"You can see on a few images of Tigers in the Normandy theatre, that there is a stain on the underneath of the front fender/mud-guard where lubricant has been thrown up over the track passing over the sprocket"
Phil, My guess here is that there is some type of oil leak in the final drive as I believe that the track is not lubercated?
Dan

Guys,

Anybody tried a heated screwdriver to do zim?

It works great and there are differnet size flat head drivers.

Mike

no worries Phil..I'm knocking out an M1 and some T55's to make up for all the German wrecks I built in the past.
I like the method you use on the road wheels, very convincing, I'll have to pick up one of those graphite pencils. I always hate doing the lower part of the hull, you make it look easy. The airbrush method will be next on the list of things to try out,thanks.

Rob

Hi Phil ..This one's really coming together great ...Love the weathering ..Wheels look super ..Keep the pictures coming ...

Rick

Phil the wheels look awsome and the mud splatter well what can I say........ The weather was really funney in Normandy wet dry wet dry. If this cat is going to be set in an early morning Dio then i think the dust should be kept to a minimum, maybe more muddy , like you've done. Thouse DS tracks look the Bizz too. The attention to detail on the lower hull, just so inspiring thanks Geraint

Lovely lovely stuff Phil. The washes, wear and dirt are looking just right, nothing's too heavy.
I'll have to give that pigments/thinners/airbrush trick a try..

Coming along very nicely Phil, the work on the lower hull and suspension is top notch. Keep the updates coming!

Phil,

The upper hull sides look really good and shows off the faded look and the accumulation of dust.

this is immense and even though your not done yet it has been an amazing journey!
i am enjoying following this, ( sorry for being so quiet:D) brilliant work and dedication to do so much!
keep it up!

Hello Everybody! Looks like were going to have the 3rd Kompanie in this action also, as we are running out of engine deck space for us all to climb onboard.

Hi Marco! Hey Karl! Wotcha Rob (those T55's look awesome already!) Thanks for dropping by, the comments are really appreciated.
Welcome back Richard, the return of the bear, who's your bet for the Stanley Cup then? The eldest lad has been driving us all mad with it! Good to hear from you.
Good Morning/Evening Geraint... As promised 'Taming DS Tracks' , your right about the weather the month of June '44' in Normandy was almost like a week in sunny Lancashire!
I know Grant... I know, all that attention on the mufflers only to be shrouded from sight... I made a promise to myself at the start of this that this 'poor relation' to the other Tigers in the gang (can't think of the 'collective grouping' title for more than one Tiger! It might 'be something cool like a 'Murder of Ravens' eh! But then again maybe not! ) would get some serious attention, due to it's lack of AM crispness, and bespoke zimmerit. So I am spoiling it a bit.Couldn't resist 'splattering a lighter contrasting coat of filth on her today. It is real good fun though!




Hi There Mike! I have had a go at damage with a soldering iron/pyrograve but not had the guts to do a one time only on a Tiger yet! A long time the ago, in my boyhood, I did the Tile pattern on a JagdPanther with liquid glue and a balsa tool with spaced pins in, if I remember it turned out okay (it was for a friends wedding present )
Hi Bill, thanks for calling by, you are keeping me honest, I was thinking about the hours that have ticked by on this so far... Probably not as many as I first thought. Seems like an age!
Thanks for the 'insider' information Dan, I suppose it's a bit like the old steam locomotive crews rubbing down the engines with paraffin, to resist any major grime that they picked up along the route eh? I can imagine hot dusty and cloying it must get in a marching tank column, especially in the middle. I found this shot of one of Wittmann's Kompanie Tiger commanders, Kurt Kleber (Quax!) desperate to scuff up this pristine big cat with his studded clod hoppers.

It would appear that the scarcity of rubber stocks later in the war kept the use of studs on leather soled boots as the main footwear, bet they were bloody slippy on some of the vehicles surfaces in damp weather eh?
Hi James! Hello Dave! Thanks for the kind words lads... Only three to go now!

Okay then! They day of 'DS' reckoning has come... Not actually that painful in the end. I superglued the idlers in their central position, and the four single roadwheels at the back of the order were cemented with Tamiya extra thin cement, then the track was put around the idler and the sprocket placed on it's mount. Nice and tight without to much slack, but not overly taught.

Then the double middle order roadwheels were dry mounted, before the 2nd and 3rd received a dab of CA on their to contact surfaces,

and the track was 'wedged' onto the roadwheel tops with these handy little devices that the children found in some lollies! They did the trick though.


Then the outer row of roadwheels were fixed, and voila! Painless DS tracks, also with the extra links removed, and the idlers 'set' in neutral, this Tiger isn't even 'twine toed', good ol'Mr Byrden eh?

Right lets see how this baby sits in her battle tracks!




Right then lads! A little more light wear and tear, and the next Tiger will be approaching the horizon... Back soon, cheers for looking in.

Phil.

Phil,
Looking great! I'd hate to wear those boots in the winter and as you said must have been hell walking on the back deck on a wet day! Remember your three points of contact! (two feet and a hand holding onto something-otherwise you will get one point of contact-your rear-end on the ground!)
Dan

Looking better and better, Phil!
Every installment is just better than the last!
Nice work on those tracks--you're not far from the Tiger-Promised Land!

Looking great Phil, I really like how the tracks and road wheels turned out. All the extra work on the exhausts was well worth it, they look awesome dude.

Rob

Great to see the Tiger finally come together. Thanks for all the weathering tips and direction. I much prefer to see more of the model detail than shield it with lumps of mud.

BTW it appears that a group of Tigers is either a 'streak of' or an 'ambush of'.
So I think the latter is most appropriate for what you are assembling.

How many more Tigers are in the pipeline for this 'ambush' ?
I, for one, am with you for the longhaul.

Rgds
Peter

I always thought it was 'a Tony of Tigers' ....

A Tony of Tiger's, like it Phil finally the DS tracks are on. What a great job you have done The tiger looks like its sitting pretty! Love the variation on the different colour tones of mud. looks very convincing, wet mud with bits of dry muck splattered over it, awsome. The photo, looking strait at it looks great, the tracks sit so square and strait,I think you have really nailed and tamed those DS tracks. Thanks for the great images of fitting them. I think you have done a great job on them and many of us will benifit from this master class. Thanks Geraint LOL mate

Hello Chaps! A Tony of Tigers! I nearly chocked on my Frosties (Therrrrrrrr... Carboard with sugar on! ) What do they call frosties in The Netherlands Grant? Hi Dan, Ahh! My days of defying gravity went with the knee and middle age spread. I will bear in mind 0the 'three points of contact' when I eventually get to clamber over some of the surviving hulks over on the 'continent' when I go back sometime. You knowledge of actual tank 'crewing' is becoming invaluable.
Thanks for the nod on the tracks Karl, I'll be glad to get back to individual links, even though these turned out better than expected, I don't fully like the way they sit on the idler and without serious strain put on the sprocket and the idler, you would find it very difficult to get the tension from the terrain contact patch (the bit on the road or bit of soil it's sat on ) to the sprocket or idler like you can with individual working tracks or even 'Magic Tracks'. But they do look a bit better than my nightmares over them!
Ahh! Rob the exhaust, I took a look a look at some of your rusted masterpieces and went from there! The rust is mostly Gunze Sangyo's Rust from their weathering set, with a little of their Schokoladenbraun H406, stippled over black primer.
Hi Pete Thanks for that great bit of information on the Collective nouns for Tigers , I think 'Ambush' is the one for me, do you know what it would be for Panthers, Altogether there will be 4 Tigers streaking from this blog... Two will go on to the N175 large Diorama with the rest of the 2nd Kompanie, (I will one day settle on the Tanks involved eventually... there are a lot of conflicting theories around, that if added together cover most of Wittmann's company... Excluding '205' and '213'... Still at least we now know the VB Tiger wasn't '222' eh? ) So... definitely 5 for that one possibly eight! The two #6383's will find good homes.
Hello Geraint! The mud effects have been great fun, though it can be tempting to get carried away, so restraint is the order of the day I think if you are doing anything west of the Oder River It's definitely one to play with.
Right then, a little update for you... I have been 'messing' around with pigments, pastels and chalks in order to depict the soil of Normandy that these beasts chewed up spat out and trudged across the area with lodged and spattered on them. Here for your considerations are the results.



What do you think then? Another thing I have been contemplating is the actual surface of the N175 and other major roads in the region, due to the detritus of battle and probable interruption of any major maintenance or repair of the road infrastructure during the occupation of France, it is sometimes hard to determine what these larger carriageways were manufactured with, tarmac,asphalt, tampered aggregate or concrete? Looks like the trawler nets will have to be cast again!
Thanks for dropping in again... Back in the morning with the other side and some mud on those bare shrouds.

Cheers. Phil

HiLo People! Just a quick update on the track weathering...
Firstly here are the mediums and materials used.
For the 'application medium' I mixed 50% Vallejo Matt Varnish #520 with 50% Vallejo Airbrush Thinner. Mig Productions Europe Dust P028, and Dry Mud P232 were mixed roughly equally as well as being used separately. Conte Pastels were powdered on emery cloth, along with some more vivid earth tone Water Soluble Artists Landscape Pastels.

The recessed track areas were then dabbed in a randomish fashion, in order to represent the 'dropout' and the 'pickup' of dust,mud and general filth...This was a major livestock farming area so... There must have been a bit of the proverbial about eh!

Then the base Mig Pigments were applied by again dabbing into the recessed track area.

Followed by mixes of the pastels and pigments.

Working selectively where you want to create the 'mottled' effect of these heavy vehicles running over softer substrates.

When happy with the placement of the pigments and pastels, you can 'fix' areas of the dirt and dust application with random dabbing of a flat headed old brush.

To remove any 'overspill' of pigment from the track face and cleats with a 'moistened' thumb.

If you are not happy with the look of the 'worn' track areas, a quick reapplication of graphite or other metallic medium you prefer to use.

There! Jobs a good 'un', I should be able to finish up on this Tiger by weeks end and move on to another! Just for variety eh?

Right Sunday things to do... Back soon, Phil.

lookin' good!

Masterclass, best track weathering by a long 'chalk'.

Hello Phil,

I joined the network recently and as I am building the Tiger (6383) at this moment I am very interested in your blog on this kit. I must say I am very impressed with your work!
I hope my tiger will look half as good as yours when I'm finished with it.
As am not an expert on Tigers like some of the other builders here are don't expect too many smart replies on history facts from me......I can only give my modellers opinion.

By the way....I like your signature (being a Justin Sullivan fan for more than 20 years now)

Greetings

Martin

Nice one Phil. Mucked up nicely , I think you've really got the best out of those "rubber bands" Later Geraint

Hello everybody! Right I am finally back at the workstation!
Hi Pete, Hi Jon I thank you for your kind comments, I think really it is more of a portfolio of borrowed and attained techniques from a myriad of other modellers... I do believe though that because of the information being shared these days, that we can access far more levels of knowledge and experience, than we ever could before At a fraction of the outlay on publications (although I can still spend a fortune on books and magazines still! )

Welcome onboard Martin! Always glad to meet another deciple of the 'Lord Justin' I have been following New Model Army for around 20 years also, changes your whole outlook on the world and stuff eh? All that anger really fuels the spirit, saves me from myself if you know what I mean... New Album this year and Tour... Yippee! I thank you for your time looking at this saga! You can never have too many 'modellers eyes' around the place.
Hello Geraint! I am actually quite surprised at how well the 'band' weather up, can't wait to see them next to the AM workables and the MagicTracks.
Speaking of tracks, alittle more weathering has been applied, as well as a touch up on the contact areas, along with some intial 'mucking up' of the exhaust shrouds, along with some restrained chipping on crew used/abused areas. The tools need 'graining' and the spare track links stowed on the turret need weathering up a tad, a bit of a light dusting, and some footprints for Rob... And we should be able to 'shelve' this until the other Tigers in the 'Ambush' are ready to kick up a bit of dust on the N175!




So sorry for the little sabbatical lads, see you real soon... And thanks again for dropping by.

Phil

Phil,

well done on "112" The overall effect of weathering and wear and tear makes the Kat alive. Again thanks for taking the time to document your progression on "112" and sharing it with us. I hope in the near future I can share a build or two with you and the other forum readers.

Thanks

Dave