Which Tank??

I'm mainly into boats and scifi but the recent D-Day stuff has inspired me to borrow Band Of Brothers of the neighbour (a neighbour with a good DVD collection is a good neighbour).

I'm inspired now to build _a_ tank - I gather the biggest and most formidable was the German Tiger or Panzer... My q is wihch is the better model in terms of stating that these were serious kick arse weapons? I'd gather Tamiya or Academy brands but I haven't built a tank for 30 odd years.

Thanks Mitch

Reply to
Mitch
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A little clarification on 'panzer'--that is simply the German word for 'tank' and thus includes quite a few vehicles that were decidedly not kick-ass. As for kick-ass, I would say you could consider about four alternatives that reached service:

Tiger I Tiger II aka Royal Tiger Jagdpanther aka Hunting Panther Jagdtiger aka Hunting Tiger

My personal take is that the Hunting Panther, though a tank destoyer rather than a true tank, is the most kick-ass of the bunch, given its combination of weapon, armor and mobility. Others may differ. I'll let others with more expertise suggest appropriate models.

Mark Schynert

Reply to
Mark Schynert

OK, I took Panzer as the German eqivalent of Panther... was too obvious especially considering how wacky the German language can be.

Ja... you could be right. It certainly looks more mobile whereas the Tiger looks big and mean but slow. 1/35 looks the right scale as well.

Mitch

Reply to
Mitch

Tamiya kits mostly use glueable soft plastic track (except their mid and late Tiger 1 kits), whereas the Dragon kits are usually individual link track, which can be very stressful if you aren't used to them. Academy kits vary in quality. Some, like their Panzer IV kits, are bad copies of bad old Tamiya kits. Their newer stuff is of better quality, like the Tiger kits. If you want a Jagdpanther, the new Tamiya kit is quite nice. The old Tamiya kit can still be found on store shelves, though, so beware--it's a 1970 kit and it shows. Gerald Owens

Reply to
GERYO

Try a real killer like the IS-II or IS-III or KV-85 or T-34/85. Only on the western front were Panthers and Tiger I's bad "arse" with no equals . Even a Pershing was as good as both of those (admitted limited service, but again philosophy. If you can afford 3 years of testing, things aren't too bad). Any 17 pounder armed Brit tank matched both (Challenger, Comet mod, even Fireflies weren't completely overmatched). I'd match a Red Banner Guard IS-II unit under Zhukov against any Tiger I/Panther unit any day. If you must go German, build a King Tiger but know it was a one dimensional weapon system, it was hopeless in the attack role because of underengining. Great mobile pillbox though.

Amazing how good the propaganda machine runs even at this date. German armor superiority was due mostly to superior tactics (not hardware ) early and philosophy differences late (US had different needs than the Germans in 1944/1945. To quote Stalin, quantity has a quality all it's own. Perpetual defense is a lot easier but has never won a war yet. Ask the Trojans). German technological superiority is mostly a myth. It's way more about logistics and tactics.

And if you want a real killer, try a rocket armed Tempest or Typhoon. Watch Tiger and Panther crews wet themselves when they knew Typhoons were operating in their area and the cry of Jabo went up.

Reply to
a0002604

take a look at the current FSM. It has an article on what armor is available in the way of plastic...

Reply to
Craig

You can't go wrong with the selection of British and American armor used on and soon after D-Day.

The Sherman's alone had bulldozers, hedgrow cutters, wading conversions, etc.

Tom

Reply to
Maiesm72

inspired

(snip)

Thanks for that... I bought a Dragon 1/72 Panther G

DR 7206 - DRAGON 1/72 GERSDKFZ 171 PANTHER G

Looks pretty good.. diecast body.

Mitch

Reply to
Mitch

conversions, etc.

Most of my military models are pommie or yankie.... time to go with a big nasty kraut tank.

Mitch

Reply to
Mitch

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