Agent G Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 This is some of "all the rest" that I built this year. G
bismarck Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) Beautiful work!! Love the Stugs and Kitty. How did you do the zimmerit on the Tiger? Its looks great. I can never get mine to look so subtle and "in scale" like that. Yours looks fresh from supply. Needs afew shell gouges, bent up skirts, messy towing cables, and jerry cans hang off of it. Edited December 18, 2015 by bismarck
Danno Posted December 21, 2015 Posted December 21, 2015 I'm in awe! And, I've seen these in the flesh . . . or, drab! Exquisitely impressive models.
Agent G Posted December 21, 2015 Author Posted December 21, 2015 Thank you all!Kevin I cheated on the zimmerit, I used the Tamiya aftermarket set. It was easy to use and the results speak for themselves. I justified the extra cost as I won the kit in a raffle!Yes Danno you have!Hey is your PM box full? G
bismarck Posted December 21, 2015 Posted December 21, 2015 (edited) Thank you all! Kevin I cheated on the zimmerit, I used the Tamiya aftermarket set. It was easy to use and the results speak for themselves. I justified the extra cost as I won the kit in a raffle! Yes Danno you have! Hey is your PM box full? G It looks GREAT!!! I've always wondered if the Tamiya Zimm kits were good, guess I have my answer!! Do they make a set for early production, or just mid to late production and then modify accordingly? I couldn't imagine the fear of seeing one of those beasts rolling towards my fox hole.. Edited December 21, 2015 by bismarck
Agent G Posted December 21, 2015 Author Posted December 21, 2015 Thank you Tom!Kevin the set doesn't specify which Tiger variant. It does include the coarse turret pattern frequently seen on "mid production" Tigers in Normandy. I'd use it again for sure.G
bismarck Posted December 21, 2015 Posted December 21, 2015 I remember being stationed at Ft. Aberdeen and going to the tank museum. I crawled all over that Tiger 1, but I don't recall any zimmerit on it at that time. It took one heck of a pounding to get it to stop. There were shell gouges all over the turret mantlet and front glacious plate. The zimmerit is one of my biggest hang ups trying to build accurate German Armor. Mk4's are pretty easy, but Panthers and tigers are a whole other ball game.
Agent G Posted December 22, 2015 Author Posted December 22, 2015 If I remember correctly the Tiger which was at Aberdeen was captured in Tunisia. That makes it one of the "early" Tigers produced before zimmerit. My father examined that beast in North Africa after it was captured. He rarely spoke of it, or the others he inspected. G
bismarck Posted December 22, 2015 Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) I was surprised to see that the Germans hadn't sabotaged the main gun before they abandoned it. SOP was to drain the hydraulic recoil cylinders and fire a H/E- A/P round, thus jamming the main gun out of battery permanently. I thought the Tunis Tiger was at the Bovington tank museum in the U.K. Was it the one with the miss matched driver/gunners hatches? I don't think that there was a real push to apply zimmerit to AFV's till around '42 or so. The Russians started getting smarter about fighting tanks like the Tiger, that were too often expected to take and hold ground without infantry support. They formed tank hunter/killer squads that used magnetic satchel charges to disable or destroy unprotected tanks. Edited December 22, 2015 by bismarck
Agent G Posted December 22, 2015 Author Posted December 22, 2015 Bovington's Tiger is one of two captured intact. The tanks came from two different battalions.The US Army captured a Tiger originally from sPzAbt 501, the first Tiger Battalion deployed in North Africa. At the time of capture it was part of the 10th Panzer Division. Details of it's capture are unknown to me. I do know dad examined it in the summer of '43, before it was sent to the US. It would be best described as an "Initial" model.The Bovington Tiger, "131" was in sPzAbt 504. It had only been in country about 6 weeks when captured, April 21, 1943. There was great controversy about the crew abandoning the tank prematurely. Restoration reveealed the main gun was jammed by two shots that richocheted off the turret side and under the barrel. More than 50 years after the fact, 1995, did the actions of the crew become understood. 131 is an example of an "Early" Tiger.Zimmerit was the German answer to a non existent problem. In late 1942 the Heer developed a magnetic anti-tank mine for use in Russia. Fearing the Russians had also developed one, the Germans applied zimm to their tanks starting in December, 1943. North Africa ended in late May, 1943. The Germans let the tanks attack without proper support from the grunts. The Russians had the infantry ride the tanks into combat. Fast forward to the Pacific in 1944-'45 and take a look at what the USMC did to their tanks because of magnetic mines. Wood, concrete and hundreds of pounds of sand bags wre the primary means of protection. Marine rifleman accompanied the tanks nearly everywhere. It wasn't until Okinawa though, that Marine tankers experienced warfare similar to their Army bretheren in Europe. On Iwo Jima tanks drove about 100-200 yards, did their thing, then returned to the secure lager. Okinawa was a land battle, employing movement on a large scale.G
bismarck Posted December 22, 2015 Posted December 22, 2015 Ok. I didn't know there were 2 tanks captured intact in north Africa. The only one that gets the camera time is the Bovington tank.
Agent G Posted December 23, 2015 Author Posted December 23, 2015 Yes indeed. It was the only one ever fully restored to running condition.G
bismarck Posted December 23, 2015 Posted December 23, 2015 They posted a page on the restoration awhile back. I was GLUED to my computer!! They went through every nut and bolt of that tank. It looks factory fresh. A lot of the tanks at Aberdeen were showing pronounced torsion bar fatigue from sitting for so many years with no care. I hope they get better treatment at Ft. Knox.
Agent G Posted December 23, 2015 Author Posted December 23, 2015 Since budget limitations led to the move, I suspect all that history will be left to rot. At least Knox is the armor school. There should be someone there who cares.G
Harry P. Posted December 25, 2015 Posted December 25, 2015 Your tank models are just about the best I've ever seen. Very impressive work.
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