Tamiya 1/35 Tiger I Late production

Hello again Beautiful people.

I guess I am on a roll this summer. Here is another finished product of mine. This time, I will be launching a tank that is so dear to me. A tank I first saw in the movie '' Saving Private Ryan '' and fell in love with since then. A tank that made me the tank-lover today. The Legendary Tiger I.

I'm not gonna spend anytime writing about the Tiger here as everybody knows what a legend it has. I will just skip to the kit itself. The kit was recommended to me by my teacher. I bought the one that has the commander figure ( which look very suspiciously like Wittmann ) which was released on 1989. That kit was showing its age with al ot of simplified parts and rather lacking in some details but as per Tamiya, everything falls into place so smoothly. I also only wanted to build a cheap kit and got this for £25 on ebay so I can not complain that much. What amaze me was that the seller had a small fret of PE from the UK company Airwaves for the engine grilles. Oh my lord, what a bonus. I was thinking of actually buying a small PE set but that saved me alot of money and trouble.

I debated a long time which turret number I want on this gal and couldn't come to a conclusion. Then, one of my close friends said '' well, you already had the 008 for the tiger 2 so why not make 007 for the tiger 1 ?? ''. Thank you Victori for giving me that suggestion. Obviously, I bought a late production and to depict that as the FAMOUS Tiger 007 which is a befehlswagon modification on a later tiger. On the search I went for references and informations. I finally decided to the use the drawings I found on Achtung Panzers and follow the instruction and finished kits of the Cyber-Hobby Wittmann tiger. A few items were changed places, the tube for the spare antennae added on the Stag-Antennae made.

I used Tamiya for the main colours ( Dark yellow, Olive Green and Red Brown). I used Vallejo and Tamiya colours for the tracks. I used Game Workshop flesh paints and flesh wash for the face for the figures. The uniforms are painted in a variety of Tamiya and Vallejo. Weathering is done by applying MIG Light European Earth and MIG Europe Dust wet and brushing off the excess. FloryModels wash Sand Colour is used as base before the pigments went on there. Fuel stains were done with AK's Fuel stains and chippings done with Vallejo German Black Brown.

The stern antenna was Scratch build out of some wires I manged to find and a plastic rod from ever green. To be honest, I hate that thing. I wish I could have bought a PE for that but no, I couldn't find anything cheaper. WhiteEnsign model from the UK charged 8 somethig pound MINUS VAT. With VAT and delivery, it went up to 12 Pound- ish. Now that is high way robbery. So I had no choice but to make myself one and I really hate it. I also hate how the weathering. I don't know why but I was expecting something better out of myself, befitting this favorite tank of mine but I think I didn't do it that much justice. I also hate how the figured turned out. The skin is much too dark and looks very sun-tanned to be my liking. I don't know... all I know is, I'm not satisfied. I didn't want to stop so I still pull through and finish this. I will leave it to you gents to be the judge of how I feel.

Here are the two figures -

Close ups of the various details and the wheels -

And the rests are my usual Showcase shots -

And closing the curtain with a bang as always -

Well, there you have it. With all those new skills I have been picking up from magazines and tutorials, I could have made a better looking tiger. I don't know what went wrong - maybe it was the filter, or the paint or the dust but I'm really not happy. Which is why I already bought the new Cyber Hobby release of the Early Tiger. Now that will be my redemption kit to do justice to my favorite tank of all time.

What do you gentleman think? Compare with my T-90, I know this is lacking something, don't know what though. I will let you gents be the judge of things.