Blip

Okay, if we're going for favorite WWII tanks, then I'll toss out the King Tiger (also known as the TigerII) as mine:





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_II

kevinb120

Expanding an eastern front into Russia in the winter, it doesn't seem to work no matter what century it is...


I'd love to go to Bovington. I don't think Jacques Littlefield has a Tiger in the works though, and the Panther is still in progress. Amazing collection at over 200 AFV's. The Aberdeen collection in MD is finally getting a boost as well and getting moved to a new facility, many of the last known examples of armor are just sitting outside right now for decades. Panther was one of the best tanks of WWII. Tiger II's were tempermental and broke down constantly. I would still give the nod to the T-34 as the overall best tank as it could go defeat the mainstay PIV's head to head, and was cheap and easy to produce and operate and could take a beating. Although it still took a group of them to maneuver around a tiger and gang up on it, Tigers were few and far between in combat in extended theaters. Investing in the ubertanks was yet another military blunder in the long run for the Germans.

Here's one of my li'l models of a Tiger(almost done, every photo I have of anything is of WIP):


Heh, T34, not one photo of a finished one

burningman

kevin..love the models..1/35th scale?
I've been thinking of a tiger model myseldf.. what make is yours?

BTW guys heres the link to the site for tiger 131 that i posted in the first post
http://www.tiger-tank.com/

They have a journal of the resto..great read

kevinb120

The ones I have are discontinued Dragon/DML kits $35 kits that now cost quite a bit($150-400 for some of the special versions) Dragon just re-released the late model tiger 1 kit that is phenomenal. If you use all the photo-etch is about 1100 pieces for one 1/35 tank. They come with photo-etch, very good tracks, and metal barrels, leaving little to purchase outside of building supplies. Check out armorama.com if you are interested in military modeling. They have a ton of reviews of the kits. I am a huge DML fan and am working the M51 'Isherman'(improper name) kit. Its the 105mm Sherman used by the IDF, but its not for the faint of heart. Only issue with late Tigers is you need to add zimerit 'paste' detail to be accurate like this King Tiger(also a WIP) which is very thin resin sheets.




If you get the Tamiya kit, it is simpler and has molded in zimmerit if you are not that familiar with AFV models. David Byrden is an expert when it comes to correcting kits of the tiger 1(and posts on armorama), you can check out his site here http://tiger1.info/ You can also see just about every available kit. The new kit is the second one from the bottom.

Here's a big tiger 1 in progress(of course)... Now Its almost finished R/C with steel tracks and all that good stuff...It was just boring grey plastic before, with the decals and weathering its pretty darn awesome. I'll have to get some completed pics of stuff.

kevinb120

lol I don't have a single completed model photo...

Blip

Kevin, amazing model building--they look muesum quality!

I've got some 1/72th Revell & Hasegawa kits, but the amount of small pieces has overwhelmed me.

Do you build them for yourself or for commission?

kevinb120

I guess you could say I start and almost finish them for myself.... 1/72 aircraft are a piece o cake Those small ones in the photo fit on a quarter, have 30 decals, multiple colors of paint, weapons pylons, tail hooks, landing gear doors and soon to have custom built ordinance, and there are 70 on a carrier...No to mention all the pieces of a 36" long aircraft carrier. Stock kit has about 1200 pieces, with all the aftermarket stuff it will have about 15,000. The red triangle 'warning' decals on the aircraft will disappear on the tip of a sharpened toothpick. And there are guys that go MUCH further then myself.-you should see 1/350th planes with ejection seats!...

On the battleship, look very carefully at the tiny 20mm AA guns on the deck and the razor on the table, those have gun sights, shoulder rests seperate barrels, and brass shields. I'm going to go blind...If I'm working on that stuff for half an hour straight and turn around to look at the tv, I just about fall out of the chair..

Check out this 1/350 Nimitz by Kelly Quirk, this one has seats in the planes, amazing!
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews...kq/nimitz.html

If you check out the features section of armorama.com, you can see some amazing armor models that are insanely complex. With ships comes parts, with armor comes damage and weathering detail..

Moosetang

Well if we're on the topic of cool WW2 tanks, how about the Airborne Tanks?
Here's the British Tetrach:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrarch_tank



And American (used by the British) Locust: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M22_Locust


Not the biggest or the most powerful, but could be pretty **** useful landed behind enemy lines when their tanks weren't around.

burningman

Awesome..thanks for the info Kevin.
I had head the best way to do zimerit was using putty (Fine Scale Modeler) I have yet to try it. I stopped modeling back in 88 when i got into cars
I've got a kit that i want to make into the phantasm Cuda but have yet to find the time to get going on it. Man Gotta love that WWII German armor!

Evil_Capri

Agreed!! Great work!

kevinb120

Yea it gets addicting You can do the zim paste with thin sheets of resin from Atak or Cavalier. Some already have it. Another movement now is in 1/48th armor where a lot of them have it already molded. There are a lot of early and late models that do not use it that you can start on. If you go through the feature builds on armorama's website, you can really get a feel for what you are getting into.

burningman

Sweet man..thanks!