Tiger build #6 VK4501 - the Tiger that never was.

[RangerNeil]

This one takes us back to the beginning of the Tiger family. Porsche and Henschel sunmitted prototypes for the design brief of the original Tiger. Porsche's design visually was akin to the T-34 with the turret forward mounted on the hull and used an electro mechanical drive system. Henschel was more traditional with a purely mechanical drive sysyem. The Porsche design worked well in testing but on the day of the evaluation in front of Hitler the drive system caught fire and the VK4501 was unable to complete even one of the tests. The rest, as they say, is history!!

Instructions
















Sprues








Decals

[RangerNeil]

First steps - the suspension and road wheels. The legacy of the Elefant becomes obvious here with dual drive sprockets and single road wheels mounted in pairs on 3 swinging arms. Italeri's method of construction does leave a lot to be desired though. Firstly the front & rear sprocket holes aren't moulded into the lower hull. They are seperate, thin, plates that need to be cemented into the hull to fill holes. Then to secure the sprockets and the suspension units you have to put a keeper plate over the axle ends and melt the end of the axles.




Hopefully the photos make this clear.
Same goes for mounting the road wheels - the ends of the axles eed VERY careful melting as they are inside the wheel hubs so a slip with the heating iron carries the risk of destroying the wheel itself. Luckily I avoided that!!




A cap is then cemented onto the wheel hub to hide the melted ends. In fairness this has worked OK for the suspension units and the road wheels. It has not worked so well on the drive sprockets though - especially the front ones. Large dia axles in very thin walls make for a floppy wheel. As I am not fussed about working wheels I am actively considering cementing them into place at the front at least. For some reason the backs are not so bad.....
I had a look at using the track supplied with the kit with a view to using it instead of metal tracks.


Only way I can see that working is to stick it to the tops of the road wheels!! Or bin it and go metal again. Sorely tempted to go metal...

[RangerNeil]

Little bit more done.
The turret is assembled together with the main gun. This, at least, looks familiar to those who know Tiger 1 tanks. There is quite a nicely detailed breech for the 88mm inside the turret -which will be more or less invisible once all the hatches go on. When the turret halves were assembled the breech assembly was flopping everywhere, it was so loose but with the mantlet, shroud and barrel fitted it now balances quite nicely.




Going back to the tracks I took another look at the ones in the kit and the actual detail on them is very good. The Friuhl part number for the metal is the same as the Elefant (ATL-62) which will set me back around £30 if I go that route - nearly treble the price of the kit. So last night I gave the plastic ones a scrubbing in hot soapy water and today I will give them a coat of black Ultimate primer to see how well - if at all - it sticks when flexing them. If thats OK then they'll get a coat of Dark Iron to start with followed by a Rust wash. If this doesn't work I have the individual plastic links from the Tamiya Elefant I can try. If that also fails then it will be the Friuhl route - but at least I will have tried.

[digger303]

I'm with you I don't like those one piece track affairs. They are mostly out of shape and when you get them on they are either too long or too short. Once on they give the impression of the tank floating and the tracks not sitting down. The old way was to insert pins into the hull and hold them in place. Not ideal.
Then of course some fell apart after a while or melted your drive sprockets.
Decisions decisions

[Stokesy44]

I would definitely try the Tamiya Elefant tracks if they're the right length. I used them on my Elefant and was very impressed.

[aur0ra145]

I just noticed this tank doesn't have return rollers and now I can't unsee it.

[RangerNeil]

I'm with you I don't like those one piece track affairs. They are mostly out of shape and when you get them on they are either too long or too short. Once on they give the impression of the tank floating and the tracks not sitting down. The old way was to insert pins into the hull and hold them in place. Not ideal.
Then of course some fell apart after a while or melted your drive sprockets.
Decisions decisions

I would definitely try the Tamiya Elefant tracks if they're the right length. I used them on my Elefant and was very impressed.

Well, in the spirit of trying things for the first time I primed the 4 part tracks supplied in the kit to see if the paint would hold. The first layer wasTamiya White Fine Surface Primer, that was followed by a coat of Ultimate grey primer. Amazingly the paint has held - so far. Tomorrow I'm going to dig out the Elefant box and see how those compare. I'm going to guess the Tamiya ones wll fit because the Friuhl tracks list the same part number for both.
On to todays work then. Italeri have an - odd - way of doing things. All the hull armour is moulded as seperate pieces that go on the upper body. Tamiya would have moulded them as one wth the upper hull.


And added to the hull we get:


https://i.postimg.cc/nVghGHfF/20240310-154645.jpg[img][/img]

I'm letting these set overnight then tomorrow I'll see how it looks and, if necessary fill and sand and gaps around the front where the sides join the frontal armour.

[RangerNeil]

Progress report!
Firstly - tracks. I tried the flexi-plastic ones in the kit first. They had a coat of Tamiya Priner Surfacer followed by a coat of Ultimate Grey primer. Laid flat they looked good. Thats where it ended though. As I wrapped them around the sprocket I noticed white flakes all over the side of the hull - yep, the paint was flaking....
So - plan B. I got the track bag out of the Elefant box and gave them a coat of Tamiyas Dark Iron. Thats drying overnight and will get the rust treatment tomorrow before trying to assemble and fit them.

The upper hull remains seperate for now to make fitting the tracks a lot easier. However the ancilliaries are now on so the next job will be finishing off the turret with the hatches etc. Amazingly only a little filler was needed on the join between the front plate and the sides








Then its work out where the decals go. Oddly the paint instuctions do not include decal placement! I have 2 x small Baltic Crosses and one large plus two sets of numbers. Fairly certain the prototype never had numbers on it

[digger303]

I think your more than likely right. They hadn't been assigned to a unit so wouldn't have them.

[Stokesy44]

Its strange to look at because half my brain registers Elefant when I look at the running gear and half looks like a Tiger with that very Tiger like turret but then the turret is in the wrong place and has some funny bits on it, its then that my brain pops up the white flag and just gives in

Looking forward to how the tracks work out. I would have posted a pic of my Elefant to show the tracks but they're so caked in snow and mud they could be anything!

[RangerNeil]

Its strange to look at because half my brain registers Elefant when I look at the running gear and half looks like a Tiger with that very Tiger like turret but then the turret is in the wrong place and has some funny bits on it, its then that my brain pops up the white flag and just gives in

Looking forward to how the tracks work out. I would have posted a pic of my Elefant to show the tracks but they're so caked in snow and mud they could be anything!

Your command is my wish!!

[Stokesy44]

Awesome work. Th sag of the track looks perfect

[digger303]

Awesome work. Th sag of the track looks perfect

Yep

[RangerNeil]

Thank you folks - all kind words muchly appreciated!!

Other track went on today and some remedial work on the turret. Believe it or nor, Italeri don't give you coaxil M/G for the mantlet so I had to fabricate one. Hulls are joined, decals are on (I found a reference and a photo online showing the prototype was actually "commissioned" and served as the Command tank with Panzerjäger Abteilung 653, a Tiger (P) Ferdinand (Elefant) unit, and served was deployed in April 1944 and lost July of the same year..) so I used the numbers provided in the kit to recreate that vehicle.

This kit was built OOB with the exception of the tracks which came from the Tamiya Tiger (P) Elefant (due thanks to Stokesy for confirming the idea)

[Stokesy44]

Nice finish. Good to hear you managed to discover the history too.