Tiger I Late #133 Normandy Taigen/TK7.0 swap

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Years ago, I was given a hand-me-down plywood spray booth. But I noticed this on YouTube, FYI: https://youtu.be/rr20tYqUPUk

[MrChef]

Full mockup before next painting steps.

[MrChef]

Chipping layer done-

[Panzermechaniker]

Looking good Mr.Chef. Are you going to make your own zimmerit or use the Taigen stuff for that strip at the front of the lower hull where the 2 meet? It really makes a huge difference. I only did on my last Tiger before I painted it but it looked so good I went back and put it on the other Taigen Tiger and Sturmtiger. I just cut a long thin piece from some of the excess from the Taigen zim kit and glued it. Because it is constantly getting knocked the paint will flake in areas but the off white that shows through looks realistic so not a big deal

[MrChef]

Looking good Mr.Chef. Are you going to make your own zimmerit or use the Taigen stuff for that strip at the front of the lower hull where the 2 meet? It really makes a huge difference. I only did on my last Tiger before I painted it but it looked so good I went back and put it on the other Taigen Tiger and Sturmtiger. I just cut a long thin piece from some of the excess from the Taigen zim kit and glued it. Because it is constantly getting knocked the paint will flake in areas but the off white that shows through looks realistic so not a big deal

Ahhh yes. I did it already. I did the same as you and cut a piece from the spare Teigen set I have because I wanted it to be a close match. I haven't taken specific pictures of it but yes I did do the front lower plate and filled in the gaps with Tamiya putty. I however neglected to do the lower rear section below the tow link mostly because I just didn't care to.



On a side note I am adding the front tracks and bracket.

On another side note I made the Zimmerit on the sides of the cannon mantlet out of green stuff putty. It's ok but I cant imagine doing it to the whole tank. I'll stick with the kit.

[MrChef]

Accessories.

So I've decided that this Tiger will have the spare tracks hung on the front armored plate as many did. This was a field mod and from pictures I've collected I've seen 3 ways it was commonly done. Hanging from hook hangers is the look that like the most and that's where I'm going with it.

So here's picking hanging track that fits properly and looks in scale.

I have 3 choices now-

The smallest tracks shown are Heng Long. They are the least accurate of the 3, open pin, diminutive in comparison, lackluster detail. They hang nicely and fit perfectly but look too small and out of scale.



Next we have Taigen tracks. Much Beefier, closed pin design, sorta got the hollow guidehorns, not perfect, have casting marks but can be filed if I decide this route. And of course match the tracks that the tank runs.



Then I picked up these tracks from Battleground models purely for decoration. They are clean, lovely details, they snap together so I drilled some holes for the pins to hang em. But they are noticeably larger than the Taigen tracks even-
https://www.battlegroundmodels.com/prod ... hull-front


On the right are the battleground tracks, on the left are the Heng Long tracks


On the right are the battleground tracks again and on the left are the Taigen tracks


Left Heng Long, Middle Taigen, Right Battleground




Battleground

Battleground

Real tracks=




Real tracks mounted the way I want to=


The 2 tracks that I'm deciding on, H'mmm=

[Panzermechaniker]

Mr Chef I can't tell you how much of a difference filling that zimmerit gap on the front where the lower and upper meet makes. It's so easy if you do it before you paint the tank. These are a couple of pics of my Mid Tiger 1 and my Sturm with the strip added post painted after I realized how wrong they looked without them. These 2 are battlers so lots of smashes but my late that I don't have right now almost perfecly matched because I di di it before I painted it.

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IMG_0127.jpeg (2.15 MiB) Viewed 1058 times

[Meter rat]

For my £1 worth. The Taigen tracks look best.

[HERMAN BIX]

Taigen.

A- they are the same as the ones the model runs
B- The printed ones have square drive bosses on the inner side of the track, Tigers dont rock no square drive bosses on their sprockets
C- you can if desperate, drill and model out the guide horns to give the hollow effect, but for what they do and in perspective with other inaccuracies, why bother?

[MrChef]

Mr Chef I can't tell you how much of a difference filling that zimmerit gap on the front where the lower and upper meet makes. It's so easy if you do it before you paint the tank.

Well that ship has sailed to the Bahamas.

2 ways I look at that because I did consider it earlier as I also considered filling the gap between the front horizontal plate and the front glacis plate as I had with the other Heng Longs. 1. Since I'd be opening and closing it there all the time I just dismissed it and 2. There aren't many/any Tiger Tanks photographed with the zimmerit on the horizontal plate. It is known that the Saumur Tiger had the Zimmerit touched up and the horizontal plate is thought to be added after the war just as they added the zim to the MG ball and drivers vision port blocks.