[D-DAY] My Tiger 1 Normandy build

[Ad Lav]

Wonderful, and a very steady hand! I painted my markings free hand as well on zimmerit.

I thought the knocked off zimmerit would leave red oxide primer? Anyhow, a great representation of a battle worn Tiger!

[cmryanuk]

Great pics Tiger6, thank you. In the colour photos of 331 it looks like blue on white. I could overpaint the red with blue, if I can summon my steady hand again.

[cmryanuk]

Wonderful, and a very steady hand! I painted my markings free hand as well on zimmerit.

I thought the knocked off zimmerit would leave red oxide primer? Anyhow, a great representation of a battle worn Tiger!

That's a great point and I have red oxide below. It would probably be a mix as some damage would go through the primer to the steel below. I'll have a go at scraping to see what happens

[cmryanuk]

Regardless of what the prototype colors might have been, that’s some remarkably steady-handed painting.

Thank you

[Tiger6]

Great pics Tiger6, thank you. In the colour photos of 331 it looks like blue on white. I could overpaint the red with blue, if I can summon my steady hand again.

It was blue on yellow, that is the general consensus amongst Tiger experts - sadly my old go-to site for Tiger information is no longer available otherwise I would link you to it.
We even had something of a group build going on here back in 2009/10, but between the forum hack and the photobucket apocalypse thats all long gone sadly

But that said, don't let me tell you how to do your tank - I'm just pointing out the histrorical background here.
(That said, the blue on yellow numbers do look eye catching )

(By the way, were you the Chris that came to that rainy show we did at Cobbaton back in 2009?)

[cmryanuk]

An earlier picture of 334 clearly shows the 2 tone colour in the turret number:
https://imgur.com/a/bGRBCZ0

Probably shown better here on its sister tank 331:
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/81 ... andy-1944/

Hey Tiger6 are you sure about the blue on white? I searched it and you can buy decals for Wittman's tiger of Abt. 101 in red on white. I can't find any period colour photos and the second link you shared is a digital model of an early Tiger. Note the commander's cupola etc

[Tiger6]

The photo at the top was what I was pointing to - 3rd Company had a lot of mid production Tigers, which if memory serves were cast offs from 2nd Company when they re-equiped with late model examples.
The rest of that post is just video game rubbish...

Those decals are correct for 2nd company - they had red on White. Can't for the life of me remember what 1st Company did, but the 3 HQ section tanks had plain white numbers (as you will see on the famous pictures of the decapitated turret of 007)

Certain about the Blue on Yellow for 3rd Company in Normandy (and also in the Ardennes, after they 'rebranded' as 501st SS sPzAbt)

[cmryanuk]

Great pics Tiger6, thank you. In the colour photos of 331 it looks like blue on white. I could overpaint the red with blue, if I can summon my steady hand again.

It was blue on yellow, that is the general consensus amongst Tiger experts - sadly my old go-to site for Tiger information is no longer available otherwise I would link you to it.
We even had something of a group build going on here back in 2009/10, but between the forum hack and the photobucket apocalypse thats all long gone sadly

But that said, don't let me tell you how to do your tank - I'm just pointing out the histrorical background here.
(That said, the blue on yellow numbers do look eye catching )

(By the way, were you the Chris that came to that rainy show we did at Cobbaton back in 2009?)

Yes it may well have been me. I went to quite a lot of shows. I remember Matt, a young lad who I think started the forum, and Rob FV432, and we started IR battling.

BTW thanks for the advice on number colour schemes. It's really difficult finding what is correct. I've seen dark numbers on barrels, white (light) numbers with no outline. It seems it was anything goes in '44.

Best regards,

Chris

[Tiger6]

The Tiger units were a law unto themselves when it comes to numbering (numbers on the barrel later in the war are indicative of sPzAbt 505, especially if there is a Knight on a charger painted on the turret...)

There was a webpage put together by a guy in Russia around 2009/10 that listed out every known tank in sSSPzAbt 101, along with any photo's he could get his hands on - it was a tremendous resource and I wish I had kept screenshots, as it didn't stay online all that long
(After a little head scatching I think 1st company had green on white numerals, but I could be wrong and confusing them with SSSPzAbt102...?)

Matt's still here, but last time I saw Rob was at MVT Evesham 2013(ish?) - he'd gotten out of the hobby and into reenacting with his lad. I cut bait with the rest of that crew not too long after.

Good to see you back in the hobby
Br,
Martin

[cmryanuk]

Hey Martin, great to reconnect. Thanks for your contribution re the numbering. I've just found a great reference video on YT for Abt. 101 with photos of each tank in order, and at the end a list of the known commander's. 334 was Rolf von Westernhagen. Here's the link https://youtu.be/j_Sw2Lru5eA?si=A9bDtKn3OW_mktRB

It made me quite sad seeing pics of these wonderful machines knocked out of action, but I guess that's life, and war. Also I noted that their number 4 wasn't in the usual format but an open number like an upside down h.

I might redo it, out of respect for Rolf and his crew.

Actually glad to be back in the hobby. I felt I needed get back to being creative.