Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger I

Anthony Flanagan
I was up last night. This kit was on my desk, looked pretty straight forward and fairly accurate from my cursory research. I couldn't resist and had to give it a start, working next to my unfinished LAV. About 100 pierces and instructions seem straight forward. Started with the turret. Pieces fit well, but will need some gaps filled to turret rear. Looks promising.

Holger Kranich
Sounds really good! I´m tuned and like to follow, because i´ll build a tiger in the near future. 🙂

Anthony Flanagan
Kool, I will try to update progress, hiccups etc. This is my intro to Tigers and I may try a couple of things like self-applied zimmerit before trying them on more complex kits. I can say off the bat that doing the engine grills will take some imagination as the engine covers are "solid state", i.e. have solid plastic below the grill depiction. I may post pictures this week to explain.

Holger Kranich
Yeah, would be nice to see! I Never tryed selfmade zimmerit...

Mike Kryza
Horrible thought - selfmade zimmerit - I'll follow you...

Anthony Flanagan
I noticed that I recently picked up a Tamiya Mid Prod. kit w/o a turret. As I have serious concerns over the Minicraft hull details, I am going to try using the Tamiya hull w/ Minicraft turret.

Holger Kranich
Still becomes more interesting! Are the hulldetails not as crisp as tamiya´s?

Anthony Flanagan
I don't think it's even close. The Minicraft (Mini) has a number of the hand tools molded onto the hull in addition to the engine grill issue. The Mini is a much older kit by about 20 yrs I would guess. The Tamiya is from about 1996/97. I think everything below the turret will be Tamiya except I may use the Mini treads. This is the plan, currently. :0

Holger Kranich
I hope you can archieve the result, you wish! Seems to become a touchy situation with the Mini-Mold! I´ll still keep an eye on this project!😢

Anthony Flanagan
Thanks Holger. This is for practice and giggles, so no worries. I promised myself I would not take this too seriously.

Mike Kryza
That's the right adjustment(?) - Modelling is at first fun, but I'm very curious in the marriage of the two companies...

Anthony Flanagan
After going back and forth about how to handle this one, I decided to just do the Nichimo alone w/o zimmerit. I am going to do the Tamiya as a stand alone and order missing parts from Tamiya. Got the Nichimo primary coat painted this weekend.

Mike Kryza
Hi Anthony - easy way - paint the inside black and close it with some pe-grills. This will not stand out (Hope it's the right word!)

Anthony Flanagan
Mike, thanks for the tip but that's not gonna work on the Nichimo. It has the grills molded onto plastic (yikes!). I am not sure there's much that can be done at this point. I will see what I can do when I weather the tank later this week.

Mike Kryza
Ups - may i have found the wrong words. I mean the mesh over the grills - they deny looking inside.

Anthony Flanagan
I think I uderstand what you are saying. Yes, I think that would be the only way to get the engine deck right.

Mike Kryza
Top - hope it could help you a little bit - until later...