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Rear convoy lights on late war German tanks

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:25 pm
by tanks_for_the_memory
I was just pondering how to add the rear convoy light to my mid-production Normandy Tiger 1...

I am aware that there has been a little uncertainty over the exact nature of this light which sits on the rear driver's side of many German armoured vehicles - and on the Tiger 1 just above the rear mudguard.

Then as if by magic I opened the latest issue of AFV Modeller (no.65, headlined 'Tiger Grab') and, hey presto, my riddle was solved!

It turns out that the light is made from a glass tube which looks black when the light is turned off - but glows yellow/green when illuminated. So now we know...

I hope they won't mind me including this snippet from the editor David Parker's fantastic running article on his 1/16 Trumpeter Tiger II build. I thoroughly recommend this magazine by the way: although mostly 1/35 the quality of the modelling, writing and photographs is stunning.

Anyway, here it is:
Tiger tail light AFV Modeller compress.jpg
Tiger tail light AFV Modeller compress.jpg (45.33 KiB) Viewed 5132 times

Re: Rear convoy lights on late war German tanks

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:58 pm
by jonger
Good info that, I had been told the convoy light was blue so will have to change the colour of the LED I am using, the other thing I had been told was the light had a cover with slits in it in two pairs, this gave the drivers a judgement of distance, if they could see 4 lights they are too close, two lights just right and one light falling behind. Any one know if this is correct. :think:

Re: Rear convoy lights on late war German tanks

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:01 am
by ausf
I saw that online when I was finishing my StuG, so I used two green SMD LEDs and a length of clear sprue.

Satin black off
Stug.0.jpg
Stug.0.jpg (28.49 KiB) Viewed 5125 times
Greenish glow on
Stug.1.jpg
Stug.1.jpg (31.22 KiB) Viewed 5125 times