:-)->< Hi there,
Iam just about to take on my first armor model in a while the well know german Tiger. The only thing iam not sure on is the tanks paint color i have seen photos of ones with just grey camo and others. I was just wondering which camo sceme was on the Tigers in around the Normandy area of France after d-day ( like in town/cities).
Any help would be greatly apperciated.

P.S: if its one of those "crazy" german camo scemes i could use some help on a technique on airbrushing it. #:-)

I am no expert but--
I believe that the grey tigers were early versions of the panzer...the later versions sported the crazy german camo patterns

Anybody else know for sure?

Sean

they were probably dark yellow with the red brown "crazy camo" over it

It doesn't have to be camo to be in Normandy. A dark yellow base would do.
The only thing though, is that most ( not positive) Tigers in Normandy would probably have zimmerit on them.

Thx

Does anyone have some reference pictures or other models i can look at that would be similar to a Tiger possibly found there?

I love you guys, this forum is the best :-)-><

p.s plaese excuse my cruid grammer i have no idea what the proper name for the german camo is so i call it "crazy camo"

If you go to the gallery and seach for "tiger", i am sure there will be many pics of models.
I'll take a look through some books when i get a chance.

And also, there is a reference picture section in the gallery. See if any actual photos are in there.

Zimmerit was only applied in the factories for just over a year ( mid1942-late1943), so there will be plenty of subjects without it. Up until Sept.1942 Panzer Grey would be the base colour, after that Dark Yellow, with or without cammo as well. The best bet is to find a photo of a particular vehicle. My prefernce for research - go to 'Google', type 'Tiger Tank' into the subject and click on the image tag when displayed. Last time I did this for the panther I got 6 pages of pics!

Dave,

I think you have the Zimmerit application one year early... going by this site, Zimmerit was issued from mid 1943 untill September 1944.

Der Teeger sported Panzer Grau until about late Spring 43, then the ordered switch to Panzer Yellow. The 1st Tigers in combat were gray, at Leningrad, followed by the ones in North Africa, in an oft debated shade of "desert yellow". Or was it "desert brown"...

Old gray panzers would have eventually been over-sprayed/over-cammo'd with yellow, and or red-brown, and or green as time permitted. The exception were the Afrikan Tigers, almost everyone was overpainted into a "desert cammo" before leaving Europe to NA. Or shortly therafter arriving in-country.

It was not uncommon for Tiger Is to be in overall yellow, or some combo of the two-to-three tone cammos. Word is that none had the ambush cammo patterns seen on Panthers or KTs.

Zimmerit was introduced mid-43 until the fall of 44, so any factory Tiger after summer of 43 should have zimm. Especially the late steel-wheeled Tiger I.

Tons of Tiger I stuff on the net.
Cheapest source of referance pics is the Squadron Tiger in Action book.
If your local library system has online search capability, you might be surprised at what you can find.

It would seem that I got the zimmerit and gray/yellow dates a year out - appologies Guys. Getting old is my excuse.

http://www.tigertank-h-e-181.com/

Try this site. I believe it may help you for anything about Tigers

If you reall want to build a Tiger in Normandy well you have to buy either the Tamiya mid or late tiger kit...And yes they all had Zimmerit on them. All tigers were dark yellow based and were covered in redbrown and dark green cammo. Most of the 101ss were lates or final production models,except for the third Batallion.these were mids..(rubber wheel rims). 102 ss seems to have only final production tigers..these can be identified by the single hole for the aiming scope in the front mantlet,and the smaller muzzel brake. The armies 503 had tigers in the 3 batallion..can't be too sure of the type though . hope this helps a bit .

Rick

Thanks guys great help


now that i know what the camo is the trick is airbrushing it, it will be the first time i have tried a german camo scheme. Looks hard :/

thr frist tigers that had the dark yellow paint had only dark green camo.
they did not have the dark red and till later on

Ok i have two models in though here the
Revell PzKpfw IV Tiger I Ausf E
or
Hasegawa PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf.E

I was wondering if anyone has build either of these or what one you will think is better.
The Hasegawa Details:
PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf.E. WW II German tank. Kit includes detailed chassis, gun barrel, crew (x2), photo-etched parts, and one-piece vinyl tracks. Mkgs for 1 tank.

Revell Details:
PzKpfw IV Tiger I Ausf E. Modern WW II German heavy tank. Detailed running gear, hull, and turret. One-piece vinyl track.

Only the Revell kit has ratting on Squadrom with 5 stars other kit has no rating. PE parts are avalible on squadrom for the revell kit but they are an extra $13 on the $11 kit

Hasw... $8

Any help os appreciated

The Hase Tiger I is lousy. It is one of their oldest kits - and it shows.
I bought their Tiger I "Final version" steel-wheeler years before Rev-Ger came on the scene. I built it as a mercy build. Wheel fit is lousy, and the rubber-band trax make it even worse. Only blessing is that the "final" includes all parts needed to build any of their Tiger Is.

Get the R-G Tiger I - - its tons better right OOTB.

Forgot to add... The Hase crew figs are lousy. The "Final version" has the sprues for the steel wheels and the turret and gun mods seen on that "late". A huge ejector pin mark on the barrel. And, you have to add zimm of course.

The R-G Tiger I is offered in two versions; the early African/Leningrad version and the "late" version. If building the late, P-E zimm is available ready-made for it.

For that matter, few a few bucks more, you could pobably find an Italeri 1/35th Tiger I "early" from eBay or some mail-order source.

Does anyone know if Tiger I's were used during the Ardennes Offensive and by which unit? I've got plently pics of Tiger II's, Panthers, Mk IV's, etc...etc...etc. No Tiger I's.

There was one unit that I have found evidence of with Tiger 1s. schwere Panzer-Abteilung (Funklenk) 301 was deployed to the Ardennes. "Battle of the Bulge Then and Now" has a photo of one of the tigers after it was disabled. It appears to be an earlier production model with the headlight mounted on the front upper left of the hull, early drum cupola, and tracks without cleats/chevrons. It was said to be knocked out in the vicinity of Bastogne after the siege was lifted.
According to a table in the book, the unit had 32 Tiger 1s.
Hope this helps!

War machine is right about this but he forgot to mention that these tanks were rebuilt ones, and had steel wheels along with the old drum cupola..Looks like a fun conversion project.

Rick

D'oh! I couldn't include that bit of information because the photo I was looking at, supposedly of Tiger #411, was from the front and the road wheels weren't visible.

lol !!

Rick :-)

So were all the Tiger l's of 301 rebuilds? Sounds kinda odd when most of the Tiger ll's were fresh off the assembly lines, and Hitler wanted the best to make his point. Where were all the mid- and late-Tiger l's at this time...on the Eastern Front? I can just imagine modelling one of these early/late Tiger l's in an Ardennes diarorama and trying to convince the judge that it's accurate. Do we have to arm ourselves with back-up literature and photos to prove the accuracy or even existance of obscure vehicles?

On the same point, I'm currently working on a diorama with the Italeri SWS Nebelwerfer (not the Opal Maultier version!). After assembly and painting I discovered that the drivers compartment may, or may not, have had only one roof hatch, on the right hand side, (Italeri provides two). After a long search I found only one poor quality production photo of this vehicle - only a side view which does not indicate how many hatches were on the roof. How can you justify the number of hatches, or their appearance to judging if the judge says 'yea' or 'nay' to either an OOB or conversion presentation when the vehicle is so obscure as to be debatable? Just build OOB and hope for the best?

As far as what judges might think is concerned, who knows? You might get an open minded judge who's willing to let a few things slide if there's room for debate, or you could get a rivet counting know-it-all who thinks he's God's gift to armor builders.
When it comes to building, do the best you can do and take care of the things that you can handle, and don't sweat the things that are out of your control. Like the old song says, whatever may be will be.