T

scale 1:35.

he first time I saw the Fehrmann

set off from Fallingbostel towards the Weser and ended up in the sector of Wietersheim, where on the 11th of April the last Tiger was lost. All six Tigers were early or mid 1943 versions with the early rubber tire road wheels replaced by late steel rimmed wheels. The tracks were also replaced by late tracks with ice cleats.

Tigers was in the book Tigers on the Western front. The pictures of F 13 caught my eye especially. The hand painted turret numbers, the

extremely battle-damaged appearance, the flaked zimmerit and the half open engine vent hatches made it an exciting challenge to make in

The Kit History

This Tiger, together with five others, belonged to Companie Fehrmann (identified by the letter F in the turret number) of Kampfgruppe Schulze. Companie Fehrmann was established in January 1945 in Oerbke Camp in northern Germany. They The most suited kit for this project was Tamiyas early Tiger kit 35216. It is the best of Tamiyas Tiger kits as you get a lot of good extra parts from the spare part box. (Early and late drive sprocket and Feifel filters, etc.). It also has the correct asymmetrical turret.

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Tiger F13 of Companie Fehrmann

by Jens Kronvold Frederiksen

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Getting started
After assembling all the major parts of the hull and turret, I filled all location holes and made the rolled steel texture. I did this by adding plastic cement to all armor steel surfaces. (Do this in a ventilated room)! When the plastic was softened, I rubbed a toothbrush on the surface. ( Do not use it for tooth brushing after this! ) After a day or so, I cleaned the model with fine sandpaper and I achieved a very convincing rolled steel texture. If you try this, take care not to get cement on any details or panel lines etc.

The torch cut edges of the armor plates were made with a small dentists drill. Next step was to add all the weld seams. I did this with a pyrogravure (actually it is a small soldering iron with a homemade tip of copper rod and I control the heat with a dimmer). Some of the original seams on the kit are very deeply recessed, which is not correct, so I glued thin plastic strips on before welding.

each pannier, which is missing in the kit. I made these from plastic card with plastic rivets, which were added from Modelkasten. The front fenders were cut and small loops of copper wire were added to represent the hinges. The underside front of the panniers and the front armor plate were built of styrene strips. It is important to get it right if the Tiger is without fenders and side skirts. The rear fender attachment points were replaced

Lower hull details

There is a long flange on the underside of

with Aber parts glued on 0.5mm plastic card. The plastic card was for adding weld seams around the etched brass part.

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Running gear
I wanted to give my Tigers suspension a tired look by lowering the rear of the hull. I did this by removing the small location pins on the hull, except the first one on each side. So the first torsion bars could be glued on as per the instructions. The last torsion bars on each side were raised about 1.5 mm. (Dont overdo this as you might end up with too little space for the tracks)!! All the other torsion bars were glued on and aligned with the front and rear ones.

Zimmerit
I have never been completely satisfied with my earlier zimmerit attempts with putty and Milliput, so I decided to try a new method. An extra challenge in this instance was also to get the flaking as accurate as possible. I decided to try with thin styrene sheet and the pyrogravure. I used 0.3mm Evergreen styrene, drawing each panel, the zimmerit lines, and the exact flaking pattern onto the plastic sheet with a pencil. The flaking was cut away and the styrene

the zimmerit pattern, just avoid touching unwanted places and details with the pyrogravure, as it has to be really hot. This styrene zimmerit has many advantages; you can work as slowly as you want. If you are not satisfied, just melt a new pattern in the same styrene. When you need to glue details on, just add a little cement to the area and you can squeeze the detail through the zimmerit to sit on the steel surface. The flaking is also easy to accurately achieve; I even got the exact amount of zimmerit rows on my model according to the reference photos.

The road wheels were taken from Tamiyas late version Tiger. The tracks are from Modelkasten - by far the best on the market but timeconsuming to assemble. To add a little extra detail, I sanded away the ice cleats on the inside of each track link to show wear of the tracks. This feature can be seen on the preserved Tiger in Vimoutiers, France.

sheet was glued onto the model with small blobs of superglue. (DONT use plastic cement, as the styrene will act like cheese on a pizza when you use the pyrogravure)! The Pyrogravure needed new tips as wide as the zimmerit on the hull and a bit narrower on the turret. I made these from copper tube hammered flat and filed into shape like a small screwdriver. Then it was simple to add

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Upper hull details

The drivers splashguard received five recessed bolts, by adding a strip of styrene with holes made with a punch and die set. Small recessed bolts were also added to the driver and radio operators hatch hinges. All the tool clips were added empty. The only tools on the model are gun cleaning rods and the engine-starting handle. As I believe these items are essential! The Bosch light was scratch built from styrene with a small piece of copper wire added inside. The track cable retainers and towing hawser holders are included in the ABER set but cannot be used. In reality they are not hollow and are made from thin metal.

So I scratch built them from small pieces of styrene strip. The antenna socket was drilled to accommodate a small length of brass tube with a wing nut added. The engine fans were taken from an On The Mark photo etched set. Their centers were made from modified Panzer IV wheel hubs. The housings were constructed from styrene with tube turned in ABS on a lathe. The half open engine vent hatches took a lot of work. I first cut off the hatches from the engine deck (in the hatch hinge itself), and scratch built a new one to fit the engine deck. The ABER engine grilles were super glued on and rubbed down with a brush handle to simulate that the crew had walked on them (on F 13 one of them is

apparently missing). The underside of the hatches had to be thinned down with a small recessed edge added. The engine hatch received scratch built hatch jams; intake duct and feifel hose clamp bases. The small keyholes were taken from a The Show Modelling Stug III set and glued into drilled holes. All the small flanges with screw holes for holding the side skirts, Feifel air cleaners and exhaust shrouds are included in Modelkastens Tiger transport track set SK 3. But I made these myself from 1x1mm styrene strip. They were glued on a slightly larger piece of 0.1 mm styrene strip to add material for the weld seam. You can do the same with all the small brass details. It gives you the advantage of being able to glue these parts on with plastic cement

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(they are a lot easier to position and align). The final detail like the small tie downs and S mine discharger brackets etc. had to be scratch built. The small lifting lugs on the exhaust manifolds are included in the Modelkasten set. The casting numbers were carefully cut off a sprue frame and glued on all cast parts. The single rear fender was from an ABER set. Add the rear fender to your Tiger at the end of the build as they are very fragile. I glued mine on several times!

The rear lifting lug was cut off and glued on a small disc for adding the weld. The brackets for the storage box were made of thin brass strips and welded on. Upper track hangers were the Tamiya parts modified and detailed. The lower hangers are included in the Modelkasten track set. The smoke discharger brackets were cut off with a torch on the real Tiger, so to simulate this; I glued on the Tamiya parts and cut them off with a dentists drill. The Commanders cupola needed some extra detailing. Fine Moulds clear glass blocks were added, and the bracket for

The gun
The gun barrel is from Fine Moulds. It fits the mantel perfectly. The muzzle brake was the Tamiya part. It is fine but benefits from a little detailing: recessed slots, screw holes and a small slotted ring were glued inside. The coaxial machine gun was taken from a Tamiya infantry equipment set.

Battle damage
Finally I wanted to give my Tiger a battle damaged appearance. The real F 13 had several shell impacts, especially on the turret. I made these by grinding away plastic with a dentists drill and/or using the pyrogravure. And then it was ready to paint!

The turret
The turret was assembled, welded and styrene strip details were added behind the mantel.

holding the hatch in open position were replaced by a homemade part. The six drain holes were drilled with a 0.3 mm drill.

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Painting
There has been a lot discussion about the colors on the F 13. One source claims that it was dark gray overall with red/white numbers. I find that hard to believe. By studying the pictures, it is clear that it has more than one color, and the area on the turret back has a very light color. Possibly sand yellow? The turret markings are not red, as red will appear black on a black and white picture. The idea behind my colors is therefore: The Tiger was originally painted dark gray. It received a coat of zimmerit and got painted sand yellow. The turret storage

box may have been replaced, as it had sand yellow paint underneath it as well. The Tiger had a coat of green color. (Green was used widely on German vehicles at the end of the war). The commanders cupola was replaced as it has a different camouflage pattern. It has seen a lot of battle action, as the zimmerit is much damaged. Finally, it was assigned to Companie Fehrmann and had the F 13 turret number painted on it.

I started the painting process by spraying two white spots onto the sides of the turret. This was to be the white outline of the turret numbers. To accurately get the turret numbers, they were drawn on a computer using a picture of the real vehicle. This was transferred to masking tape and cut out, and these were added on the white spots on the turret. The model was then painted Humbrol 67 Dark gray overall. The areas where the zimmerit had flaked off were masked with Maskol. Thereafter, I painted it sand yellow. (Humbrol 94 with white added). This meant that the gray

Of course, this is all purely guesswork, but it explains why my model is painted like this.

paint was visible in some areas. I then masked off the rear of the turret and the areas that the fenders and side

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skirts had covered, and sprayed a final coat of dark green. (Humbrol 86 with sand and white added). This layer was added in big soft spots so the underlying colors were visible in some areas. All small details were picked out in their respective colors and I added a thin light grey line on the edges of the flaked zimmerit. The green in the turret numbers were hand painted with a fine brush with the same paint mix as the green for the rest of the tank. The metallic areas on the road wheels tracks etc. were painted with Humbrol polished steel.

Weathering consisted of some heavy washes of brown and black and some gentle dry brushing with lighter colors. Much weathering was also done, especially on the suspension and tracks with MIG pastel powders. These powders are really messy to work with, but the result is well worth it! It can really bring your model to life.

Modelkasten SK 4 Late Tiger spare tracks. (There are NO spare tracks in set SK1). Modelkasten A1 Bolt & Nuts set Modelkasten A2 Round head rivets. Modelkasten A4 Wing nuts. Modelkasten M7 Bosch lights (I only used the sockets). ABER 35014 Tiger I early photo-etched

Parts used
Tamiya 35216 Tiger I Early version. Tamiya 35146 Tiger I Late version (Only the steel road wheels).

parts. (Not many parts used on my model). Next time I will only by ABER G03 engine grilles and ABER A20 German clamps and clasps instead. ABER 35A10 Front and back mudguards

Modelkasten SK 1 Late Tiger tracks.

for Tiger.

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 On The Mark Models TMP-3526 Tiger photo-etched parts. (Only the engine cooling fan blades). Fine Moulds Tiger I turned aluminum gun barrel. Fine Moulds MG-23 Clear periscopes. Hornet HGH8 heads SS officers. Wolf WSH 21 Figure.

and replaced with a pair from Tamiya. The hood on the jacket was also re-sculpted. The figure was painted with Humbrol enamel except for the face; it was painted with Winsor & Newton oil paints.

and the huge number of books with interesting Tigers, this is definitely not the last one I will build!

Reference Conclusion
Building and painting the F13 was really an enjoyable project. It took me a year to complete! The actual build took me about Tigers on the Western front. By jean Restayn Tamiyas steel wheeled Tiger I. By Angus Creighton Tigers at the front. By Thomas L. Jentz Tiger. By Feist and Culver. www.missing-lynx.com I find it very interesting to build an exact vehicle from photographic references, and with the excellent Tiger kits from Tamiya

The figure
The figure is from Wolf (WSH 21 Officer of the LSSAH Kegichevka 1943). It was heavily modified. The legs were cut off and re-sculpted to fit into the commanders cupola. The binoculars were ground away

three months, but the model stood on my shelf for quite some time before I decided how to paint it.

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