Lets face it, who hasn't wanted a panzer grey Tiger 1? Back in the distant days of the school wargames club in the early 1970s, it was pretty common to paint late war German tanks grey, just because it looked so cool. Now, I do have a few grey 6mm Tigers, aimed at the Russian Front in late 1942 and early 43, but this is my first 15mm one.
Woo, and doesn't it look great. This is the early production Battlefield 3D one I previewed earlier with the straight turret bin. It isn't one of the very first Tigers catastrophically committed near Leningrad in 1942 with the pair of turret bins on each side of the turret though, as that is such a niche vehicle.
These types saw a fair bit of action on the Eastern Front over the winter of 1942/43, before being repainted dunkelgelb in early 1943.
I've already described the model in an earlier post, but the paint job brings out the moulded on detail nicely. It was undercoated Humbrol Sea Grey and then given a wash of VJ Panzer Grey to darken it and give it some lowlights. It has also come out with a pleasing bluish tone.
The turret number is 103, which I'm going to claim was Hauptmann Hans Bolter from the 502nd Tiger Bn (as featured in the 'Paw of the Tiger' scenario in AHGCs Squad Leader/Cross of Iron). He was in the same battalion as Otto Carius, but Carius' number was 217 which is so non-standard it doesn't exist in my decal sheets. I assume the 502nd numbered vehicles by company but then just counted the individual vehicles, not the platoons. Or something.
The stunning moulded detail on the engine deck is even more obvious now it is painted. I did a pinwash around all the tools, tow cable etc to highlight them more. I also picked out the engine deck fire extinguisher in red for some contrast (Tiger 1 fire extinguisher colours are another delightful AFV modellers rabbit hole, they were done in a range of colours).
I applied a certain amount of mud on and around the tracks and running gear. I even had a go at picking out the rubber tyres on the road wheels. The biggest problem was the left hand hull balkan cross, as there is a tow rope moulded onto the hull. I vaguely thought about trying to cut the decals in half, but in the end I stuck the cross over the tow rope, then painted the cable on top of it and it gives the illusion the cross is behind the cable.
The turret numbers came out a bit shuny (Doms Decals) so I covered them with matt varnish and discovered that VJ varnish lifts Doms Decals off... a certain amount of cursing ensued but I got it all to stick down eventually.
The whole thing was finished off with a light drybrush of VJ Iraqi Pale Sand. Now really it should be in snow camo but I couldn't bring myself to do that and I don't have any other snow camo vehicles either so it would just look out of place. The grey will look pretty good against a snow background anyway.
Fine looking model, indeed!
ReplyDeleteThank you. It looks a lot more threatening than the camouflaged ones. I do even have a couple of scenarios in mind for it.
DeleteIt looks great, Martin, and agreed on the gray Tiger being iconic, it was the only kind of Tiger I was aware of (from comic books and Kelly’s Heroes)!
ReplyDeleteVery clever on running the balkankreuz over the tow cables then just painting over the relevant portion, can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that! And I’ve had that same, cursing experience with removing decals I was attempting to seal in place.
Very nice work.
V/R,
Jack
Thank you. Yes, Kelly's Heroes is responsible for fleets of grey Tigers!
DeleteThe cross over the cable isn't perfect, it is a bit distorted by the depth of the cable, but it worked much better than I thought it would.
I've read that some Tiger IIs in '45 were in grey because no other paint was to hand at the time.
ReplyDeleteI had heard that, but there is very little photographic evidence to support it. There is certainly evidence for tanks in the red/brown primer with overspray of some other colour, but whether that included Panzer Grey as well the usual green, brown and Dunkelgelb it is hard to say.
DeleteYes, there are all sorts of stories about the colours very late AFVs we're painted. I think 7th (?) Armoured Divs Comets were painted grey in 1945 with stocks of captured German Navy paint for a parade for some bizarre reason.
DeleteSome of the Japanese ships were painted grey using paint stocks captured in Singapore, which adds to the various shades used by the different Japanese dockyards.
DeleteThe Comets must have been parked. As the saying goes "If it moves salute it, if it doesn't paint it!"
DeleteIt's a stunning little model Martin, 3d printing really is a great boon for we wargamers isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yes it is great, my only real concern is that it may lead to a reduction in bodged conversions! The scales of some 3D seems a bit all over the place too.
DeleteNot only 3D prints. PSC plastics seem variable. The Panthers are very small compared to other companies. M5's are huge.
DeleteI looked into early Tiger colour schemes and it is a bit of a minefield. However after a lot of digging the consensus seems to be that only a handful of Tigers were painted in Panzer Grey those belonging to 1st company 502nd with AGN. Certainly the Tiger companies of the SS divisions, Grossdeutschland and 503rd were in yellow the exact shade of which is debated, but probably somewhat darker than Dunkelgelb. 503rd was originally slated for North Africa and may have been in the same tan colour the Bovington Tiger is painted in. However as they all went to Russia in the winter of ‘42-43 they ended up in white. Pictures from the battles for Kharkov show Das Reich Tigers in a very thorough whitewash scheme.
ReplyDeleteAnyway nice model. If I ever need more will consider Battlefield 3D, but at the moment well stocked with the Flames of War ones.
Yes, as I said in the commentary, really it should be snow coloured as that was bulk of the Winter 42 Tigers, but I've numbered it as 1 Ko, 592, so grey it is.
Delete502nd's first company was an interesting collection. They got some of the earliest Tigers off the production line. Most of them seem to have been without the side mudguards and either no turret bin or the early striaght sided one. Hans Bolter was in 1st company so 103 is appropriate.
ReplyDeleteAs for Carius his first Tiger, with the early cupola, was 214. When that was knocked out he got mid series tank with the later cupola, but ruber tyred roadwheels. That was 217. The reason for the high number was 502nd was very overstrength. Having 71 Tigers in February '44. I think they got tanks from units returning to Germany to refit.
Ah, that explains it. Thanks Fred, I was certainly a bit puzzled.
DeleteI'm with you - they look great in grey.
ReplyDeleteI just wish the Germans had stuck with one colour throughout the war!
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