Gallery 2:

This is a Tamiya Tiger 1 Mid Production kit for the FSM group build.  To add to this kit, I purchased an Eduard barrel, Eduard photo etched kit, Friulmodel transport individual track links, Modelkasten spare track links, and Tank Workshop wheel hubs.  I was very happy with all but the Eduard PE set.  My only complaint with the PE set was that most of the pieces were oversized.   In the end, I am quite happy with how the Tiger turned out.  

I thought I would include a few pictures of the crew that go with the Tiger and the Panther.  They are all from Tamiya and are built right out of the box.  These are some of the first figures I have completed and I need to work on shading faces, but the detail is so good that the bodies almost paint themselves.

These are some more recent figures that I have completed.  The first figure is from Tristar, the second is a modified Tamiya figure and the last is from Verlinden.  All the figures were nicely detailed and easy to paint.  The Verlinden figure is rather large and is perhaps closer to 1/32.  The Tristar figure had a lot of flashing to clean off and I had some fit problems with the arms.  Overall, all three are nice molds and the only real problem was my painting skills. 

Here is another batch of recent figures that I have completed.  The first figure is from Tamiya and has had a Hornet head added to it.  The last two are Tamiya figures built out of the box.  All the figures had nice detail which made for easy painting.  The Hornet head was superb and I think this really made the face painting that much easier.  These three figures are my first attempt at using artist oils for faces.  It may not be readily apparent, but I feel like I have made a great improvement by switching to oils for the faces. 

Pics of my Tamiya Late Tiger 1.  The kit was built straight out of the box with exception of the wire added to the Bosche light and the use of the one piece vinyl tracks from the Tamiya Early Tiger 1 kit. I was very pleased with this kit.  The fit was not perfect, and the individual tracks all had bad mold marks on them, but other than that, the kit had good detailing, and flew together.

This is a Tamiya Marder III with a Verlinden interior.  I liked the Tamiya kit a lot.  Hearing how good the detailing was on the kit, I had initially planned on scratch building all the possible detailing I could find missing.  This proved to be a daunting task because even though the Tamiya kit is superb, the open fighting compartment was missing quite a bit of detail.  I stopped scratch building about 3/4 of the way from a being complete.

A quick note about the Verlinden interior:  I was not happy with it.  It was missing a LOT.  I tried to add some detail that would be seen through the open hatches, but on the final product, not much of the interior can be seen.  

This T-34 from Tamiya is one of the first kits I ever built.  With the exception of the removed fender, the model is straight out of the box.  I am aware that there is a lot wrong with this kit, but it is still one of my favorite builds.

This is a Pz IV H from Italeri.  I added zimmerit, a few weld lines, and some of the brackets for the Schürtzen on the lower hull are from the old Tamiya Pz IV kit.  I have to say this kit had some fussy bits, but I picked it up for $18 and I was impressed with what was in the box!  

While this kit had a bad fit and detail was wrong, or missing, for 9 or 10 bucks this Pz II from Tamiya made a great test subject.  The chipped paint was done with rubber cement, and the mud was done with a mixture of baking soda, acrylic paint and cut up twine (the twine is the same stuff that is on the Pz IV).  Personally I believe I went overboard with the rubber cement, and think it looks like one big paint chip. 

Here are a few pics of the first armor kits I built back in about 1993.  Looking back, I think I did a pretty good job.  We all have to start somewhere, right?  Actually, I'm not sure that I have gotten much better!

E's Armor Home