Hi guys,

I am currently working on a Tiger/T-34 Hybrid tank which is going to go on a "Saving Private Ryan" Diorama. As most of you know the Tiger tank used in the movie was based on a T-34 suspension. As I am trying to make this Dio as authentic as possible I combined two kits to make this tank. One was the Dragon T-34 kit and the other the Dragon Tiger late 3in1 kit. It took quite a bit of measuring and calculating to make the suspension fit onto the Tiger lower hull.
The wheels were all made ona CNC milling machine from plastic material. I had to make a few compromises on a few things as it would have taken too long to make them from scratch etc. Just like the commander hatch, I used teh one from teh kit and didn't bother making my own. (The hatch in the movie has no holes for periscopes)
ANyhow I don't want to bore you guys out with details! I just finished the three tone camo and wanted to get some feedback (my first time to do that) No weathering has been applied yet, just the plain paint. Decas weatherig ect. are about to follow.

Comments welcome.

Here a test fit of the friul tracks



Since the Rangers fired two rounds of the bazooka at the tank I decided to add chipped off Zimmerit on these spots. Here the hit in the front of the tank. In the movie there is no damage visible.



And here a picture of the three tone cammo scheme I need your feedback on. The scheme came out of my head since there is no scee in the movie where you can see the entire scheme.







Like I said, feedback would be appreciated!

Thx!
Hope you all have a nice relaxing Sunday!

Cheers,
Heli

i have always wanted to do this tiger / t34 it looks great , was it difficult to fix the t34 lower hull to the tiger upper hull ?, a job WELL done. please post more pics when you finish it,

Looks good Steve!!!
A few years ago an AM company (the name escapes me) used to make a resin kit of the SPR/Kelly's Heroes Tigers.
They used to advertise in the classifieds section of Fine Scale Modeler.
I believe it was a conversion for the DML T-34 with accurate dimensions and features of the movie vehicles.
IIRC, it had a drum style cupola, Feifil air cleaners and a number of early Tiger I features.
Seems to me that I read somewhere that Steven Spielberg's SPR Tigers were based on the Bovington Tiger.
Will have to check my back issues of FSM and find out who did the conversion.
Cheers

jjumbo

Hey guys,
I found this old thread on the conversion kit at Track-Link.

http://www.track-link.net/forum/modelling_kits/1234

It says that the kit is for any T-34 hull to make Tigers like those in KH and SPR
The post does give the contact info for the guy who produced the conversion kit.
I wonder if it's still available?
Cheers

jjumbo

I was on youtube the other day and ran accross this video. If you look closely you will see this tiger in the video is also built up on a t-34 chasis. I suspect this may in fact be the same tank used in the film 'saving private ryan' as I can't imagine too many of these being built but I'll leave the comparison up to you.
If it is, the camo and some markings are quite visible.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=iBp4eWqXfno

cheers.

i saw a whole row of em on utube i think some firm in Europe now makes em, i wouldn't have the heart to kit bash two dragon kits but my tamiya kits, no problem, i wonder how he got the hull parts to fit, any ideas ? i gotta do this one, no tiger collection is complete without it . thanks for the info john i will chase up your leads

Out of interest, will you be removing the glass from the drivers vision block so that Tom Hanks can fire his Tommy gun through the appeture? Then later remove the whole set-up and just prop a plate over the hole with a black rectangle painted over it for when the Tiger gets blown up the the P-51 for real film authenticity?



Only joking, looks like a great idea for an interesting build, and you seem to be pulling it off with great success. I always wanted to build Oddball's Sherman from Kelly's heroes complete with drainpipe and speaker mods!

I'll look forward to seeing this one completed.

James

Just dug out my old December 2001 copy of Fine Scale Modeler and found the add.
It reads:

TIGER/34

1/35 Conversion..........$35.00
Kit fof T34 to movie prop as seen in various films.

T. Pingarelli
P.O. Box 291044
Los Angeles, CA, 90029

22 resin pieces to convert most T34 kits on the market.

Does anyone knows if the kit's still available
Cheers

jjumbo

Hi guys,

I guess I owe some explenation.
I didn't use the T-34 hull to combine it with the Tiger hull. The measurements just wouldn't have been right and probably impossible to combine. If then it would have had to be made fully from sratch. i wanted to ease teh whole process and figured a way to fit all the wheels onto the Dragon Tiger hull. From there I was able to use all the parts from teh Dragon kit for the rest of teh assembly. I made a gage to put the measurements onto the Tiger Tank.

Here a picture of the gage:



This is what the gage looked like after cutting it out of teh plastic sheet and using it on teh actual Tiger hull.



Here after glueing the axles in place and with wheels.



This might seem like it was easy to do, but trust me it wasn't! It took quite a bit of measuring and thinking in order to make it. Alternationshad to be done to several parts and lots of holes had to be closed up and new ones drilled. The side skirts have also been lowered since the space between the tracks and the skirts was almost paralell unlike on the Tiger. Anyway, it was fun building it, I like the fact that I've done everything myself, however I didn't even know there was a conversion set available.

Dustin:
The Tiger shown in that clip is not the Tiger used in the movie. The Tiger in the movie didn't have the periscope slots on the commander's hatch! I read on www.sproe.com that the Tigers were made by the cpmpany plus film services, after filming they were put in the museum in Bovington and later bough by a guy in San Francisco. However thanks for your tips!

Thx for your comments anyway!

Cheers,
Heli

Weren't the Tigers used in saving private Ryan also used in the Band of Brothers series?
I know there is a Tiger used in the 'Breaking Point' episode.

James

The ones in the movie actually had the drum cupola, not the cast one.

Rob