Hello, I recently got a set of Star Decals 35-C1333 for the Initial/Early Tigers of the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion, and the scheme for Tiger numbered “113” seemed quite interesting.
I managed to find two photos of this tank, and I’m wondering if Star Decals’ color scheme interpretation was correct.
You can clearly see the old tactical numbers 1 and 3 on a dark background, so it would make sense to me that it would have been originally painted in panzer grey, and if this photo was taken in the summer of 1943, it would add up that it had been oversprayed with dunkelgelb at some point. On the second photo it kinda looks like they might have sprayed a brown or green camouflage?
I’m intending to build this tiger using the Tamiya Tiger 1 frühe boxing with Eduard Photoetch and parts from my spares box. I’m wondering if anyone can identify if there’s any particular equipment I should be aware of with this particular tiger. Looks like it doesn’t have feifel filters, nor S-mine launchers, and only empty brackets for smoke grenade launchers. The storage box on the back of the turret looks like the standard one to me.
I also can’t seem to find photos of the 502nd heavy panzer battalion’s tanks with the big white numbers included in the Star Decals set.
When people ask the colour of a Tiger, it’s very rarely that I can show them a real colour photo of exactly that Tiger. This is that day.
It was shipped to the 502 in Dunkelgrau, and they smeared it with mud. I don’t believe Dunkelgelb had even been issued at the time.
There are photos of Tigers with all those 2-digit numbers; Star Decals aren’t speculating here. The Tiger you’re looking at was “14” before it was “113” - you can still see some of the chalked “4” digit.
Tiger “33” was a later version with spare tracks on the turret. Only one known photo. “thick wide” mantlet.
Tiger “32” had an Early body but its turret came from the old Initial batch. Still had its Panzer 3 bin attached. Star Decals don’t know this.
Tiger “24” is a very standard Early Tiger with the standard mantlet.
“21” also had turret tracks, but the “flat” mantlet.
As for special or unusual features of “113”, the photo tells the tale. It has the “thick wide” mantlet that’s included in only a few model kits.
David
What a coincidence, that colored photo of a tiger painted with mud was another one I’d been wanting to do. I hadn’t recognized it as the same vehicle. Thanks a lot for your reply. It was very helpful. I suppose going by that color scheme, I suppose the light stripes on the hull on the black and white photographs would be the remaining winter camouflage in spring 1943.
