Tiger Tank 123 Info

[capt midnight]

I'm in the planning stages of reworking my HL Tiger 1 and I have decided on a specific tank to model.

Here's the before look...

And what I'm shooting for...

Tiger_panzer.jpg (36.58 KiB) Viewed 2342 times

I've only been able to locate a few pictures of this tank and was wondering if anyone has came across any more. Here's the others I've been able to find...

Tiger_tank_number_123.jpg (63.96 KiB) Viewed 2342 times

tiger02z.jpg (21.28 KiB) Viewed 2342 times

It looks to me to be painted overall desert yellow. I'm guessing the turret numbers are red with white outlines, but I'm not 100% sure. Does anyone have any info or pictures of this tank that they's be willing to share? I've already got the PzIV bin for the turret and am thinking about adding a recoil and strobe to it.

Thanks!

Bill

[jarndice]

I cannot find any reference to any Tiger 1 with turret number 123 that may have served in North Africa except Panzer Abteilung 501 had a Tiger 1 with that number on its strength in November 1943 but this tank was part of the re-equipment of 501 after it had been defeated in Tunisia in May at Cap Bon in 1943,
501 reformed at Mailly Le Camp France in September 1943 receiving 45 new Tiger 1s before shipping off to the Eastern Front on the 4th December.
Earlier references to Turret Number 123 apply to a Panzer 111 in 1st company of 501 in Tunisia in November 1942,
Panzer 111s served in quite large numbers in the Heavy Tank Battalions.
An interesting Tiger 1 unit with Tiger1 turret number 123 was Funklenk 301 which had served in Russia but reformed in Western Germany on the border area of Germany and Holland as a fighting radio link,
This unit reformed in October 1944 with 31 Tiger 1s not all of which were new,
The last 3 Tiger 1s in 301 were destroyed by their crews on the 16th April 1945,
All the other Schwere Abteilung served on the Eastern front from day one apart from the forming up and training in Germany,
The number 1 company of each Battalion had a Tank with Turret number 123 some were Panzer 111s and some were Tiger 1s.
The Tiger 1 in your pictures is an early type,
The Smoke projectors on the Turret were fitted from August1942 and discontinued in June 1943 also the turret has a pistol port on each side immediately in front of the modified PZ111 bin, The escape hatch replaced one of the pistol ports in December 1942.
A lot of people think the early Tiger 1s only went to North Africa with a desert finish BUT there were early Tiger1s in a desert finish on the Eastern front at the beginning of Barbarossa,
The lack of exhaust shrouds and feifal air cleaners point me towards a Tiger 1 in Russia not North Africa
I would if I were you look at those Abteilung serving in the East for the information about Tiger 1 Turret Number 123.

[HengRong]

Pretty sure 123 is from s.pz.abt.503 and yes could be dark yellow base colour and these pics were probably taken in the lead up to Kursk. They didn't serve in the desert though. If you decide to go with the 503rd then the turret numbers are definitely BLACK with white outlines, not red.

[jarndice]

I just did a bit of a search and if you type
"Tiger 1 tank number 123 of Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 Eastern Front"
into your search engine one of your photographs will appear on Image 100 and a new one on 156.

[HERMAN BIX]

I suspect the Tiger had its bin damaged and was replaced by a donor PzIII.
Of note is no zimmerit, no lower - front hull spare track.
No Fiefels and the tool box used for jerry cans.
A good strike on the turret armour too............clearly not good enough.

Get 'er done Mr Midnight !
I have a boat load of plastic Tiger bits so if you need anything, let me know.

[jarndice]

Herman I think with both a PZ111 Turret bin and a pistol port on both sides of the turret and no escape hatch it is an early Tiger 1 Turret.

[HERMAN BIX]

Yeah fair call, I was just looking again & seen there was no escape hatch.
Assuming this was all the same tank, its a real early, but not first, model !
I cant see any paps for exhaust heat guards either.
Real early one.

[capt midnight]

Thanks for all the great info, guys! I really appreciate it.

I was thinking that it was an early model, but wasn't sure if it was a refit, or not. What was throwing me was that it appeared to be desert yellow, but looked to be in Russia.

Thanks HengRong for the clarification on the turret number colors.I think that that is the route I'll be taking.

Herman, to be honest I hadn't even noticed the shell hit on the turret, yet. Thanks for pointing that out. It also looks like that hit took off part of the lifting lug.

I've got everything to do the build except for an extra pistol port. I think I'll just make a quick mold and cast one off of the one I have. That should be it.

I'll be starting a build thread some time soon. Just have a couple of open projects to tidy up first. And yes, Big Wind is one of them!

Thanks again, everyone!

Bill