Tom bags an Elefant!

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Excellent job Tom & instantly recognisable. Please forgive this nit-pick but Italeri got the big pair of bolts at the lower edge of the upper back-plate wrong. On both sides they should be at the 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock position (i.e. the starboard side is correct, the port side wrong) in the same way as the pairs on the lower back-plate are correctly depicted. (All WW2 photos confirm, I’m assuming APG didn’t mess with them at a later date)

Also, I’m not sure if you meant you had measured the APG beast or that Italeri had done so. All I can say is that the shape and angles of their main superstructure/fighting compartment are distinctly different (basically squatter) to Dragon’s relatively more recent version(s) – I’m not sure which is correct as I’ve never been near a 1:1 version alas, but I’d tend go with the latter if Italeri’s lack of observation regarding the bolts is anything to go by.

Whatever hardly anyone would know, the main thing is you produced a totally convincing beauty

I want one even more now
Looks very good with that painting =)

Is sure is a beauty

Thanks Tim - I hadn't noticed the bolts. (I didn't do any measuring, and only saw the real thing a month ago...). But I know the DML kits are far superior and certainly a better starting point if the price is right. One thing in Italeri's favour is the area just in front of the casement, where the engine deck had hinged panels with domed covers. There should be four panels and three domes, but by the time the Italeri folks got to it the two right-hand panels were replaced by a sheet of metal, and only one dome remained. Anyone building it "in service" had to rework this area, but DML came to the rescue!

Still, it was a bit of cheap fun.

Nice variation on the subject. I might try as well just to avoid putting up Zimmerit. Thanks for sharing Tom.

Enjoyed seeing it as it brought back memories from the summer of '74 (?) when we went and saw the beast in Aberdeen. Even back then I could only wonder why they'd leave such a collection in a field to rust...

For me it brings back memories of Christmas 1976 or 77 when I was given this kit by my grandmother. The DIY shop up her road stocked Matchbox kits I could afford, and these big Italaeri (as it was then) kits that I couldn't... granny to the rescue. Still have it and it can still be pushed along the carpet with the wheels and tracks going round. Partially repainted it recently for an airbrush review.

Tom, what is that strip to the right of the gun mantlet? I don't recall that, though maybe it fell of mine years ago.

Also, of course, the repainting of the APG Elefant this represents was documented on "Tank Overhaul". I remember they painted the "wound" to the right of the gun in silver paint.

It's great that you finally built it, I remember your review of it a few years back (50%... )

Hi Matthew, that strip is a rain gutter that I added from plastic strip - it doesn't come in the kit. I remember doing my first Elefant way back when it was still "new", painting it rattle-can buff and then sticking on cotton balls to get a camo pattern when I oversprayed it in dark grey! Looked kinda like the recent repaint, but perhaps a bit less skilful... I'm sure it's the queen of some landfill these days.

Very nice...this would make an interesting group build. APG vehicles lined up next to one another.

Wonderful subject, quite creative!