Today I bring you a post dedicated to the miniatures from this MiniArt Totenkopf Division Kharkov 1943 set, MiniArt 35075.
Here you can find the link to the video I dedicated to them on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui3pM-DD48I
For realism, I decided to glue the plastic heads, as they more closely resemble those of real soldiers, which is where MiniArt drew inspiration for these miniatures.
Excellent miniatures, excellent poses, very realistic, and perfect for a static diorama set during the Third Battle of Kharkov in February/March 1943.
I applied a tanned, frozen effect to the soldiers’ faces.
I’m considering whether to repaint the eyes or leave them as they are (despite Shep Paine’s advice that eyes should be painted half-closed, as soldiers/people outdoors tend to squint to avoid the sunlight). This also helps avoid the effect of eyes being too large and too wide open.
First painting attempt (using my own technique): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n4DTfXw5EI
My first diorama with these miniatures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYqCF1F9X4&t=3s
I hope you like them.
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Beautiful figure painting!
I don’t know if this is important, but for everybody else’s reference : that Tiger is not a version that was present at Kharkov.
David
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Thank you so much!
I’m actually not very knowledgeable about tank versions. The Tiger is an early production E version of the Tiger. (I used the Zvezda Ausf E Tiger 1.) I know that the later variant has a different type of wheels and a different number (these are the Tigers used in Normandy in 1944).
I used this Tiger for Kharkov 1943 because this Zvezda Tiger is still an early version (1942/1943).
However, I can’t say specifically whether it was present in Kharkov or not. (At least it’s not a “Normandy model” Tiger.)
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The Kharkov Tigers were slightly earlier… in particular, they didn’t have the spare tracks on the turret.
Both Dragon and Border have kits of “Kharkov Tigers”.
David
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Oh, okay! I hadn’t noticed… if I’d known, I wouldn’t have used this type of tiger (or glued the spare track links with as much care). I’ll try to find a solution.
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After you pointed out that the Tiger tanks used at Kharkov in 1943 did not have the track spares on the turret, I did some research and decided to remedy this by removing the spares to make the Tiger turret like the “Kharkov” model of the Tiger 1.
It’s solved now.
After removing them, I applied some filler and repainted the surface.
Thank you so much David for pointing this out to me, it looks much better now and is historically consistent.
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