Tigre (Italian Tiger)

[Leighbo]

Hi All

Just thought I would share my Xmas project with you all, if I get the chance over Xmas that is!

Its the Academy early version kit with the full interior, the Miniart italian village diorama and Dragon Tiger aces figures.

Its a shame that I won't be using the full interior on the Tiger, but having a tank that you can take the top off and look inside is not my thing. That said I will try and have as many hatches and panels open as possible, showing the Tiger at rest with perhaps a bit of maintenance going on.

Its my first 1/35 Tiger and also my first crack at a Miniart diorama (even though I have been poring over them for so long!) so I am really looking forward to it.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[spud]

will the Tiger fit on that base? this should be sweet so looking forward to this

 

[Leighbo]

To be honest Spud I only just checked today myself, but it looks like it will fit nicely on there.

When you see the size of the boxes together you wouldn't think it!

 

[geegad]

you can't beat a tiger its going to be a cracking dio leigh

 

[JohnSimmons]

Looking forward to this!

 

[Leighbo]

I really must stop doing this but I started on this project before finishing the last

Seeing those pristine boxes and full sprues means the pull of unstarted kits was just too much!

I started on the diorama base first in case I need to make the wheels and tracks follow the terrain. The Miniart kit took a bit more fettling and persuading than expected but no real bother and the detail is really nice.

I also offered up the Tiger bottom tub to check and it fits nice and snugly!

I promise I will finish the Road of Life dio before this Tiger bug takes over completely, honest!

 

[geegad]

looks nice leigh the miniarts are a bir of a bugger but there worth it in the end looking real nice

 

[Leighbo]

Thanks Gee, yeah it was fiddly but I'm looking forward to painting it up!

 

[Leighbo]

Just thought I'd post my latest before the Xmas festivities start

Been working through the Tiger I made up some of the interior detail but not all. I am going to show the engine and cooling fan hatches up and will have most of the turret hatches open, so I only built what will be seen.

The Acadamy kit is really very good, it goes together positively has no flash and plenty of detail. It also has a little photo etch for the hatches, full interior and individual track links, all for £20 which is an absolute bargain.

I have left the top of the turret and the hatches off until I paint the interior and add the engine.

I will have to add the engine once painted as I don't know if I will get it back out once its in!

Thanks for looking and hope evryone has a great Xmas

 

[spud]

Very cool Leighbo

 

[geegad]

thats a cracking kit leighbo...all that interior comes with kit...????and that's the only down side of the holidays no kit time

 

[Leighbo]

Thanks Guys
Gee, all the bits you see come with the kit, all for the price of a Dominos pizza! I will be trying to squeeze some building time over the next week though, not back at work till the New Year so hopefully be able to crack on with this build

 

[Leighbo]

Right got the festivities out of the way, now back to some serious modelling!
I painted up the builiding and trieed to add some variety to the bricks ready for the Miniart technique of wiping oil on/off the wall.

The only trouble was I should have made the bricks more obviously differnt shades as after the oil treatment you can't really see the diference, but hey ho its all a learning experience!
I'm still happy with it though, the oils certianly pick out all the surface detail nicely

I have left this aside to dry and have been finishing off the Tiger build, its certianly not a couple of hours work, I cut out one of the hatches showing the right cooling fan and then sprayed that and the engine interior blue.

I painted the engine and fan up by hand then weathered with some washes before fitting the engine.

I did the same process on the turret interior with some chipping too

Which then meant I could fix the top of the turret down, all the turret hatches will be left open to reveal glimpses of the interior detail

I then finished off adding all the accessories to the tank, and there was plenty to add!

And couldn't resist seeing what it looked like on the base

Thanks for looking and I'll be back soon with more, gotta love time of work....!

 

[JohnSimmons]

Awesome, what a monster!

 

[Ravhin]

Looking good ! Keep up the good work.

 

[Leighbo]

Thanks guys, John you're right it certainly is a monster, it certainly fills the base!

 

[Leighbo]

hi guys, heres the latest after a full day today

I got a couple of figures going looking into the engine bay, the guys sitting fit in OOB with no tweaking, the other guy I had in the spares box and just swapped some arms & hands and they look like they're puzzling about which bit has broken! I will add one or two more figures when I work them out.

I also spent plenty of time tody working on the base, plenty of detail painting & touching up, oils on the tiles and some washes on the floor details. I also painted on real dirt mixed with white glue and made up a floor section for the inside of the house. It is surprising that it doesn't come with the kit but some bits of balsa and ply soon sorted that!

Still lots of bits to add yet when things start to dry.
I had a bash at painting the Tiger, starting with a black vallejo primer then built it up thin layer by thin layer with some sandy colours and finished today with a gloss coat ready for the decals

You can't really see in the pictures but I have faded the colours out from light to dark.

Thanks for looking

 

[geegad]

love the color of your stone house looks superb....and the tiger is coming along nicely

 

[JohnSimmons]

Dude that looks so good!! The house and tiles look great the guys checkin out the engine the colour of the tiger! Awesome.

 

[Leighbo]

Cheers Guys, I'm loving thsi build!

Got a bit more done today, a bit of work on the vegetation of the base and a little bit more weathering:

and painted the details on the Tiger, and started the weatheing

Thanks for looking