Egilman

Just in case anyone is interested.... Unit History of Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 103. This unit was initially established as II. Battalion of 11. SS-Panzer-Regiment in July 1943. It was first deployed in anti-partisan duties in Croatia in July and took part in the disarmament of an Italian tank regiment in August. During September it then spent September training with the captured tanks and assault guns, before they were once again employed as infantry against the partisans. It wasn’t until February 1944 that they received their first Tiger I-E tanks for training after being moved back to Germany. They received specialist training at Paderborn during February and March. The Tigers were re-assigned to another unit and the battalion was moved to the Netherlands to continue their training with some old Panzer I tanks. In May 1944 the trained crews were transferred to the 101. and 102. Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilungs. The battalion received six more Tiger tanks on 26 May 1944 to continue their training. Another four tanks were received on 22 August, but were quickly handed over to 301. Schwere Panzer-Abteilung Funklenk (Radio-control). The battalion immediately started retraining for the Tiger II. They receive the first four Tiger II tanks in October 1944. They continued to train and received more Tiger II tanks up until the end of January 1945. During this time they are redesignated 503. Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung. On 28 January they detrained in Pomerania and were soon thrust into combat against the Soviets. They fought in the area around Arnswald until forced to withdraw on Zachan in mid February. Some of the battalion was sent to Danzig on 17-18 February. The trains were heavily attacked by the Soviets and the battalion were forced to detrain on a number of occasions. Other elements of the battalion ended up supporting the 5.Jagerdivision during a Soviet attack around Reetz. By 12 March they are operating with I. battalion of the 7 Grenadier-Regiment around Groß Mishau. The rest of the battalion arrived in the Danzig Pocket on 22 February 1945. Their first engagement was around Stargard. On 7 March the Soviets launched a massive attack against the pocket. Two Tiger II, one Panzer IV, a StuG and an 8.8cm Flak 36 gun manage to destroy 57 of the 80 tanks attacking, but the Soviets were undaunted and continued the attack. Soviet attacks carried on throughout March and the Tiger II tanks face off against their Soviet counter part the JS-II heavy tank during many encounters. Later in the month the 503. Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung elements in Danzig support the 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadierdivision “Nordland”. In early may most of the crews in Danzig were transported back by sea to Swinemünde to rejoin the rest of the battalion around Berlin. During April the rest of the battalion fought a number of defensive battles to hold off Soviet thrusts towards Berlin. In one engagement near Bollersdorf, on 19 April 1945, Tiger II tanks under SS-Oberscharführer Körner destroyed an assembling armoured brigade of JS-II and T-34/85 tanks (a company of JS-II tanks and approximately 100 T-34 tanks). By 22 April the battalion has retreated back to Berlin and were engaged in heavy street fighting. On 3 May the remaining troops, after failing to breakout of the Soviet encirclement, are taken prisoner near Ketzin. Those few crews still in the Danzig pocket surrendered on 9 May 1945. So yes, it is possible that there were Tiger II's in Berlin in the final days of the war... (Uunabashedly stolen from the Flames Of War website)

The Germans captured a large number of French vehicles in 1940, they used them for security and police service... (as well as bunker armaments) They were known as the Panzerkampfwagen FT-17/18 730(f) in Wehrmacht service... The Germans never let anything go to waste..... And we captured a few of them back at the end....

There you go Brother Baker is the expert on German Armor... I'm just a bit player.... Well done sir... I knew you would track it down... So the kit is using a fictitious historical location as well... Happens all too often...

Like Darius says there is no "right" Especially in very late war German camo... Looks fine to me... If anyone ask, answer with this question... "were you there" {chuckle} Usually shuts them up.... (but there are die-hards) Looking good my friend, especially for a first build... I don't think I could do better...

If you going to open up the turret? you will want to take the white interior back to the rear rivet line, maybe even farther if your going to rotate the turret... The Turret has relatively large doors and when open, you can see all of the turret interior and quite a bit of the hull interior... It's a very nice Kit and can be built into a very nice example of an FT-17 of most any era...

How I would go about it? Tube glue, Good old Testors tube glue... Yep... Don't ever forget where you came from.... {chuckle} The reason? Tube glue takes time to harden up allowing you to shift the parts around a bit before it sets... but it will not glue paint... so I would paint in sub-assemblys as I go along... I always keep a couple of tubes around exactly for this type of application...

1st pic, Lithuania postwar... 2nd pic, Patton in France 1918 3rd pic, From NARA it is titled as, "French Renault tank with American crew Sgt. Edward White and Cpl. Edward J. Elliot, Military Road near Cigarette Butte, France." They wound up everywhere postwar cause they were the most successful design to come out of the war... They have all the features of a modern tank... And the ideas of how to correctly use them in combat came directly out of the brain of one Lt Colonel of the US army named George S Patton Jr.... I believe a couple of them were last found in a military dump in Iraq during Desert Storm....

Yeah, it's a very late war version, also see the other note right above the one you enclosed... The 9 tooth drive sprocket... So, what this all means is, if you want to produce a historically accurate Tiger II of Panzer Abieltung, (battalion) 503 during the defense of Berlin in 1945, you need to make those changes with aftermarket products expressed in the note... Otherwise you will have a generic representative Pz.kfg VIB from 1945 on transport tracks... For that transformation you will need a full set of combat pressed steel road wheels, a 9 toothed sprocket and workable combat tracks... That's the Airfix 1/35th King Tiger.... ok... Generic aftermarket, they don't make tracks and wheels specifically for the Airfix Kit... So we go with... Last production batch 18 tooth late type tracks... https://quickwheelstore.com/1-35-quicktracks-t-35068-tracks-for-sd-kfz-182-tiger-ii-kgs-73-800-152-last-production-batch.html 9 tooth sprocket late pattern... https://spruebrothers.com/trxtr35093-1-35-trex-disassembled-king-tiger-sprocket-9-teeth-late-type-pattern-2/ As far as the road wheels, in combat configuration she carried 40 of them {chuckle} the kit wheels are adequate just not enough of them.... There are other vendors and manufacturers out there those two links are just a sampling... And finding the road wheels in 1/35 is going to be a chore given all the 1/16th scale products out there...

Your talking road wheels correct? Yes they are transport tracks, just wide enough they would fit on the rail cars without overhanging the sides... First thing the idler wheel on all versions was pressed steel, it's rolling surface would be bare shiny steel.... The road wheels could be either pressed steel, pressed steel with a rubber tyre, or cast steel with a rubber tyre... The easiest way to tell is the presence of the tyre.... it would be square shouldered and not shiny, there would be a steel bead affixed to the rim of the wheel to hold it in place... So you would have the flat surface of the tyre, and a square shoulder on the steel rim of the wheel... Pressed steel wheels wouldn't have that rim bead and would be curved right to the rolling surface.... What you have are late version pressed steel road wheels, the surface would be bare worn steel, light metallic grey unpainted... And that fits with your choice of late war yellow, red-brown and forest green camo.... Brother Baker will probably be able to pin it down even better... PS: the only German tanks with rust on their road wheel running surface? Destroyed tanks....

Yep, Bertha was four tractor loads for the gun alone, not counting the equipment to emplace and assemble it...

It was printed on the fabric before it was applied to the aircraft..

The presentation give a good indication of how well the camo worked... The only thing anyone would be able to see is the exhausts flares.......

Yes this does and will happen, but it doesn't happen to the tail of an F-100, the tail of an F-100 is solid Titanium sheets, not clad in anything... High chromium content steels like high end stainless will show the same discolorations when subjected to high heat although it appears grey like any other steel when new... Titanium alloys used for aircraft structural panels discolors like that starting at around 850 C.... In fact the reduction/elimination of that excess heating of the tail panels on aircraft led to the development of air bypass engines, to help keep the tail fuselage surfaces cool...

You know brother, the Trumpy 1:48 F-100D #02822 has the decals for both the T-birds and Skyblazers.... It can be had for as low as $34.... It's out there, most have it for around $45 -50.... https://www.scalemates.com/kits/trumpeter-02822-f-100d-thunderbirds--203629 https://www.super-hobby.com/products/F-100D-IN-THUN.html?partner_id=9

Yeah, $45.00 is too much... I'm looking to see what I can find.... Warbirds does a set for the T-birds "D" models in 1/48th, If you can find them... Well the Skyblazers and the T-birds flew F-100C's for a number of seasons before they switched to "D" models... I have the 1/32nd scale Trumpy F-100D which is a gorgeous model, (needs an aftermarket nose) but finding decent T-bird decals for it is just as much a problem as Skyblazers... I fully understand it being a no-brainer... the F-100C will make a beautiful bird though it was one of the more colorful aircraft in the USAF inventory...

Skyblazers decals are hard to find especially in 1/48... they are usually sold out... The Trumpy decals will work you just have to be extra careful with them... the Thing with skyblazers decals? the research shows that there isn't a great deal of demand for them so the printers don't print a lot of them, but when one does, they sell out quickly so fast you have to be there when they put the ad up... One of the weird things about modeling that comes about from time to time...

Why Thank You Vad, I've been into engineering drawing for a long time, mostly paper & ink, occasionally vellum... Mechanical drawing mostly aircraft & machinery but some surveying and spatial representations, (read technical illustration) A couple of years ago I decided to learn how to do it on computer, I'm no expert and it has taken a while to get the hang of it but I'm getting there... It definitely getting faster, but that is practice... I know enough to know that line drawing hulls for ships is a very technical genre of drawing has it's own issues separate from pure mechanical drawing... That is why Marine engineering is it's own separate science and art... It does flow over into pure mechanical drawing and design from time to time but only after the purely marine design elements are mostly done... It's every bit a technically demanding a field as aircraft design... Doth are derivatives of mechanical design, specializations if you will of the basic core skill... I've done some fuselage work in the aircraft industry and know that some of that experience will translate to ship hull drawing... But I'm not there yet... (hope to get there eventually, sooner rather than later) There are some ships I want to build before the end and since there are no models or easily available plans, I'll have to do it by reverse engineering off pictures... Which is what I'm doing here... Honing the skills required... I know enough and have been advised that Rhino is the software to use for ship hull modeling and the little I've played with it has shown me the way, so hence the title of this pathway into modeling, getting back into and keeping my head in the game... As far as my health, right now it's stable, the last scans said I am clear of tumors, the nature of the cancer doesn't allow for a remission diagnosis or proclamation, and I will be receiving treatment for it the rest of my life... (currently in my third cycle of Chemo) But then with the grace of the man above, I'll get done what I need to get done... And there is no sense in worrying about it, when it's my time it's my time which isn't today... Thank you for the kind words and thoughts, they help a lot.... EG

The next update, the rear shock brackets and spring brackets... What they look like in place.... The shock brackets were easy a slight difference in shape and location, Unfortunately the spring brackets needed a complete redesign... Here they are in their real configuration... (where they live) And what they look like out of the car... And of course an overall shot of where she sits today..... The basic frame is complete except for the little things like the occasional bolt head, the holes that mount nothing but are there,,, and such things like that I'll add them when I get to them... Going forwards now, deciding which way to go,,, Probably the suspension next, need to get back to a rolling chassis.... Anyway, following the path now.... Onwards brothers...

Thanks OC I'm sure you could do it, it's simple with software....

Thanks brother, I knew that an experience flyer would know the specifics... The things you guys had to learn to compensate for flying on the edge all the time is simply amazing.... To the point of fighting your own body to do it it's a miracle that your all still here... Thank you for your service...

Yes brother, There are several visual differences, Yes the Airbrake is a different shape to accommodate centerline ordinance... The fuel dump on the vertical stabilizer is larger and more boxy looking... The tail is substantially taller with a much larger rudder... It has fowler flaps under the completely redesigned main wings to lower landing speeds... The wing shape is completely different... (like the F-104 it was considered a "hot" aircraft to land and if you didn't pay attention to it it would bite you) The second Squadron Aircraft in Action book #190 has all these and more details fully explained...

Only one purtier was the Tbirds... That Aircraft is a late "D" model with the bent refueling probe on the starboard side.... (the early ones had a straight probe) The reason they raised it was cause some of the pilots would lose their visual distance relationships cause they had to angle their heads to see the drogue when guiding the aircraft to connect... it would also cause havoc with having two critical operations occurring at the same time... (flying the aircraft and guiding the probe, any good pilot will readily tell you that is not a good situation while flying, two operations related to each other but impossible to watch both at the same time) The resolution brought the probe's mating end up to the pilots horizon scan level of vision so he could easily see everything around him, Probe and drogue in the same vision window without having to bend his head in a different direction and still guide the probe....

Yep the grade of Titanium they used could go to 2100 degrees before it would start to degrade... Everything in the tail of that aircraft surrounding the AB was Titanium....

Yep, they were a supersonic ground attack aircraft, the only place they could fly in that envelope was in the ground target ranges and test areas designated for supersonic practice...

My pleasure Brother, yep aluminum silver, shiny, but barely reflective, your color should work well... For General Reference, Do note: the thunderbirds aircraft, (F-100C's & D's) were stripped to bare metal when they served in the unit, when they were transferred out and R&R'ed they were repainted to standard... No active operational F-100 was bare metal otherwise, a lot of modelers make that mistake with this aircraft... Only the T-Birds aircraft were bare metal...