You have seen Bob's post dated 11-2-2020 for Bolt Action scenery. His post was precipitated by our plans to game a German Town action. He said "I have to build additional scenery aka "bombed out buildings". He went a step (actually, several steps) further and reproduced with amazing detail the corner building in the final scenes of Saving Private Ryan. Well, if he was going to do that we had to have the Tiger Tank that Capt. Miller engaged with his 45! Hence the subject of this post.
The first thing I did was mix a light tan and black to see if it was a muddy enough color.
I thought it looked like a good start.
A combo of Steel and Black was applied to the tank tread pieces while still on the sprue.
The four piece treads are nicely detailed and went on rather easily using thin cement. Not the best photo, but it does show that I painted the wheels with my muddy mix. The thing is color is fine but what about texture? Tanks got bogged down in sticky mud and made for tough going. My solution was to try something that already existed - In the pantry!
After attaching the wheel and track assemblies I proceeded to put together the hull and turret. A dry fit photo shows me that I need to separate these pieces and go to the spray both.
This was a two coat process using Testors Camo Colors. First, Light Sand followed by Dark Tan. It gave me a nice color with some grain to it. The kit came without decals but all I needed was a small Balken cross and the number 431.
A fine tip brush and a little color layering and Voila! But now comes the challenge. How to produce this......
I started by mixing my cherry red, light tan and black. The color was not bad! The process was then to use a Q-Tip. Dip in the paint, blot on paper towel then dab, roll and brush randomly.
Next I mixed Olive and Green and repeated the procedure.
It is looking pretty good now, but there was still detail to attend to using the Tamiya rust and soot (micro brush dipped in water and then brushed on the Tamiya "compact"). Also, I detailed the cables and tools using the steel/black mix, added rust to various parts and painted the machine guns.
These are great little kits and easy on the storage factor! Good detail and yet small enough for gaming. But now I am having Hindsightitis. Why? Well I have been working on the Commander figure (bust) which likewise has some nice detail. Of course, I researched WWII Tank Commander uniform photos, for my fiddly attempt at painting Herr Commandant.
First blush at the Commander. We had to touch up and pick out some over zealous brush marks, but after some work I finally had to say "good enough".
Let's backtrack a bit.
I was able to drill all the way through the hatch pin and turret such that I could dislodge the hatch without breaking it - Yippee! Next is adding a "wire" pin so the hatch can be lifted and rotated open and closed!
Our Commander is a bust that sits/stands in the turret so now comes the rabbit hole! Why did I not consider making the top hatch movable as it is a lift and rotate operation as opposed to a hinge? Can I go back and retrofit without screwing it up? Let's see, shall we!
Success - hatch closed.
"Commander - enemy ahead!" Ok, let's "Button Up"!!
We are ready for die Krieg!💥, but wait, I can't go it alone. I need more support - more Armor - so back to eBay I will go. Stay tuned as I may have to add another Post (grone😂).
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