AFV Modeller - Issue 18 - 2 - Tiger F13.pdf - AFV Modeller - robaczek696

T he first time I saw the Fehrmann

set off from Fallingbostel towards the Weser and

ended up in the sector of Wietersheim, where on

the 11th of April the last Tiger was lost. All six

Tiger’s were early or mid 1943 versions with the

early rubber tire road wheels replaced by late

steel rimmed wheels. The tracks were also

replaced by late tracks with ice cleats.

Tiger’s was in the book “Tigers on

the Western front”. The pictures of

F 13 caught my eye especially. The

hand painted turret numbers, the

extremely battle-damaged appearance, the

flaked zimmerit and the half open engine vent

hatches made it an exciting challenge to make in

scale 1:35.

The Kit

The most suited kit for this project was Tamiya’s

early Tiger kit 35216. It is the best of Tamiya’s

Tiger kits as you get a lot of good extra parts

from the spare part box. (Early and late drive

sprocket and Feifel filters, etc.). It also has the

correct asymmetrical turret.

History

This Tiger, together with five others, belonged to

Companie Fehrmann (identified by the letter F in

the turret number) of Kampfgruppe Schulze.

Companie Fehrmann was established in January

1945 in Oerbke Camp in northern Germany. They

Tiger F13

of Companie

Fehrmann

by Jens Kronvold Frederiksen

Getting started

The torch cut edges of the armor plates

were made with a small dentist’s drill. Next

step was to add all the weld seams. I did

this with a pyrogravure (actually it is a

small soldering iron with a homemade tip

of copper rod and I control the heat with a

dimmer).

each pannier, which is missing in the kit.

I made these from plastic card with plastic

rivets, which were added from

Modelkasten.

After assembling all the major parts of the

hull and turret, I filled all location holes and

made the rolled steel texture. I did this by

adding plastic cement to all armor steel

surfaces. (Do this in a ventilated room)!

The front fenders were cut and small loops

of copper wire were added to represent

the hinges.

When the plastic was softened, I rubbed a

toothbrush on the surface. ( Do not use it

for tooth brushing after this! ) After a day

or so, I cleaned the model with fine

sandpaper and I achieved a very

convincing rolled steel texture. If you try

this, take care not to get cement on any

details or panel lines etc.

Some of the original seams on the kit are

very deeply recessed, which is not correct,

so I glued thin plastic strips on before

”welding”.

The underside front of the panniers and the

front armor plate were built of styrene strips.

It is important to get it right if the Tiger is

without fenders and side skirts. The rear

fender attachment points were replaced

with Aber parts glued on 0.5mm plastic

card. The plastic card was for adding weld

seams around the etched brass part.

Lower hull details

There is a long flange on the underside of

Running gear

Zimmerit

the zimmerit pattern, just avoid touching

unwanted places and details with the

pyrogravure, as it has to be really hot.

I wanted to give my Tiger’s suspension a

“tired” look by lowering the rear of the hull.

I did this by removing the small location

pins on the hull, except the first one on

each side. So the first torsion bars could

be glued on as per the instructions. The

last torsion bars on each side were raised

about 1.5 mm. (Don’t overdo this as you

might end up with too little space for the

tracks)!! All the other torsion bars were

glued on and aligned with the front and

rear ones.

I have never been completely satisfied with

my earlier zimmerit attempts with putty

and Milliput, so I decided to try a new

method. An extra challenge in this instance

was also to get the flaking as accurate as

possible.

This styrene zimmerit has many

advantages; you can work as slowly as you

want. If you are not satisfied, just melt a

new pattern in the same styrene. When

you need to glue details on, just add a little

cement to the area and you can squeeze

the detail through the zimmerit to sit on

the “steel” surface.

I decided to try with thin styrene sheet and

the pyrogravure. I used 0.3mm Evergreen

styrene, drawing each panel, the zimmerit

lines, and the exact flaking pattern onto

the plastic sheet with a pencil.

The flaking is also easy to accurately

achieve; I even got the exact amount of

zimmerit rows on my model according to

the reference photos.

The flaking was cut away and the styrene

sheet was glued onto the model with small

blobs of superglue. (DON’T use plastic

cement, as the styrene will act like cheese

on a pizza when you use the pyrogravure)!

The road wheels were taken from

Tamiya’s late version Tiger. The tracks

are from Modelkasten - by far the

best on the market but time-

consuming to assemble. To add a

little extra detail, I sanded away the

ice cleats on the inside of each

track link to show wear of the

tracks. This feature can be seen

on the preserved Tiger in

Vimoutiers, France.

The Pyrogravure needed new tips as wide

as the zimmerit on the hull and a bit

narrower on the turret. I made these

from copper tube hammered flat and

filed into shape like a small

screwdriver. Then it

was simple to add

Upper hull details

So I scratch built them from small pieces

of styrene strip.

apparently missing). The underside of the

hatches had to be thinned down with a

small recessed edge added. The engine

hatch received scratch built hatch jams;

intake duct and feifel hose clamp bases.

The small keyholes were taken from a The

Show Modelling Stug III set and glued into

drilled holes.

The driver’s splashguard received five

recessed bolts, by adding a strip of styrene

with holes made with a punch and die set.

Small recessed bolts were also added to

the driver and radio operator’s hatch

hinges.

The antenna socket was drilled to

accommodate a small length of brass tube

with a wing nut added. The engine fans

were taken from an On The Mark photo

etched set. Their centers were made from

modified Panzer IV wheel hubs. The

housings were constructed from styrene

with tube turned in ABS on a lathe.

All the tool clips were added empty. The

only tools on the model are gun cleaning

rods and the engine-starting handle. As I

believe these items are essential! The

Bosch light was scratch built from styrene

with a small piece of copper wire added

inside.

All the small flanges with screw holes for

holding the side skirts, Feifel air cleaners

and exhaust shrouds are included in

Modelkasten’s Tiger transport track set SK

3. But I made these myself from 1x1mm

styrene strip. They were glued on a slightly

larger piece of 0.1 mm styrene strip to add

material for the weld seam. You can do the

same with all the small brass details. It

gives you the advantage of being able to

glue these parts on with plastic cement

The half open engine vent hatches took a

lot of work. I first cut off the hatches from

the engine deck (in the hatch hinge itself),

and scratch built a new one to fit the

engine deck. The ABER engine grilles were

super glued on and rubbed down with a

brush handle to simulate that the crew had

walked on them (on F 13 one of them is

The track cable retainers and towing

hawser holders are included in the ABER

set but cannot be used. In reality they are

not hollow and are made from thin metal.

AFV Modeller - Issue 18 - 2 - Tiger F13.pdf

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