I am planning a maintenance scene diorama.

I want to portray an engine change, the biggest hurdle has been an engine hoist. I found a beautiful hoist made by Extratech: The full title is: Portal Crane - Airfield Maintenance1/48 B48007. It is available at Squadron, and it is an insane price, $86.00.

It looks like a bit too much for me to take on from scratch, there is a whole lot of geometry going on.

I have found a "jib" crane at track48.com. It is a Gaso.line product, designed to mount to either a Panther or Tiger tank turret, the product code is: HLX48230.

I am curious, could that crane be modified to fit on the back of an Opel Truck? If not any suggestions? I have had people tell me that you really can't go wrong scratch building certain items, such as engine hoists, as a lot of stuff was put together on the fly in order to get the work done

Verlinden make a maintenance yard crane similar to what was used for work on Tiger I's. Though Verlinden say it comes with Evergreen beams included so you're just as well off scratching it. I think it's twenty eight dollars at Scalehobbyist.com if you're interested in that. If you do scratch build it a couple companies make photo-etched winches/pulleys.

Tigermodels made two chain hoists--#351011 looks to be an electric one, and #351012 seems to be manual. $6.95 and $8.95 each. They are both resin with chains, and look real good. I know Tigermodels is out of business, but Joe Bakanovic has stated he is taking possession of all molds and masters, and will have the product line back in business, hopefully very soon.

Check at http://tigermodeldesigns.wordpress.com/ for more info on this.