These are 'in-progress' shots of my Tiger II, it's OOB apart from a few things I've added such as bent fenders from foil and lead sheet, towing clevis brackets from rod and strip, and cable to the Bosch headlight from lead wire. I'm going for the beat up look this time Any comments are most welcome guys.

Vinnie:

Looks good. I like the front fenders. Cant wait to see it finished? Is this the DML kit that comes with the aluminum barrel?

Keep on Modelling

Brian

I like your fender mods so far they look great, i would make shore that the one fender that is bent in clears your front sprocket and tracks, you don't want to have to bend it after its painted.

Thanks Brian, yep it's kit No.6254 'Battle of the Bulge'. Comes with aluminium barrel, PE mesh for the engines, metal tow rope, and a few other 'goodies'.

Vinnie

Your kit looks great. I too have the same kit but have problems with the photo-etch. I can't form it to shape very well. I'm also having a hard time thinking on how to add the skirts, how did you do yours?

Thanks Ralph. When you say 'trouble with the skirts', how do you mean? Do you mean how did I make them, or attach them?

Vinnie

Vinnie:

I am curious as to how those new magic tracks are. Let me know. The old dragon ones are tricky. My sad looking Jagdtiger will atest to that.

Brian

Nice work so far Vinnie. i jsut got mine yesterday morning when i woke up i realized mom had picked up the delivery, nice way to wake you up until you get you first car insurance bill lol.

hows the overal kit? iam curious because its going to be my first time using pe(yup, iam used to tamiya quality) any tips? ive been reading around to figure how to fold the grill.

also what did you use for hte side skirts? and front fenders, they look great, while fliping throught the instructions i thought i could replace and damage the fender to look like one ive seen in a photo, same for the skirts, i jsut dont know what i could use for it?


Thanks
Frank

Hi Vinnie ..really nice job so far on the battle damage ..I noticed a mistake that Dragon has made on the side skirts... By this time in the production there should not be the hole under the bolts that connect the skirts to the hull..This was seen only on the first batch of KT's ..just a little swipe with some filler will fix it.. I'm not sure how clear my explanation was so here are a couple of pictures to show what I mean...





Rick

Looking good Vinnie. I beleive you may also want to add a fuel overflow tube.

Richard what exactly are you saying?

I have just finished the main parts of my tiger 2. I built mine out of the box but I like what you have done with the fenders. Mine has also seen alot of action and is quite damaged too. Does your kit have the wheels that you can position to simulate going over uneven ground? Mine does and to tell you the truth I am a bit scared to try and fit them. Any tips would be greatly recieved. How do you know you will have enough track to go round them if they are at different heights?
Look forward to the finshed piece.
Cheers
Robbo

Thanks guys, Brian, I've built the tracks but not installed them yet, and they went together like a dream, I know what you mean about the old ones, they had a tendency to 'pop' apart, and these don't. I haven't used any cement on them yet and it looks as though I won't have to until I actually install them!
Francois, the whole kit goes together like a dream really, except for the PE curved mesh. They don't fit. I used a PE curving tool, so they were curved correctly and yet I still found I had to cut nearly 2mm from the longest side to make them fit correctly. As for the fenders, at the rear left-hand side I wanted one panel to remain in place, but most foils are far too thin and this would have been very noticable. Luckily I had a large (very large!) piece of lead sheet which was just the correct thickness. The front ones were made from foil where the thickness was not really noticable. The only difficulty here being taking up the 'slack' as the inner curve was formed, hence the 'ripped' and damaged appearance. I actully just burnished a piece of foil over the original kit part. It took a few tries to get it right!
Richard, thanks for the heads up on the bolt detail! I've actually got some reference books on the K2 and hadn't noticed this! Thanks mate!

Vinnie

Hi John ..on the early KT side skirts there was a larger hole under the attachement hole ...When the crew needed to remove the side skirt for maintenance they just had to loosen the bolts a bit and lift the skirt up a bit and it would come off ..Later this was done away with and the bolts had to be completly removed to take the skirt off... Darn this is hard to explain!!

Rick

Hey I know what you mean Richard, but have you any idea exactly when this mod was brought in? Mine would be pre-dec '44?
John, sorry - I missed your post, where exactly does the fuel overflow go and what does it look like? Why would they have an 'overflow' on the fuel system?
Reme, which kit have you? If it's the Ardennes labelled kit, unless you go mad with the wheels, (one up, one down and so on....) you will have enough track, I would suggest putting them on as you assemble them in the positions you want and spray painting when fully assembled.

Vinnie

Hi Vinnie ..this was changed quite early ...I'd have to say probably as early as the switch over from the Porshe turret to the Henschel ..I can't remember seeing a picture of a Henschel turreted tank with this configuration.

Rick

Richard, now this is getting odd, I appear to have several pics with the 'keyhole' configeration? EDIT. I have just found one also from the Bulge without the larger holes, so it would seem both were present on the K2 at this time? EDIT #2 I have now found a Porche turreted one , also without the larger holes?

Vinnie

OOB??

Well I think it is not OOB with all that stuff on it
But it looks great, I like to see further progress!

OK, OK.....in this context it means no aftermarket. Thanks Hilbert.

Vinnie

Nice work Vinnie

I also love what you have done with the side skirts.

Keep us posted.

Hi Vinnie! I actually disassembled the skirts up into parts now I'm wondering how to get them back again :-) :-) :-) Anyways, I finally solved my problem a few hours ago.

BTW, will you do a soft-edge camo or a hard one?

Haven't really decided on a camo scheme yet Ralph, I'm looking through some books trying to get some ideas?

Vinnie

You can build the 222 as I would:

Since yours gonna be a beat-up look how about this foto:


It was knocked out by an M-36, Dec 19, 1944

BTW, the 222 scheme was on hard-edge camo. Axis modelers, please confirm if this is true.

This should be a nice foto for the Ardenne KT
KT from Missing Lynx

Good luck and keep us posted!

Actually 222 is more of a soft edged cammo with a few hard edges repainted in on the other side of the turret but is hidden by the spare tracks...If you want more pictures of 222 ,I have about 20 pictures on my computer . From the attack in the Ardennes to months after it was destroyed .. Let me know which one you are doing ..I might just have a picture or two to help you out.. I'd like to see the picture of the KT in the Ardennes with the key hole skirts ..it would be a first for me.. never say never with Geman armor!

Rick

Mr. Craig, I could use some ref photos of 222. Can you email them to me? shonen_red(at)yahoo.com I'm also looking for the scene on the time it got destroyed (from different angles)

I added 5 pictures of 222 to my gallery, anyone who to look I'll leave them there till tomorrow...

Rick