Tiger at Kharkov

[Soeren]

Hey tehre, I had so much fun building the KV-1 that is now coming to an end I got tempted by the recent price drops in the Tamiya Tiger. Well, at least a model shop owner told me Tamiya would stop selling most of their RC tanks because of the overwhelming appearance of the other vendors. So I went for it.
... Wait... it was a shop owner who told me ... ... Who is selling these models again

Also it ifeels so much easier doing a well engineered kit than just doing the in part scratched and reworked tanks. At least this is for me as work really increased over time.



So yes, I finally went with the Tamiya Tiger and got quite some bling for it. This ist the ABER full PE kit for the early Tiger, for a moment I was considering the Africa Tiger set, but then I went with this one. Got a good price by a polish model shop on ebay.



I didn´t knew that this would include all the good stuff, even nicely cast spare track holders.



It isa bit cheap on the track cables and holders though. They want you to shape those tubes for the cables yourself. Maybe the Taigen cable tubes can be reused for this. At least they have the brass cast insides for the cable eyes.


Although they give you the smoke discharger connectors I had to go with the ABER 16-026 set with al the turned tubes, caps and smoke canisters plus decals, those should look fancy


For some reason it seems ABER has some weird idea calling out the wire size. For instance in the dischargers they want you to twist 3 0.4mm wires and put it inside a 1mm diameter tube. On the KV1 saw unit they tell you to use 0.8mm wire but you cant even shape the hinge around that. Other than that, great fun.

Of course I got me a reference kit for the fun and trying the tropical camo paint scheme have RAL 8000 and RAL 7008 on the way




Had and also will have a close look at the build by Mr Painless Wolf for reference and for what to look out for.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning!
I will definitely be following along so as to learn something new. ;o) I've got one of these in stowage to build for myself one of these fine old years. The Hobby and the Models and the Builders keep progressing. No time to rest on laurels, etc.
regards,
Painless

P.S. One thing that I can recommend that was not in the Build for Mike's Tiger is a set of the scale bolts to attach gearboxes, etc. through the lower hull. Avoids the use of the supplied Phillips head screws.

[Soeren]

P.S. One thing that I can recommend that was not in the Build for Mike's Tiger is a set of the scale bolts to attach gearboxes, etc. through the lower hull. Avoids the use of the supplied Phillips head screws.

Thank you on that one, already ordered those screw together with the other goodies already

[43rdRecceReg]

Your dealer may well be right about Tamiya's future, in spite of the 'buy one quick!' tactic. The Chinese do seem to be copying and enhancing Tamiya's designs- and getting ever closer to Tamiya's vaunted build standards. Meantime, Tamiya has not kept pace with developments elsewhere (smokers, lights, after-market controllers etc.). As Heng Long and Taigen up the quality of their models, Tamiya's overpriced offerings become less attractive, despite the superior engineering- especially in the hulls and transmissions.
Thus, the threat to Tamiya is real, and that's why I bought a Jagdpanther-(then scheduled for deletion from their catalogue) and a Tiger 1 last year...before they disappear forever.
Anyway, do enjoy the build, and do allow us to follow the journey. These classics fit together so well and, as you say, make for a good break from scratch building or modding.

[Soeren]

A start was made in the Dragon kit at least. They give us a minimum of interior so when you look through the opened hatches you actually might see some of the inside that is more than just empty space. Funny things though. The escape hatch can be opened as long as you don’t mount the closing mechanism. Odd. Other than that great detail everywhere. Have to see what Tamiya gives us here. Ordered Montana Everglade spray paint that might be a good dark base coat for ral 8000



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[Jimster]

Hooray! My favorite build thread subject by one of the most talented builders. A winning combination for sure.

[HERMAN BIX]

Hell yeah, I will have the popcorn out for this one.

Question Mr Soeren, Kharkov the first withdrawal, or Kharkov, the recapture ?
With the time between, over all finish could vary
(I'm just being a smarty pants trying to get a head start on your final look, which will be unbelievable whichever the option)

[Soeren]

Hey Herman thanks for joining in

The Dragon Kit colour callout are supposed to be early 1943.So it is the recapture. According to the Tiger 1 info all Tigers deployed with the Großdeutschland division in Karkhov early 1943 were new. But hey, they took later part in the Battle of Kursk. So there is time in between and lots of options to make it look interesting.

I found a few things though. The Dragon kit contains markings for 5 Tigers, all three Großseutschland Tigers have the same Tropical Camo which I want to paint. Each Tiger has a different mantlet though. The one in the Tamiya kit would be most likely match Tiger "7", although that would need a different turret bin, as it had the wider type. We will see.

[HERMAN BIX]

OOooooh yeah !, I like plenty of scope
We have no doubt that this will be one of those builds that we all bookmark for future reference .

Go ya hardest

[Jimster]

I'll sit beside the entrance to your latest rabbit hole with a good length of rope should you need it.