I thought that we were being saturated with "initial" Tigers (with many more to come) so I thought I would scratch build a little to represent a 503rd Kursk very early tiger 1. I had some very interesting reference photos of Tiger 123 to go by. These tanks apparently were transferred from the 502nd after Leningrad and were integrated into 2nd and 3rd companies 503rd.









I guess I could have waited until a new DML release "early Tiger1", but these vehicles were unique at Kursk having the Pnzr lV stowage bin.

All comments welcome,

Regards,

Steve

What all did you use and do to convert this? An excellent job of an interesting subject

Great work on that tank.
I like your camo scheme. What I noticed and i'm curious about why that is, is the tree at the side of the tank.
Why did the germans do that? or is it just a special add?

Great tank. I love it





Hilbert

Good looking Tiger Steve, but you mention the pics of 123 as a reference, and have used the reg no 342 on your tank? I understand That the 3 refers to the third Company which you mention , but where do they fit together? And in the photo the turret no.s look rather light, was 123 red with a white outline? Sorry, I'll get of my box now..


I like how you did the camoflage, good job.

Cheers
Henk

Hmmm......some very interesting observations, I'll try to answer one at a time.

Steve: Just some sheet styrene cut using Tamiya fenders and side skirts as templates. Some spare PE for the hinge points.

Hilbert: I believe the log was a quick tool for changing the outer roadwheels, they were the most susceptible to ballistic damage. The crew would run the inner roadwheels up on the log, elevating the outer for a quick change or repair, this alleviated deploying the jacking tools to "jack up" the roadarm. This could be accomplished without breaking track. I'm not sure on this.

Henk: I loosely based the model on the 123 vehicle. Little oddities such as the large "3" only on the left side of the turret seem to be unique to second company.I really wanted to identify it as 123, but I could not get the decals from Bison as they were/are still not released. I knew from the reference literature that 3d company deployed these pirated vehicles from the 502nd as well so I took license with the decals I had available.

Some of the reference pics later in the battle show this tank (123) with fenders and side skirts completely missing, and with a tow cable on the right side as well. Earlier pics show it close to the art work depiction.


Steve