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Military figures of all shapes and sizes.
Wittmann's crew for SO4
Wolfman2
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Posted: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - 07:26 PM UTC
Hi Folks,

I have recently acquired the Dragon 1/35th Tiger 1 Early, 'Whitman's command Tiger'. Seems to be a nice kit with lots of good detail, it's the later release and came with no figures. The markings are for SO4 only, either in winter or tri-colour camouflage.

I've built a few Tiger's over the years but am no expert on the more subtle details such as accurate crew uniforms for particular tanks. I don't want to replicate the publicity shot with the crew standing for the camera in front of the winter Tiger, which I know Dragon originally supplied with the kit. I'm after a crew at rest, re arming or on stand by.

Can anyone please recommend some good tiger crew figurines that would suit this particular tank, either winter or summer schemes. I've been looking at the Alpine Miniatures range, the Panzer Comanders 35177 looks very nice and are along the lines I'm after. They also do a set of Whittmann and Woll, but these are in the later SS uniforms. Would these have been worn with this particular Tiger? Any suggestions very welcome!

Cheers,
Paul
SgtRam
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#197
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Posted: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - 07:45 PM UTC
The Whitman figure set was recently release by Dragon seperately. Not the most useful set, but it is an option.


Wolfman2
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Posted: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - 09:25 PM UTC
Hi Kevin,
Many thanks for checking in, these are the figures that were in the original Dragon release, but as I said earlier, I don't want to replicate the publicity shot of the crew in the snow! Wanting to do a diorama with a crew in the hatches, less posed than these guys.
Biggles2
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Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 12:08 AM UTC
Dragon makes this set: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6655
and this: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6016 Although it says Self-propelled gun crew they can also be used for panzer crew
and this: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6192 again, it says StuG crew, but just paint their uniforms black and give them 88 mm rounds
and this: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6375 Panzer lV crew but they will fit just as well in a Tiger!
and this: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6129 if you want a bit of action.
Biggles2
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Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 12:16 AM UTC
Masterbox makes some sets of panzer crews at rest:
Card players: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=MAS3525
Soccer players: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=MAS35149

Wolfman2
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Posted: Friday, October 14, 2016 - 01:19 AM UTC
Hi Biggles,

Many thanks for the links, lots of choices there, the Panzer IV guys might just do it!
panzer948
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Posted: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 11:36 PM UTC
Good info. However, arent many of these links to figures that are not indicated as SS Figures? I am wondering about this myself as I believe we could paint these figures/uniforms to have them appear to be SS troops (since Whitmann and his crew were SS). Same goes in vice versa. Lot of good SS figures out there that I might would like to create as regular German Wehrmacht. What would be the difference in painting them at this scale??
Hohenstaufen
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Posted: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 03:51 PM UTC
Be careful here. There are minor differences between the Heer and Waffen SS Panzer clothing. The SS style has rounder lapels, not as pointed as the Heer clothing, and the SS jacket also lacks the prominent centre seam down the back. It also had a straight cut front flap, differing from the tapering style used by the Heer. Having said that, some SS crews were issued with Heer clothing early in the war, but if you are modelling a specific crew, i.e. Wittmann's, this needs to be correct. I suspect that because (a) this Tiger is from 1943, (b) they were a much photographed crew due to their prominence, they would be wearing regulation clothing. There are loads of Wittmann figures available (at least two from Dragon, there is also the sitting figure from an earlier Tiger kit), however most of them seem to be from the Normandy era. In action, Wittmann was renowned for his lack of sartorial elegance, appearing on occasion in scruffy overalls topped with a woollen fleece-like garment; or a nondescript leather jacket, all without insignia.
Regarding insignia, this is probably the most noticeable difference between SS and Heer crews. Heer figures will need the chest eagle and collar death's heads removing and replacing with the sleeve eagle and SS collar runes (right patch) and ranking (left patch).
panzer948
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Posted: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 06:48 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Be careful here. There are minor differences between the Heer and Waffen SS Panzer clothing. The SS style has rounder lapels, not as pointed as the Heer clothing, and the SS jacket also lacks the prominent centre seam down the back. It also had a straight cut front flap, differing from the tapering style used by the Heer. Having said that, some SS crews were issued with Heer clothing early in the war, but if you are modelling a specific crew, i.e. Wittmann's, this needs to be correct. I suspect that because (a) this Tiger is from 1943, (b) they were a much photographed crew due to their prominence, they would be wearing regulation clothing. There are loads of Wittmann figures available (at least two from Dragon, there is also the sitting figure from an earlier Tiger kit), however most of them seem to be from the Normandy era. In action, Wittmann was renowned for his lack of sartorial elegance, appearing on occasion in scruffy overalls topped with a woollen fleece-like garment; or a nondescript leather jacket, all without insignia.
Regarding insignia, this is probably the most noticeable difference between SS and Heer crews. Heer figures will need the chest eagle and collar death's heads removing and replacing with the sleeve eagle and SS collar runes (right patch) and ranking (left patch).



Thanks for the info. I didn't mean to high-jack the thread so I didn't clarify that I wasn't thinking of doing this for Whitman and his crew. I am currently working on a Flakpanzer (Kugleblitz) late in the war and believe it was crewed by non-SS troops. I also believe that the crew more than likely wore panzer uniforms. Thus I was hoping with a few slight modifications I could also chose figures that are identified as SS to represent Heer crew (it seems like half the good figure molds are SS vs. Heer). Hopefully this id doable. Thanks.
Biggles2
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Posted: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 08:08 PM UTC
Most of the above uniform differences (except for insignias which are easily changed) are obvious in 1/1, but almost unnoticable in 1/35. Most viewers would not notice except for some obnoxious experten who can't model as well as yourself (note: not all "experten" are obnoxious; only the obnoxious ones!). A handy excuse is that in a supply crises only Heer uniforms were available.
deathdork
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Posted: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 09:51 PM UTC
You could consider using the upper bodies from the group set in combo with some of the suggested other kits.
a figure kit bash as it were.

Have fun!
panzer948
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Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 12:05 AM UTC
Excellent! I agree. But I think some of those obnoxious types are IPMS judges..lol
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