"Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

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Philipp Gross
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"Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Philipp Gross »

Greetings everyone - let's build a Tiger!

This Tiger to be precise:
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This particular Tiger was made in June 1943 and was one of eight sent to Italy with Schwere Panzerkompanie Meyer shortly afterwards in response to the Allied landings. Except for the sole survivor of 2./sPzAbt 504 that made it back from Sicily, these were the first Tigers on the Italian mainland. They saw some action around Anzio in January 1944 and were attached to sPzAbt 508 in March of that year. The photos above show the tank after that date as part of 1st Company. And some joker decided to name it "v. Eschnapur" - after a famous German adventure film of the time. Bison Decals released a set with the markings over 10 years ago, and I had it for almost as long. All that was lacking was a proper Tiger kit, but thankfully that problem has now been solved.

I have written down all you could possibly want to know about the kit right here, so let's start with construction already.

The instructions suggest starting with the turret, but I was more interested in the hull. After about 2 hours of work here's where I am right now:

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The torsion bars are designed to lock in place but are fully workable if you cut off a little tab. I chose to do the latter, I can still glue them in place later if they decide to cause problems.

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I also had some minor fit issues on the rear hull plate, which were quickly fixed with a little sanding on the lower sides. The plastic itself is fairly hard, but I didn't have any problems so far.

Thanks for looking, next update soon. Feels good to be building again :D

Philipp
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Steve Hutchinson
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Steve Hutchinson »

Well done Philipp

Great start and good reference material too.

How do you rename your links to other blogs ?

This was from Edmund, who seems to have disappeared?

http://www.plasticarmour.com/phpBB3/vie ... 823#p12107

Has anyone heard from Edmund?

Keep up the good work Philipp, and one question

""Had a fit of temper and ended up with this as instant remedy""

What happened?

Nice one Philipp

Steve H
""I need to be creative, to feel ALIVE!""

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Philipp Gross
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Philipp Gross »

Thank you Steve!

What exactly do you mean by renaming? Thanks to the god-like powers invested in me by Gary I can rename just about anything :twisted: :lol:

No idea what happened to Edmund either. I hope nothing happened to him, he mentioned some health problems shortly before his last post... :?

As for the fit of temper, just some frustration because I was about to move into a quite spacious and most of all cheap flat nearby, but all of that evaporated into thin air because the owner (whom I've known for 25 years) decided to add some very questionable extra conditions for me on top of the rent which I don't think any sane person should fulfil....and thus a very small part of the moving budget was repurposed because I probably don't need it very soon after all...

Philipp
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Raoul Kunz
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Raoul Kunz »

Ohhh! Very nice, especially that it's going to be the Tiger von Eschnapur, I remember these decals being on your mind on and off ever since you bought them ;) .


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz
~fiat iustitia aut pereat mundus~

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Philipp Gross
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Philipp Gross »

Thanks Raoul!

Yeah, it's about time I finally got to that...

Other candidates were:
218, sPzAbt 502, 1944
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411, sPzAbt 506, 1945
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C14, GD, 1944
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Suffice to say at least one of them will follow in the future... :roll:

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Greg Beckman
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Greg Beckman »

I like the candidate with the big dent in the front.
Gregovich (Greg)

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Philipp Gross
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Philipp Gross »

Also note the big hole punched into the gun barrel. #218 is definitely a candidate for my next Tiger. I have the Zvezda kit which has a few nasty sink marks on the hull side, Zimmerit would be perfect for hiding that.

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Vincent Power
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Vincent Power »

Excellent start and nice Tiger pics too Philipp. There is always room for Tigers. :)

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Philipp Gross
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Philipp Gross »

Thanks Vincent :) In the long term I want to build at least one Tiger I or II for every regular Heer unit that had them. With 10 Abteilungen, Grossdeutschland, the Funklenk units, Meyer, Hummel and Fehrmann thats quite a lot....

A little progress - not very much I'm afraid. The hull front and upper glacis are only dry fitted here. Good news is, they pop into place without any effort whatsoever. Bad news is, there's a gap that won't go away without some filler or, more likely, a strip of styrene.

By the way, there are 3 different sprockets included. Don't ask me why, I can only tell 2 versions apart :lol:

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On the rear the mounting frames for the fenders had to go as these were no longer used from May 1943 onwards. Some bright mind had finally figured out that you could bolt the fenders straight onto the armour plate... The strip between the mounting bolts for the Feifel filters had to go as well since I won't be using these either.

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Olivier Carneau
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Re: "Der Tiger von Eschnapur", Italy 1944

Post by Olivier Carneau »

Philipp Gross wrote:What exactly do you mean by renaming?
I guess he means typing a different text than the simple url address.
In fact Steve, when you put your mouse over the url button without clicking, a text pops up which gives you the trick. If you simply click, you just insert the BB code (bracket)url(bracket)(bracket)/url(bracket). You need to have the following code by typing it yourself :
(bracket)url=http address(bracket)the text you intend to display(bracket)/url(bracket)
By bracket I mean those signs [ ]. I don't know if it's the right name.
HTH

Nice start Philipp. I think you made the right choice by keeping the suspension moveable, especially if you intend to build a diorama.
Olivier
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