The photos below show my labour of love for the past 6 months! It's the Tamiya Tiger 1 with the Aber etched brass set. All clasps, hinges and hatches work. I have installed an exhaust smoke generator as well as a (recoil driven) gun smoke unit.

The 'white on the first pic is 'Mr Surfacer' - this gives a realistic textured finish. (I posted this pic twice, sorry)
Pics 2 and 3 show the tools. All wooden parts are made from tooth picks and cocktail sticks.
Pics 4 and five show the air filters and the side skirts. One side has already been primed as rust started to form around the soldered parts.
Pic 6 shows the rear engine deck with home made wingnuts.
Pic 7 shows the turret bin with added rivets, a padlock and a key.
8 is the loaders hatch with working locking device.
9 is the clamp for the track cable. This started to rust so I had to prime this part early.
10 is the inside of the turret. I made a smoke generator for the nose cone of a firework and a model train smoke generator. This is blown by a 4mm fan connacted to the turret recoil unit. The sring is wrapped around the tube to stop kinking in the tube when the gun recoils. The yellow cover to the rear of the turret is a small covered orange LED. This comes on when the smoke unit is switched on. I will have a fibre optic lead upto the tank commanders mouth to simulate a cigarette - showing me that the smoke unit is on!
11 is the exhaust smoke unit. To refill this the engine cover can be raised.

Thanks for looking...

OK, that is some awesome detailing you are putting into this. Love the tools.

This Tiger will be a showpiece for sure.

Very nice work...would like to see a video of it in action when it's compleated.

Very good work ! [sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif] Like the details very much !
The welds are easy to produce with a razor blade ...

Happy to follow your review !

Greetings

The tank is looking very good, and the tools are well done. Great Job[sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif]

very impressive detail going on there [X(]
looking great so far plenty of pics please when shes all done [sm=thumbup.gif]

Nice detailing on your Tunesien Tiger.
Just a comment: there is no evidence of hull grenade launchers fitted on any 501 Tiger.
Cheers

I'm totally stunned! That is an awseome amount of effort you have made!

Well Done!!

Brilliant work mate[sm=thumbup.gif] keep those pics coming as your build progresses

Cheers Ian

It doesn't look anything like a 501 Tiger, maybe a 504. It's definitely a January-March '43 tank by way of details so far.

Beautiful work! I was tempted to buy an Aber kit, after looking it over I knew that I personally didn't have the skills or patience to use it. Hats off to you! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

A '504 with lowered headlights? Curious.....

A quick reply: Thanks for all of the positive comments. I'm priming it tommorow although it will then be a few weeks before I can do anything else as I've got visitors for a few weeks. I wanted to do an all yellow tank with large red and white numbers so i chose to do a 501 Tiger. I know that the Tamiya tig doesn't represent one of these (wrong mudguards, tool layout etc) but I really wanted to do the lowered headlights. I know it's all wrong but this is what I wanted to do!

hey barra absolutly awesome detailing on the tiger cant wait to see the finished pictures [8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D]
the good thing with modelling is you can do it your way looks more like a 502.5 to me you now the one with lowered headlight,wrong mudguards etc.........

I totally missed the headlights Uhu, sorry. The later mods threw me off. FYI Barra, when the 501 adopted red numbers with white outlines they were attached to the 10th Panzer Division and used 7 and 8 series numbers. The tanks were not yellow (RAL 7028) but rather Afrika Braun (RAL 8020) with color photographic evidence and some might have been grey oversprayed with green, conjecture.

Incredible detailing.
Did you make the wood tool handles yourself?
The air intake clamps look like they actually work,I mean the wingnuts.
amazing work.

LOL Barra, thats what happens when you set the standard high, you have to go the whole hog and get it 100% historically correct. That'll teach you for showing off!