While I am usually not into WWII stuff, I found the images of a Tiger I serving as a podium for a commanding officer at the Battle of Charkov.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Third_Battle_of_Kharkov?uselang=de#/media/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101III-Zschaeckel-197-09,_Russland,Appell_der_SS-Division%22Das_Reich%22.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Third_Battle_of_Kharkov?uselang=de#/media/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101III-Zschaeckel-197-11,_Russland,Appell_der_SS-Division%22Das_Reich%22.jpg
The rest of the crew is sitting inside the tank reading a book
Yep, “Tiki” is a very well known Tiger. I think someone does a specific kit with the markings.
Dragon recently announced a kit version of Tiki; sorry, don’t know the kit number. David probably knows it.
It was released four years ago. Perhaps it has Magic Tracks this time around?
It’s one of Dragon’s best quality Tiger kits, really does capture the Tiki version. I got a lot of criticism for how I painted it, but I stand by my research.
David
4 years ago? Wow, just seemed like late last year…Covid clearly has messed with my memory. Anyways, was wondering what you thought of Border’s new (relatively) Tiger 1 early; I picked one up a few months ago and a peek in the box makes it seem quite decent at first glance. Truth be told I mainly bought it for the useful accessories like the turret bins, muzzle break cover, etc. but now I think that it could well be the quality-equivalent of a recent Dragon kit. The link and length tracks are nice except for the pain of gluing on the guide horns. Your thoughts and will it be detailed on your site with suggested improvements soon?
Regards as always,
FW
Could you post some pics here?
Border’s Tiger was a big disappointment. People expected it to be as good as Border’s Panzer IV kits. But it turned out that Border “know” the IV and they don’t “know” the Tiger.
They designed the kit partly by looking at Dragon kits and copying - they have admitted that, and it’s obvious in places. Some errors crept in. They didn’t have an expert good enough to spot them. So we get an Early Tiger that needs a few corrections out of the box.
Then there’s the paint schemes. I can’t understand how they messed up here - lots of suitable Early Tigers existed and are well photographed. But no, Border give us some decals for later versions and earlier versions than the kit actually builds - including one “Initial” Tiger.
David
So, will these “fixes” appear on your site? I’m keen on correcting mine as I build it and whatever doesn’t work goes in the spares bin or the garbage bin depending on “redeemability” (my word, apologies to Oxford).
Oh, and I too found the colour schemes interesting as they imply -rightly or wrongly- that these early tanks lasted long enough to be painted in late schemes three years later…a debatable supposition.
Not sure what you mean. Border have 8 schemes in that kit and only one of them mentioned 1944. There is no mention of 1945.
Some Tigers from early 1943 did last into 1944 so that’s not a problem.
David
Hello David:
I misspoke on that one: What I meant was that the box art shows eight patterns, five of which were in three-color camo and only one appears to be in panzer grau as I would have expected for an “early” Tiger. I also -apparently- didn’t realize that it was a common (?) practice by Kursk to use these three-color patterns as displayed on the box. Thought that the extent of it was wavy green on tan or on grey. I also realize that they were often subsequently resprayed but it seemed that there weren’t a lot of choices given to show the kit as an actual early and not a surviving veteran a couple of years later. Probably overstating the point. Either way, will the needed kit corrections be appearing on your site?
I’m still not sure that you and I are looking at the same edition of the kit. I don’t see any use of grey (“Dunkelgrau”) in any of the eight schemes.
But that’s as it should be. The version of Tiger provided by Border (Feb-March 1943) was never, or almost never, painted grey. In fact, grey Tigers were rare. I count two dozen, most of them “initial” and just a few “Early”.
As for Kursk? Many book illustrators depict Kursk Tigers with a grey base paint and some patterns added, but that almost never happened. Kursk Tigers were painted in a variety of ways, depending on the unit, but only nine of them were grey to begin with.
You say “a couple of years later” but that would be early 1945, and the kit doesn’t go there at all.
I do have some comments on my site, but I’ve not built the kit so they are not comprehensive.
David
Thank you David, looking forward to your site’s comments on the Border Tiger. As to the Dunkelgrau scheme: must be that I got an early(?) release from China. Or something. As to what I meant about “a couple years later”: I meant that if one of these Tigers was, in fact, grey that by '45 it would have been a real campaign veteran and would possibly have been repainted several times; or even had Zimmerit applied at the unit level in that rough 'n ugly way that some repair units did. Don’t know if there is any photo evidence of this happening but there is a fair amount on Panthers from the same time period being repainted and rough Zimmerit in subsequent visits to the Werkstatt company where it was applied so, who knows. Speculation only. Thanks for your time on this.
Frank
You got an edition of the kit with a Dunkelgrau scheme? That’s really interesting. Could you say what the decals for that scheme are?
David