"Brown" and "Green" Tigers

Following hot on the heels of 1/72 Hasagawa "Green Tiger" painting saga comes the 1/76 Fujimi "Brown Tiger" in what I can only say was a comparatively speedy paint job but also giving it a very Eastern Front effect. In the staged scene below we can see "Brown Tiger" to the back halted, covering "Green Tigers" advance:

Note in the background the huge vastness of the Russian Steppes leading off over the horizon. Then note, somewhat spoiling this illusion, top left and the shadow of my window sill. Obviously expecting danger "Green Tiger" halts and now covers "Brown Tiger" as it advances. You will have to excuse my vivid imagination here as I have been painting (or just looking at) these beasts for far too long.

You may also notice that "Green Tiger" looks a little lighter in parts of its base Dark Yellow from previous photographs, I retrofitted lessons from "Brown Tiger's" painting. I am happy with "Green Tiger" now :)

Am I done with German heavy tanks? I must admit I am tiring, but I do have a pair of Airfix Tigers still to do. Yes, this would make-up a heavy (reinforced) German heavy tank company, however the Airfix kits do have a serious flaw. They require a bit of modeling as infamously as the kit designers studied a version that had been reconstructed from an abandoned Tiger (from Tunisia) at a tank museum. The Allies in their haste to fathom the secrets of the Tiger took it apart but broke it (so urban myth has it) and things like stowage bins to the rear of the turret were forgotten about as they tried in vain to get the engine started. Along came the Airfix designers, studied what they though was the real deal and didn't see the difference with war time photographs until the molds had been pressed. I intend to do a job like Tim Marshal (first photo on page, bottom right) did on his, but the plasti-card can wait for a while ;)

Panzer Commanders

In response to my pedantic "is this the right type of yellow" paint brush fiddling (which to be honest felt very much like hard work) I was at least allowed to tart-up the "Green Tiger" crewman and commander figures. I felt obliged to go back and add a few extra details to the King Tiger commander, after all this was a piece of kit with an even bigger clout. Hence I give you Panzer 'Kurtz' Senior in the King Tiger with his Junior Panzer friends in the "Green Tiger":

I am still not completely sure about the "Green Tiger's" overall look ("You wouldn't let it lie" - Vic Reeves). In this photograph I noticed that the difference between the two yellows is quite stark. I used much more white in the late war "ambush" scheme. However the mid-war tones of Dark Yellow from all the illustrative plates that I have seen (and I try to bear in mind these are only artistic impressions not real period colour photographs) do not show the yellow quite so bleached. I may come back and tinker with another whiter highlight (of a highlight) to the "Green Tiger" later (Er, much later). If I did anything more now I fear I would just spoil it.

At least I've managed to get an "in focus" Tiger crew if you click into the above photograph, tank commander and lance corporal so to speak. I have not cracked this miniature photography lark at all as I was really trying to focus on 'Kurtz' in the King Tiger!

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

Their are plenty of big beasts of the WW2 jungle that still want painting in my collection. This 1/72 scale Hasagawa Tiger proved more troublesome than I had expected. I decided to do a much simpler camouflage pattern than King Tiger and JagdPanzer IV painting frenzy I recently engaged myself in, but paradoxically I found a simpler scheme so much harder to do. Going back to a mostly base Dark Yellow canvas proved somewhat tricky to me, I was always wanting to fill the open yellow spaces in with a green or a brown.

Originally [and it eventually turned out] as per my "Panzer Colours 3" painting guide book, it was going to be base Dark Yellow with a simple Green (random thin line) disruptive pattern. However once started I seemed to stare "too long at the sun with it" as I began started painting over what I had essentially already done for little or no effect. The brush was put to one side and I decided to go sleep on it. If all else failed I could always introduce a brown line pattern to it the next day, but hang it all I was hoping to keep it simple in 1943 fashion.

Well I returned more hopeful the next day and decided to keep to the 1943 style "light disruptive" camouflage pattern (shall we say Kursk'ish). See above for the result, which I now call my "Green Tiger". I still fretted and battled with the green bits, darkening and lightening them in a rather random fashion until I had "fettled" (local term) a result I was half happy(ish) with.

Finally I took my irritation out on the two Panzerwaffe crew and tarted them up as best I could according to a uniforms book I had to hand (Uniforms of World War II by Peter Darman, Blitz Editions 1998). That took my mind off those blessed green stripes.

Do I like the result? The ultimate decision is still pending as the green lines are too distinct (is the yellow quite right? ... I am being pedantic now), but it certainly counts as wargame ready, despite the lack of decals. Sitting on the painting bench next to "Green Tiger " is the Fujimi 1/76 kit destined to become "Brown Tiger", a slight variation on the 1943 German camouflage scheme. Allied Shermans, T-34's and Cromwell's now better watch out!