|
Post by yanmacca on Jan 28, 2020 19:45:13 GMT
Good choice Chuck, I built one in the 1970s, but I don't recall the company, Esci? Airfix do one in 1/76 but knowing Airfix it will have soft rubber type tracks. You mentioned the Revell King Tiger Kit, well here is a chap giving that kit a review, hope it helps; link
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Jan 29, 2020 4:19:58 GMT
Yes it does, not only for that model, but I suspect that review gives me a clue as to how all the rst of the Revell series are engineered. Not crazy about how they did the tracks, but thinking about it I suppose that deleting a link or so will give the track a bit of slack, rather than it being tight around the road wheels.
There was a great video associated with that link showing the building of the Tamiya 1/35 King Tiger. The painting portion of the video was quite instructive.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Jan 29, 2020 9:52:52 GMT
Yeah you tube has everything. I also found a polish firm on there called "first to fight" which specialises in vehicles in 1/72 from the battle for Poland in 1939. It has a great range of rare polish armour and a lot of early German stuff to.
I agree over how some companies build their tracks, I would prefer one complete track and wheels which are much neater and less of a hassle.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Jan 29, 2020 16:48:06 GMT
Like your new logo. That's a M4A1 if not mistaken?
Received notification this morning by e-mail that the Tigers should be here on Saturday.
I like the way Flames of War/Team Yankee do their tracks and road wheels as one molded piece. It allows me to paint those tracks and wheels first and do the weathering on them, which takes more time, then build the body of the vehicle at a slower pace. When finished, just marry the two components together. That way I can be productive while any drying of filler putty that I may have to apply takes place. Have not had to do any filling on the 15mm pieces yet, but there was a little to do on the 1/72nd Shermans
The PSC models do thier track a bit differently, and as I said their instructions are not the best, but they too are not hard.
I do remember the days of the rubber tracks, and recently came across a re-issued model of the first tank I ever built when I was ten or eleven years old. It was the JSIII by Aurora. Aurora is long out of business, but Revell bought the molds, like they did with Monogram. When Revell USA went out of business these molds were taken over by Atlantis Models, and they have released two former Aurora tanks so far the JSIII and the M46. Would not touch either of them with a ten foot pole though, with those rubber tracks that just would not fit together, no matter how hard you tried. They also had a Panther, but again the rubber tracks are a war stopper for me,
I will keep you informed on the Tigers once I get them in their cage.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Jan 29, 2020 21:08:59 GMT
Yeah Chuck, it is a M4A1 and I took the photo near Bayeux at the Musée-Mémorial de la Bataille de Normandie in 2018. Funny enough I am sure there was a plaque nearby which said it was a M4A5 Grizzly, which was a Canadian built Sherman, but because it was in French I could be wrong, but the plaque was next to the tank, but the M4A5 was known as the Ram, and I thought that this tank was based on the M3 Lee chassis, and the Grizzly was the Canadian version of the M4A1. so I am putting my money on this being a misprint and this tank was a M4A1, but was it built in the USA or Canada? Maybe I will delve into this tomorrow and do some investigating.
I bet those Tigers would look real nice in desert sand and markings for the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion. The unit was operation in Tunisia circa late 1942 to early 1943. Even better with two Pz III Ausf Ns which were organic to the Tiger companies serving in Africa.
I do remember hating those rubber tracks, I recall trying to melt both ends together with a heated flat screwdriver, but it never really worked.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Jan 29, 2020 23:25:33 GMT
I will probably go for three different looks. The one I build with sand filters will be from the 501st, which I think were the first Tigers to enter combat.
If memory serves it was the heated screwdriver method that was recommended for joining the tracks together. It never worked for me either.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Jan 30, 2020 14:35:44 GMT
Hi Chuck, you are in a position to paint your Tiger Is in four iconic paint schemes ranging from the first Tigers seen in action to Normandy. Any Tigers which were available in the Battle of the Bulge where kept in reserve so we can rule them out. The four colour schemes are;
Leningrad sector September 1941 [panzer grey] Tunisia November 1942 [basic sand] Kursk July 1943 [sand and green] Normandy July 1944 [sand, green & brown]
It maybe as well to find the colours on line to these four versions, tell me what you think.
Ian
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Jan 30, 2020 18:56:21 GMT
There are all sorts of examples on the Firefly link you posted of Tigers. Don't think I will have much trouble finding the ones I want to model.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 1, 2020 12:32:29 GMT
Chuck, does that kit give you the option of building the early variant of the Tiger I? You do know that the early models have two pistol ports on the rear of the turret and a letter box cupola, these were later changed, with one of the pistol ports being replaced by a new escape hatch and a new cupola with seven periscopes.
Just noticed that you mentioned the Schw. Pz. Abt 501 as the first Tigers that saw action, but it didn’t register with me until it dawned on me that it was the Schwere Panzerabteilung 502 which first used its Tiger is action.
The Schwere Panzerabteilung 502 was the first to recieve the Tiger I and this was in August 1942, the battalion was despached to the Lenningrad front at the end of that month. They never had their full comlement of Tigers, only 4 out of what should have been a regulation strentgh of 45. This meant that they could only partly equipp one company.
I am afraid it was not an auspicious start for those four Tigers, with all four getting into trouble due to boggy ground and Russian fire, the Germans never had anything in place to recover bogged down Tigers, probably because they never expected to lose them. But three out of the four where later recoved but damaged, the four was beyond saving so they blew it up.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 1, 2020 17:11:55 GMT
Ian: Taking this from the description in the on-line catalog, the kit includes three Tigers and allows you to build three different versions of the tank, early, mid, and late production.
Can't tell you any more than that until I look at the kit itself. My mail should arrive by 1500 hours, which is a little less than five hours from now. By then you will probably be in bed, but as soon as I get the answers to your questions, I will post them for you to read tomorrow.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 1, 2020 22:30:11 GMT
The turret can be made early or late. The two pistol ports are on the early and mid turret, while the late turret has one plus an escape hatch.
The turret itself is in my opinion poorly engineered. No matter how tight you get the two halves together, when you join the two halves with the top there is a noticeable seam that must be filled with putty to look right. I used Tamiya white putty, which is of a thinner consistency than their regular, and it worked fine, but it adds several more steps and drying time to the build. Otherwise the build looks pretty straight forward.
|
|
|
Post by herosrest on Feb 4, 2020 18:00:59 GMT
Curiosity, after following the recent topic threads, brought me an interesting couple of hours which led to the 1c Tulip and Robert Boscawen. I've thrown up the bing search which 'Image' search hits quite a few vehicles. Bing Images What was surprising and interesting was Lt. R. Boscawen's life and story. I also bumped into Marcos Serra's Bunker which is..... ......
|
|
|
Post by deadwoodgultch on Feb 6, 2020 13:45:09 GMT
Good stuff HR, well located. Never new much of the Firefly other than the name. Thanks.
Regards, Tom
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 6, 2020 18:15:01 GMT
Tom: As you can see from these pages the Sherman Firefly was the subject of two of my recent modeling efforts. Next to the standard Sherman used by U S Forces the Firefly was a deadly beast. We did not use it because we had the M26 in production and expected it to arrive in great numbers in the Summer of 44. As it turned out there were unforeseen production issues and the 26 did not reach U S forces until the last couple of months of the war, and in rather small numbers.
I am absolutely convinced that the Firefly was the model on which the Israeli Super Sherman was based with the 105mm vice the British 17 Pounder. The Sherman was a tank where everyone got their moneys worth.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 8, 2020 14:56:07 GMT
Chuck, the Firefly was built on the chassis of the Sherman Ic [basic M4], Sherman Ic Hybrid [M4 composite] and Sherman Vc [M4A4] Tanks, all with the Vertical Volute spring suspension.
The Israeli Super Sherman or M-50 and M-51 used the M4A4 [M-50] and M4A1 [M-51], so you are partly right that that the Firefly and Israeli Super Sherman, used the same model. Both the M-50 and M-51, had different suspensions, VVSS and HVSS respectively.
The Sherman’s external features come in two forms, cast or welded hull and two different sets of running gear, Vertical Volute spring suspension and Horizontal volute spring suspension. The other major distinguishing differences is of course the main gun, there are other minor things too, but these are the main ones.
|
|