As there is only one set of holes for the drive sprocket teeth I was initially worried about the sit there but it's not too bad, the tracks however don't overhang the road wheels as much as they should. Perhaps Hasegawa modelled them on the narrower transport tracks? I used my usual method of superglue and wedges to try and get the correct track sit. Decals are a mix of kit and spares which were followed by some Flory wash.
As the kit is an Ausf.E and the camoflague I was copying is on and Ausf.H this is now a 'What If', fun and more learnt along the way. Which is what modelling should be, isn't it?

[chriswil42]

Looking very nice Chris.

[zak]

Great model.