Tiger.pdf

TAMIYA’S PALM

TOP PANZER

modelled by

Luciano

Rodriguez

Introduction

In the current modeling market, military vehicles have appeared at

some apparently unusual scales, and the traditional scales (1/35 or

1/72) have been improved to unexpected limits in recent times.

Nowadays, scales as diverse as 1/144 or 1/16 are firmly established

and have many fans though a few years ago this would have been

hard to predict.

In this period of constant development, it was only a matter of time

before a company tried to fill the gap for military vehicles in quarter

scale. Well, the fact is that the idea is not new and some

companies have tried it before with some success, but regrettably

there was never the demand or the production to popularise the

scale as 1:35th was. Since then, quarter scale has been mainly

provided for with die-cast replicas and a few resin kits for aircraft

fans. Fortunately, it seems everything is changing now with this

wave of new releases. Tamiya has restarted producing kits in 1/48

scale, and they may have the influence to settle down a "new"

industry standard into the modeling market. We will know soon after

the reaction of other modeling brands and aftermarket companies.

Some more kits (M4, Stug III, Hetzer, M4 A1, M-10…) will be

available by the time this article is published

Inside the box

We find a very nicely detailed Tiger I early

production model molded in dark gray

plastic with die-cast chassis. The design of

the kit is coherent and simple, sacrificing

the number of optional parts in exchange

for a good average quality and a really

easy assembly, something Tamiya excels

at. In order to avoid handling small or

fragile parts, it is surprising to see how

some parts are moulded on, like some

tools on the upper hull or the solid handles

in the turret hatches and engine access

cover. This may be surprising for

experienced modelers, but do not get it

wrong. No one is trying to replace 1/35

scale with these smaller kits, although I am

sure we will see outstanding detailing work

in the future from the hands of talented

modelers. This is one nice & easy kit or an

excellent base for super detailing.

I cannot imagine the reasons for including

a die-cast chassis, maybe lower production

costs, but I must say it makes our model

heavy-a strange but nice sensation for this

size of kit. Fitting is almost perfect all the

time and mixing metal with plastic parts is

no problem at all, even for a beginner. In

addition, the metal chassis comes primed

in matt light gray lacquer, something really

helpful for assembling & painting.

The kit provides a good combination of link

by link and track sections that I would love

for its 1/35th scale series. The tracks can

be assembled over a guide included in the

"A" sprue. The system works well and one

can easily assemble the tracks even with

the right sag. The kit also includes the two

different drive sprockets used by early

Tiger

versions.

Once on the workbench, I assembled the

model following the instructions almost

from the box totally. I simply refined some

parts and other minor details to give it a

better presence. For that, I divided the

pipes of the air cleaners that come

together in the kit, and hollowed their

exhausts with a drill. With thin copper wire I

replaced all the handles in the hatches

and made the light connections along the

upper hull, and I made the attachments of

the spare track links to the turret sides with

styrene sheet . After that, all that is left is

to decide if you want to leave the crew

hatches open or closed. Tamiya have

recently released a panzer crew figure set

to populate these kits.

Painting

Tamiya included four very interesting

marking & painting schemes in this kit. The

early Tiger I is a really fashionable subject

at the moment so Tamiya have taken

advantage of this and provide four quite

unusual -but well known and attractive-

options. After studying color schemes

deeply, I decided for this one (s.Pz.Abt.505

, Russia, Summer 1943) , mainly for its

interesting pattern. Also, it seems that for

some reason dark yellow/red brown

schemes are not actually very popular

among modelers for this cat . Don't ask me

why!

The camouflage is painted copying the

pattern from the instructions sheet using

airbrushed Tamiya acrylics. First I applied a

plain coat of dark yellow (XF-60) and after, I

free hand airbrushed the stripes with red

brown (XF-64). I first mixed both colors with

flesh (XF-15) instead of white. This made

them lighter and it also helps to get some

subtle harmony among them. Once the

camouflage was finished I sprayed the

model with Future, and applied the decals.

Following this, I painted all the tools and

accessories with several Vallejo colors. This

includes the tow cables, the tracks, and all

the wheels were painted in earth brown

color directly before painting the rubber

tyres. I finally lacquered again to seal all

the previous work for the last time.

From that point I first painted some

chipping and mapping with Vallejo colors,

following no specific pattern. The trick is to

use similar –lighter or darker- tones to the

camouflage colors, and to get a small

chips to scale. I enhanced all the shapes,

recesses and engraved lines with a dark

wash with very dilute Tamiya enamels,

black (XF-1) and red brown (XF-64). I also

blended all over the vehicle small drops of

other vivid colors like olive green (XF-58) or

hull red (XF-9) that I faded with a wet clean

soft brush, acting as filters, and changing

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