The first change was the removal of the shovel from the
front top hull. The other change is the
unit's tanks lacked the characteristic side-skirts seen with the Tiger I. The challenge for me was to find an easy way
to replicate the hanging studs for the side-skirts (which were present - unlike
on the initial Tiger I).
Ultimately I found a source that worked flawlessly. Archer Fine Transfers has a line of surface details. These
surface details are resin on very thin, high-quality decal film. Their catalog can be downloaded and has true
size scans of the various details. I
found a set of rivets that looked to have the right spacing for the studs -
granted they're round, not square, but at this scale it is going to be hard to
tell the difference.
I drew lines with a straightedge to guide placement of
the decal rivets. I ended up using set AR88083
which seemed to have the right spacing for the side skirts.
I cut out the rivets in groups of four cutting the decal
with a very sharp hobby knife near the top and bottom of the rivets. I also didn't leave much space at the ends.
Before priming the studs looked a bit large, but after a
prime coat they look pretty good. The
beauty of the Archer system is it is literally designed to be primed and
painted over.
I'm sure they scale out a bit large, but even up close
they have the distinctive 4 sets of 4 studs look of the actual Tiger I. They should paint up and weather nicely. I'm still hoping to field this army in late
October, and have a LOT of work yet to do... as always!
No comments:
Post a Comment