I'm pretty new to the armor realm (my knowledge is exclusively in military aircraft), and in investigating my new interest, I was watching a couple of newer WWII era movies: Enemy at the Gates and Saving Private Ryan.

My question is: can anybody tell me the exact model of the Tiger tank that was "sticky bombed" in Romelle in Saving Private Ryan? It'd be good to know what the other armor was in that scene as well.

I did a brief Google and didn't find what I was looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Travis,
Welcome to the site. I am fairly sure that the Tiger shown in the movie was (as most are) a replica of a Tiger based on a T34 chasis. Beyond it being a Tiger I, I'm not sure you could try to lock it down to a more precise version. It's too bad but at one point we did have pictures taken in England of the actual Tiger from the film. I can't seem to find them in the gallery though (I must have deleted them for additional space I guess). I looked for the originals on my hard-drive but no luck.

Peter? help! (he sent me the pics)

Cheers,
Jim

Travis, the Tiger tank in the movie is supposed to be a Tiger I.
The two Tiger tanks featured in Saving Private Ryan are reproductions built on the chassis of Russian T-34 tanks. Operational Tiger I's are extremely rare, and could not have been used for rigorous film production, let alone a movie in which the plot requires one of them to be destroyed. The T-34 was chosen because of its overall size and barrel height. The reproductions were based on measurements taken of a Tiger I at the Tank Museum in Bovington, England, and were constructed by Plus Film Services. The upper hull and turret were sized to proportionally match the chassis of the T-34. Band of Brothers, the HBO mini-series produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, used a similar construction process to recreate Tiger I tanks out of readily available T-34s.

Excellent info, and very interesting! Thanks to the both of you for the speedy replies.

They also did similar mock-ups for the earlier film "Kellys Hero's".

IF YOU WANT TO BUILD A TIGER IN MOVIE MODE HERES SOME THING I FOUND DONT KNOW IF THIS WILL HELP BUT HERE HERE IT IS IN THE JAN. 2001 ISUE OF FINE SCALE MODELER THERE IS A CONVERSION KIT FOR T-34 KITS TO MAKE THEM TIGERS ADRESS RZM PROD. P.O. BOX 291044 LOS ANGELES CA 90029 . 22 RESIN PICES TO CONVERT MOST T-34 KITS PHONE#[213] 707-6195 DONT KNOW IF THEY ARE STILL AROUND BUT IT MIGHT BE WORTH A SHOT OR MABEY KIT BASH GOOD LUCK!! TURRETTOAD 13 OUT.

If you want to buy a model of a Tiger, either by Tamiya or Academy (both are excellent), the one in Saving Private Ryan would probably resemble most closely the Mid-production one with zimmerit and rubber road wheels. Zimmerit is a paste the Germans applied to their armour for a time and was present on both mid and late production models. The picture Kencelot posted above shows the texture of the paste. There are ways to make it yourself, but I find them rather difficult. Fortunately, there are also aftermarket companies like Atak and Cavalier that specialize in making resin zimmerit sheets for specific models. I think Eduard also makes zimmerit in photoetch.

I haven't seen the movie in a while, but I seem to remember the AFV that got the sniper was a Marder IIIM, which Tamiya has just come out with. There's also a 20-mm AA gun or something that the Germans use against the American infantry, but I guess that's not really armour. And, of course, the funny motorcycle with tracks that the Americans use is a German Kettenkraftrad, available from DML and Tamiya, I think.

Nic

There is a diorama in the Dallas area done by a father son (grown-up) team of the Private Ryan street scene. I took some pictures, unfortuneatly can't share because that was before the digital camera. But the diorama was most impressive and it was huge took the two of them to carefully carry it out. They scatch built the houses, had wonderful shell hole pits and the action was finely done.

If you look at the tracks of the Tiger at the photograph of Kencelot post, you will notice that the tracks are the ones of the T-34. (also the roadwheels seems to be from a T34):-H

If you notice some of the overhead views of the Tiger, it has feifel air cleaners attached. I'm not sure why they decided to model those, but that may indicate an early Tiger I. Yet, there is zimmerit on the vertical surface. Oh well.

Interesting side note... I talked a few years ago with a curator at the Bovington Tank Museum site - he states to his knowledge there are only two remaining "operable" Tiger i's left in the world, and there is only one fully operable Tiger II... the Tiger II is actually in Argentina, and is still used in military parades. He said he did not know of any operable Panthers, but there are quite a few (6 to Panzer III an IV's. In contrast, he tells me there are over 1,000 operable Shermans... mostly in Isreal and Central America.

By operable he defined three criteria....
1) Self mobile with no requirement for additional transport
2) Movable and fireable weaponry
3) Capeable of protecting an internal crew in combat conditions

KF, My dad was a fireman in the Airforce in the early 1950. They would fly in B-17s, 24, 29s etc and burn them on the runway to practice putting them out. What a shame...

Travis I just recently had a web site that dealt strictly with information on all aspects of the movie Saving Private Ryan. They had descriptions of each piece of equipement used from personnel gear to armored vehicles - it was quite specific. The web site was SPR online Emcyclopedia - www.sproe.com. I think the info on the Tiger1 was quite specific to model. Hope this helps.




Butch Cassidy Tanks46
Pig #3 Head Armorer
DSB

Oooh, thanks, Tanks46!