I have been working on this for a little while, so figured I would post a couple pictures to show where I am at. I am using mostly the kit plastic with some additions. Not great with PE, so not adding a PE set to it. However, I did add the turned metal main gun, a resin bow machine gun and will be adding the turned metal coax MG.

First pic...


Got the road wheels mounted, have to melt the leads to get them on. Old school.


Have one of the fenders mounted. I sanded them down a bit on the bottom to thin them up some.


Here is the link to Photobucket for a couple more shots. Will add to this link as I take photos. Tiger P album

Cheers,

John

I couldn't edit the other post so I wanted to add some public thanks to Eddy Nevarez who has provided some really helpful information. Thanks Eddy!

Also, I had misplaced some pics, so you could not see all the sink marks that have been plugged so far, especially on the suspension units. But, outside of one of the ones I had to move, they are all functional right now.

John, I, too, have one of these on the bench. Mine's the Dragon version though. Maybe we can do a 2 tank campaign!

Bob,

It is a really neat looking tank I think and I am now looking forward to seeing yours!

I am working on doing some 'fixes' as well (thanks again Eddy). So far, it has been a pretty fun build. Will post some more pics soon. Some hopefully showing some of the details that I 'lost' in earlier shots.

John

Do you plan on finishing yours as the "303"? I thought about it and will probably be making mine a "what if" with a different number or no number (decals+zim+me = disaster). I figure I'm pulling enough hair out over the beast with the zim and PE without trying to replicate a known tank.

Nope, gonna do one of the prototypes. However, I think I am going to get the Dragon kit sometime and do the tank that saw action. I just ordered a book that is all about the Tiger P, so that should give me lots of good info.

So no zim on this one! But if I do the next one I will.

@IrishGreek – John,

Good to see you posting your build here, looks like you’ve got a good start on this oldie but goodie kit. I also have this kit in the stash and I hadn’t looked close enough at the instructions to notice that one would have to use an iron to melt down areas on the suspension in order to make them workable. I’ll have to take a look and see if Italeri molded the date onto one of the pieces in order to get an idea of how old this kit has been around.

I’m not sure but I think this kit is presently out of production but it comes up on occasion on evilbay, that’s where I got my copy. It would be nice to see one of the manufactures release a current state of the art molding rendition of these early pre-production Porsche Tiger (P)’s. These vehicles, at least in my opinion, make interesting modeling subjects. The later extensively modified Tiger (P) that saw action, released by Dragon several times now, is a far cry in detail from the Italeri offering, but with some work and add-ons this old kit can still stand up to the best of them. I’ll be following your progress with interest.

BTW, thanks for the kudos, I’m always happy to help anyone, it’s just part of the fun. There are a lot of knowledgeable modelers here at Armorama, willing to do the same, just give them a little time to find this blog.

~ Eddy

Hi John, not to hijack your thread but I wanted to show you where my 4501 was at right now. Here's a pic of it so far:

Bob,

You are a braver man than I, photoetch PE! It's looking really good so far. Nice progress. So how do you like the Dragon kit?

John

Thanks John. I'm hoping to be ready for paint in the next couple of weeks.

The Dragon kit is pretty good. I only have one fitting issues (the front drive housings) and the detail is alright. Clean up isn't too bad. They kept the mold lines and sink marks to a reasonable level. I did have to add the turret escape hatch from the spares box as the kit only offered a pistol port there.

The Eduard zim could have fit a bit better. You can see arond the edges where I had to fill the gaps with putty.

The main PE set is by Voyager. Parts of it are a real headache by trying to be overly detailed, and yet they didn't include the covers for the driver's periscopes (had to scratch them from old fret pieces).

Got a few more pictures and some additional work done on some details, so if you wanted to look at the link above (1st page of thread) to the Photobucket album you can. But here are some pics below:

Replaced the raised bolts by drilling them out on the rear decking:



Got the wheel hubs mounted and the idler and sprocket mounted too:


Next, going to try and add the drain holes on the cupola.

Looking good John! We seem to be moving along at about the same pace.

I wondered what happened to this project. Have you got any updates, John?

Hi Bob,

Thanks for asking. The kit is on hold while I try to finish up two other projects, my M2 half-track and a Brit Chieftain.

How about yours?

Regards,

John

Hey John, it drove me so crazy, I had to shelve it for a couple weeks. I've got the paint and part of the weathering on it now, and am painting the tracks. I may have it done within a week, if I can keep on it.