dragon Tiger 1 late production with zimmerit

[MarkVerploeg]

hi guys
since i have finished one build and i don't really like to do a lot of weathering on work days (takes too much time) i will be startin yet another build for this sig
this time it will be a late production Tiger by dragon

well this one
it is being build by some others i believe


the pile of packaged parts


this is REALLY blurry ,sorry








as you can see the decal sheet is missing a few decals
i didn't do this though
i got this kit last year when i was visiting the city of Achen, Germany
and by German law it is not allowed to have Nazi signs and such in a kit ,so they remove these
Hamilkar Barkas has a rant like vid on this very subject


but luckily i keep all my spare decals after a build and i have build this kit a few years ago when it was released
the decals i plan to use this time are still on that sheet


and some goodies wich include a side skirt and exhaust shroud set , friul track , replacement barrel and tow cabbles


my plan is to convert this regular Tiger into Michael Wittmann's last Tiger
after doing some research myself and with the help of several guys on facebook i found out what has to be changed on this kit
and i found out that all the parts i need are in the kit or in the AM pile
so it should make for a fun build i think although the only thing missing are the turret numbers i don't have full white numbers in my stash but i want to try to make stencils for them and spray them on

so that is the intro for this one
i hope to get back to you as soon as possible with a update
cheers Mark

[HotziSlayer]

Great Kit.

The funny thing is, except for the red sig rune, none of the symbols are banned in germany. they cut out everything these days, even the "key" symbol of the lssah. just stupid. i really begin to hate some things in my country. they even started to remove memorial signs for fallen german soldier and stuff. cant believe that. its 2015!! not 1969!

[PaulAyrey]

This is a great kit, look forward to your build.

[MarkVerploeg]

Great Kit.

The funny thing is, except for the red sig rune, none of the symbols are banned in germany. they cut out everything these days, even the "key" symbol of the lssah. just stupid. i really begin to hate some things in my country. they even started to remove memorial signs for fallen german soldier and stuff. cant believe that. its 2015!! not 1969!

Well that one is missing too
But it only goes on one version i think and that is the one from the boxart wich was from the more forgotten panzerace Will Fey but i have that one already
I only need the unit signs wich i still have so no big problem there

This is a great kit, look forward to your build.

Thanks i will start as soo as possible

[Coen]

Ok... so now it IS four!!!
Mark... I love you MAN!!!!

[MarkVerploeg]

I shall take that comment in the best way possible then

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

Cool cool cool cool!
That's all. ...

[MarkVerploeg]

Cool cool cool cool!
That's all. ...

Did you see some shiny stuff?
I never worked on such fenders before
Well not in this scale but aber is not a bad brand for shiny goodness
The most work will be with the moving of some parts like the jack wich has to go on the left instead of the right
So a little hacking with a chisel and filling some gaps and i should have that fixed
For the most part it was just the dame as any other Tiger

[MarkVerploeg]

Some call it crazy others dedication... I call it genius the more the merrier

Thanks Hollywood
But i am stretching it a bit
A total of 6 kits on 3 months is a bit much
I have 5 for this build and 1 in the modern armor sig
And up to now i finished all my entries that i made for sigs and gb's and i like to keep it that way
You make a commitment whrn you enter a gb and you can atleast try to finish in time
Well that i my thought on it but things can go wrong or life gets in the way ofcourse

[Hillbilly]

Holy hell man,6 kits is more than I can get put together in a year! That's insane!

[MarkVerploeg]

Holy hell man,6 kits is more than I can get put together in a year! That's insane!

It can be done mate
I will only build the vehicles as entries and no diorama's
Well not yet anyway and no figures either that slow things down

[MarkVerploeg]

hi guys
so it has been a while but i have something for a update
and just like with the early prod. Tiger this will be the entire build all at once
but unlike that kit i did some modifications to this once
as you may have seen i a previous post i want to make this regular late production Tiger into Michael Wittmann's last Tiger
this means that i had to change some features of the kit parts or add something that was not included in the kit like the antenna's
but i think the pictures will make some more sense


once i had placed all the torsionbars i glued on the rearplate
that was the most important part to modify
in the photo i already placed the brackets for the spare antenna tube wich needs to go on there
they can be seen on the left side of the photo but are on the right hand side of the plate
i used a chisel to carve out some of the zimmerit that was on there
the brackets themselves come from another rearplate from this kit
it had 3 of them 1 regular , 1 regular with zimmerit and a clean command version plate
i used the last one for reference for the modifications


here i made the jack and placed it on the left side of the plate (instead of the right where it goes on other versions)


i used white milliput to fill all the gaps and to make zimmerit on those places
i used the same chisel that i used for carving the holes to make the ridges in the milliput
and water to make sure it doesn't stick on the chisel


and while i was working on that i filled in the hole for the coaxial mg
the command version didn't have them so there was no hole either


the finished rearplate with all the parts in place


i then started with the hull roof plate
there was not that much that was changed here
but on the rear just in front of the ventilation covers i placed the antenna mounts
the lefthand side only needs the small mount but the right side needs some kind of bucket to be placed
the partw for this are in the kit so that makes it easy
and the plate itself is also used for command versions but you need drill 1 hole (left) and cut out a large circle on the right to make the new parts fit


the upper glacis and drivers plates where assembled


the hatches and headlight where next to be assembled


the cooling units where assembled and later painted black
i don't mind painting interior parts but you don't see them later on and i didn't want to put in the time if i can't see the result
and i placed one of the tubes on wrong


the engine cover was next
i wanted it like this but once i tried to fit the turret later in the build i found that this was too high and i had to close the engine bay


then the major hull parts where put together and left to rest so the glue could dry


then it was time for the turret
as with most kits you start with the gun
i have a after market gun for this but this was slightly shorter then the kit gun
this was i the rear of the barrel and all the visible parts where the same size
so i decided to cut off the end of the kit part and glue tht onto the metal barrel


the big parts for the gun assembly


then the gun was fitted in the turret and the stowage bin was added
i didn't change anything on the bin as i want to chip it and i didn't want to make a very damaged one for this build


then the roof was made
although all the hatches are closed in the phot's they where not yet glued and i made them in the open position later


the finished turret so far
well the styrene part was done it still needs some photo etch


i started the metal work with the gun muzzle
it is pretty easy to assemble and the fit is good
i do like the look of the barrel itself , you can make it even without the muzzle


everything is glued


i then worked on the side skirts
after i glued on the bolts and made all the bends , i glued on a few small sticks of styrene
this will give them a larger surface to glue when they go on the side of the tank


i then added some minor damage to them


and then they where glued on the Tiger


then the exhaust shrouds where rolled
i think i need more practice with rolling pe though
these are not that bad to make but i have a marder wich has pe ammo tubes and those need rolling too and i already spend 10 minutes on each of these


the kit comes with this nice little strip to finish the zimmerit coating on the front


all the tools where added
i only have lost the pe cover for the shovel so i had to use the styrene version for that


the latches for the turretbin whare added
if you think the tol clamps are bad try these
they have taken some time to make and i didn't even add the padlocks on them


and finally the aber antenna set was added
once the glue had set i used pliers to pull out the star antenna
this will be blocking the turret once it gets placed
but this way i have a very thight fit on it later so i don't need to glue it anymore just put it back in it's place
and the eureka xxl towcables where added aswell
i didn't make the track cable on this and it will go in the spares bit
as i think the kit part looks fine and it saves a lot of time if i don't have to put that on the side myself




and then we have a build befehlstiger
i still need to do the tracks but those are friul tracks so i will do those later during the painting and weathering when things are drying or when i don't feel like working on the weathering at all

and that is all for now
i will try to get started on the priming and painting as soon as i can
although i still need to order some paints for 2 other builds (i keep forgetting to do that) but i can work on to others untill those arrive
but first they need some primer and then i will see wich build gets to be painted first

so i hope you like it , thanks for stopping by and untill next time
cheers Mark

[Hillbilly]

Wow,that is some nice added detail. Really looking the nuts now!

[MarkVerploeg]

Wow,that is some nice added detail. Really looking the nuts now!

Thank you Steve
It is ready for some paint and primer now wich i will start tomorrow

[Coen]

Superb work Mark! This will be another sweet build bud.
Nice details.
Can't wait to see her in paint.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you very much Coen
And the amount of detail i added with the pe is pretty big
Well when i compare it to the styrene parts there is a big difference
I plan on starting the priming tonight so i can start painting tomorrow once the primer had enough time to dry
There was a bit of a accident on the bench when i was cleaning up and sorting out parts for the various builds but i will show that in the thread of that build

[Coen]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

[MarkVerploeg]

I am affraid so
It had something to do with ab cleaner and an idiot who didn't checked if the bottle was closed

[MarkVerploeg]

hi guys
well then this sig has closed already
but i was told that it was okay if i was late with the updates as long as the reveals where posted in time wich i did and that has been up for about a week now
so this will be the last update for this build in wich i want to cover the painting and weathering all at once
but this way you can still see how i made this tiger and how i do certain things and if i can improve something or if it is helpfull for someone else

so last time the construction part was finished so here is the painting process

i started with the base color wich is H403 dark Yellow from mr hobby
the camo stripes are made up with H47 red brown and H80 Khaki green
the red brown looks very red at first but the weathering changed it a lot
i am sorry this is the only pic i have of this step but i can't find any other although i didn't do anything like effects with this one
the scheme itself is already very busy so i decided that highlighting and such things wouldn't add that much


the tools and towcables fwhere the next step
all the bare metal is painted with mr metal stainless steel
the tool handles are base coated with a mix of english uniform and white mixed in a 4 to 1 ratio (both are Vallejo)
then i dry brushed them with Vallejo modelcolor smoke to simulate the wood grain


i then added some chipping around the hatches on the turret roof and on the hull roof
the large portion is done with ammo's dark yellow the dark rusty color inside that is made with chipping color by ammo
the only thing i would have changed (in hindsight) is that i did this with a brush and i like the look of a sponge chipping better
the gun rail was also painted ,for this i dipped a q-tip/cotton bud in a bit of mr metal aluminum and rubbed that over the top of this rail
leaving a bare metal finish on the part where the gun mount slides over it and leaving the rest untouched


the little interior that is in this kit was painted with tamiya white
then i chipped it with a sponge and some chipping color from ammo
after the paint was dry i brushed on some future to get a better surface for the wash i added later


i added a layer of filter before i started gloss coating it
keep in mind that to protect you paint from this filter you should use a matt finish before applying the filter


to prepare the tiger for some washes and decals i gloss coated it with alclad aqua gloss


the decals where added
i didn't have any solid white decals for this build but i did have some white outlines with clear centres
so i used those and carefully painted in the rest of the white with some Vallejo white and a brush


once the decals where dry the entire tank was gloss coated a second time
then i started the wash, in this case i used mig productions dark wash wich is visible in the weldseam on the edge of the turret


i then made some streaking using ak dak streaking wich is a greyish dust color
this was done on all surfaces except the flat ones


while all the weathering stuff was drying i started on the tracks
they are from friul and these ones took me about 3 to 4 hours to clean and build


they had a bath in ak track burnishing fluid untill i was happy with the color


and they are done
i never used this technique before although i have this stuff a long time but i like it
i should get more as i kind of used all of it


the exhaust where sprayed with various colors from the rust set by ammo
and i don't really like the ammo paints but this set is great i use them straight from the bottle but i do push up the pressure on the compressor to about 35 to 40 psi
wich is pretty high


they where finished with some old rust and black smoke pigments to create a more dusty rust look and to add soot


i then brushed on some ak earth effects
i use this as a pigment fixer for mud and heavy layers of dust



first up the dark mud pigments from mig prod.
this was followed with europe dust pigments but i forgot to shoot the pic


the same was done with the tracks
this shows a bit what has been done to the hull aswell
in the end you have 3 main shades on there wich is blended on the parts where the 2 pigment colors meet


the exhaust shrouds where placed and had a bit of black smoke pigments for the soot that gets on there


some oil and fual stains on the rear deck


the tracks where put on


some spare tracks from the kit where painted with rust colors from ammo and then dusted with the old rust pigments from mig prod.


a bit of europe dust and dark mud on the inside of the tracks
this was done with the spills from the track dusting as there is no use in wasting them


and fianlly some spend shells from Wittmanns mighty 88


and all of that was done to end up with this

and that is all i have
i hope you like it and thanks for watching
cheers Mark