TOPIC: The Tiger ii family build 1:16

I've just picked up a (now old) 1:16 Tiger II by Turmpeter from BNA. It comes with the option of either early or production turret. I went for this rather than the JagdTiger as it has fewer build problems. It also has enough inaccuracies to make it a nice scratch building project and the extra turret means that I can scratch build an early Turret under construction diorama as well. There have been some incredible builds with this huge kit, mostly partial reconstructions with major scratch building to repair the many problems. So this will be a long term project and really will be the last of these biggies. I must be made as there are at least two years of work ahead running along side finishing the other 4. The Tiger I and KVi are very close, but the Pz IV is just in it's earliest phase. Anyway, I'll see what I can do with it as I go through the huge amount of build references that now exist.

I would love to do the octopus scheme on this, but it is not a late production vehicle with the upgraded drive wheels and tracks. As there is no reference for anything earlier carrying this scheme its a bit dodgy to do it. It will be a long time before I get to the exterior so plenty of time to make up my mind.

Photos when it arrives in the next week or so.

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I will pull up my couch and coffee
Last one my foot

No, I really think it will be. I still have the Tiger and the KVI and the Pz IV and the Pantherturm flat car to make and the second turret build with this one so with all of it there's about 10 years worth... and I've run out of room. Plus there are a whole bunch of 1:35 things to build and some planes. I've got to do the 1:32 Tamiya Zero and the !:48 Tamiya Lanc and two !:48 DML Me 110s and the list goes on. I could then go
. I should have the TIger and the KVi done shortly so that's a start.

I need some help. I'm thinking of an ambush camouflage pattern, but to be honest all the camouflage examples I've found are a little boring. If I did do ambush I'd go for the earlier field versions rather than the hard edged factory examples..... just wish there were examples of octopus camouflage on the earlier vehicles. Any ideas would be appreciated.

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It actually comes with all the parts to build this (minus the zimmerit), but the pre-production turret just never grabbed me. It is a very cool camouflage actually.

Its in the post

Bishop wrote: I need some help. I'm thinking of an ambush camouflage pattern, but to be honest all the camouflage examples I've found are a little boring. If I did do ambush I'd go for the earlier field versions rather than the hard edged factory examples..... just wish there were examples of octopus camouflage on the earlier vehicles. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Found some in de Kagero tiger II book al the rest had zimmerit.

Okay, so first they said "here on Friday", then they said " here on Thursday" and today I came home for a few moments at lunch time and found it sitting inside the front gate. Good thing it didn't rain, but great joy in any case. BNA did the job so hats off to them. This is a huge kit. The first photos show it beside the 1:24 109 box. It does carry a lot of items, but wow. Opening the box you find a huge kit box with some of the nicest box art I've ever seen. I might cut this out and frame it actually.

Inside are all the goodies all very nicely boxed in smaller boxes and that's when the well known and documented problems start. At various points accuracy and fit are an issue, but the general shapes and dimensions are pretty good so one has a good foundation for a lot of scratch building and adjustment. This for me makes the kit worth every cent. I got my example with the two turret options for a good price so I'm happy. I can actually build the second turret and am actually toying with the idea of buying a hull and running gear from Tank Army so that I can build two of them out of one. Not as costly as it may sound and all the spares are there to do so. I shall see.

I now have to get on and finish the Tiger and the KVI so that I can start this. I'm going to make the major corrections first and get various sub assemblies done while doing the Pz IV.

Photos

And the various things all nicely boxed up

The list of mistakes and corners Trumpeter made is quite famous now. There have been some glorious builds showing the corrections. This list is too long for a kit this expensive. $700 AU in at least one shop I know, or closer to $500 when they first came out. The sponson floors are set at a downward angle so don't mate with the upper hull unless first scored and bent into the right shape. The engine bay has Panther features (fans, fan drive shaft connection panels etc) , notorious vinyl hoses for the engine, incorrect fuse boxes and lens holders for the periscopes, missing covers, boxes, dreadful crew seats in the hull, missing levers and parts for the steering, a horrible radio stack, totally dodgy hull ammo racks and so on and so forth.... BUT, with some careful scratch work the whole thing can be made to sing.

This is just the hull. The turret is actually a lot better and the gun pretty good, but with plenty to add there too. Sadly things like the transformer boxes for the radios etc are all missing so there is plenty to do. Then we move to the outside. Not too bad by all accounts, but still plenty to research to make sure one makes the right tank for the right time period. This will be a late 44 tank with later features and earlier parts. One of the things the researchers discovered (Jentz and Doyle), was that there was lots of using up of older parts such as the older drive sprockets on later vehicles as bombing saw the supply of things like the newer tracks for the later sprockets drying up.

There is a lot of debate about whether the octopus tiger ii seen in the famous pictures was one of a kind or the first of a new scheme to be introduced in June 45. There were 8 or 9 other Tigers that came out of the factory in the last days of the war and no one has any idea whether these sported the same pattern. They could have had the older sprockets and tracks so one could conceivably have seen an another example of the octopus camouflage on a tank with the older sprockets, but we will never know.

So in short I still have no idea how I'll paint the exterior, so it is a good thing that that is a long way off yet.

For now, back to the Tiger and the KVI. I've got to finish them first.

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Hee hee, this is one of our three cats. The youngest jumped straight in the box as soon as I removed the kit. The oldest of the three, the bastard... would rip the poo out of a Tiger II. The kit is actually quite light really. The other 1:16s with metal tracks and wheels are somewhat heavier. Mind you, once this is stuffed full of the goodies inside it it won't be light.

Have you got Dave Parkers Super King book? Its just being reprinted now. If not I highly recommend getting and follow his process of building this kit.

Absolutely! I would love to get hold of it, but the AFV site's link leads no where at present. Do you have a link for it. His build is THE build which others follow.

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He is the link for pre orders. - shop.afvmodeller.com/customer/product.ph...uctid=18721&cat&page

I have the book and its worth every cent.

A huge thanks its been ordered. It truly is a benchmark build and he was so generous in sharing his insights and skill

No problem at all.

Do you know that he sells resin update/grade parts too?

shop.afvmodeller.com/customer/home.php?cat=387

Work your way up from the bottom up.

Yes I have parts coming for the pz iv. Engine and gun breech.

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Many thanks,but this will be post zimmerit. I would make my own as would th the Tiger I. What is rather nice is that Trumpeter actually provided tools for the zimmerit with the kit. Nice to have though I won't use them.

There's no reason why you couldn't easily make Zimmerite from 3D printing, most printers can print 50 microns so there's no reason why you could't print Zimmerite at the thickness of a hair (which varies from 50 - 150 microns generally). As long as you print top down it should be fine, in fact it's given me an idea to print some for my SturmTiger I recently got, plus being plastic I can glue it on and even tone it in with Mr Surfacer etc.
Thanks for the idea

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Powder wrote: After looking at Maarten's waterslide Zimmerit I was wondering how it was made - it looks too good for 3D printing. I thought I might find the answer on Archer's website as they make waterslide textures - but I didn't find the info I was looking for....
But i did find this:
www.archertransfers.com/AR88027.html
Any use?

Excellent stuff.......... i have Archer weld lines and tread plate looks real good .
And i believe its made from printed resin .

Ah, I didn't follow the link. Yes, this is excellent stuff actually. I haven't planned on buying any, Their decals for the driver's dials could well be a very helpful addition. The trouble is that there are so many things you can buy for these now you could actually buy a new tank with the costs involved.

As a quick update for this, I've decided to get hold of a Heng Long Porsche turret Tiger II so that I can do a makeover in tandom with this build. I can use the Trumpeter turret on the HL hull and end up with two Tigers rather than 1 and a half. It sounds crazy to be buying the whole tank, but it is not possible to get the hull and all components for too much less than the whole deal so I've gone for the lot. I could actually scratch build the interior of the second tank from the interior components of the first. All in all I'm going to end up with a ridiculous two tank build on an enormous scale. Hmmm. I plan to make the Preproduction turret as a particular prototype. This had squared off front fenders rather than the rounded ones found on the 50 preproduction and production Tigers. There are a couple of shots of this particular tank, one on it's own and another (famous one). beside the Panther and enormous TIger Grille. The great thing is that it has no zimmerit applied. More when the second TIger arrives. Yes, I can hear you all saying.... so much for the "no more big models", statement