Wittmann's Last Tiger (Cyber Hobby Limited Edition Kit)

If you're a collector of rare unbuilt kits, then you'd better look away now.

 

I gather this kit goes for £100 or more on ebay, but I've just got one for the normal retail price, and as my King Tiger is ready for painting, I'm reay to start construction on a new kit.  After looking through the box, I just couldn't hold off starting this one.

 

Let's start with a little preamble about Michael Wittmann. 

 

 

The son of a Bavarian farmer, he was born in April 1914 and joined the German army in 1934, and the SS in 1936.  He served in the Polish campaign of 1939 and then France, where he was given command a of a Stug. III.  As part of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler he participated in the 3 week long Greek invasion, and then his unit was transferred to the Eastern Front and it was during the invasion of Russia and the subsequent campaign that he gained the bulk of his kills and made his way up through the ranks.  By the time he left the Russian campaign, he was commander of a Tiger I with over 100 kills to his name, had reached the rank of SS-Obersturmfuhrer, and been awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.  Although unknown to his Allied adversaries, he had become a celebrated war hero in Germany.  His celebrity being further enhanced following his emphatic and famous victory at Villers Bocage.

 

He was killed on 8th August 1944, south of Saint-Aignan.  There has been a lot of debate about how he was killed, but the generally accepted facts are that the fatal shot was a fired by a Firefly of the 1st Northants Yeomanry that entered the Tiger through the engine deck and detonated ammunition causing the tank to blow up. 

 

(Picture taken in 1945)
 

This is the account described in Anthony Beevor's excellent D-Day: The Battle for Normandy.  There have been alternative suggestions, such as Wittmann's Tiger being destroyed by a rocket fired by an RAF Typhoon or by tanks belonging to the 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps or the Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers, but these have been largely discredited.  They are discussed in some depth in Wittmann's Wikipedia Entry.

 

Wittmann's remains were traced in 1983 and he now lies in the German Cemetary at La Cambe.

OK, so Here's the Box lid:

Thankfully the instructions are not the photographic type, although they look quite dense:

Nice one Sean. Great choice mate

OOOH very nice Sean I've been waiting to see who was going to blog this one

I do like a nice Kitty

 

Bring it on

 

Chris.

Excellent!  I love Tigers.

 

Go-ee Sean!

 

I note that two of his crew were only 20 years old and one was 19.  Wittmann was the 'oldster' at 30.  If his crew died at those ages in 1944 these guys had been brainwashed by the state as children.

The kit has working torsion bar suspension.  Very nice for them that like it, but I don't like people touching my builds once they are finished, so I don't bother with moving parts because they only encourage fiddling fingers!

 

It does mean you need to take a little care to get the axles aligned roughly level, but the angled location slot in part H3 helps a lot with this.

 

Great choice of kit sean.

Its nice to see these kits being built and not stowed away in a loft.

 

neil...............

Good choice Sean count me in

Hi Sean (Hello Neil) Nice to see the cellophane coming of this shunter!I tottally agree ,always look better built than collecting dust!

 With regards to the fitting of the Zimmerit, especially on the bow plate in the last post. You will have to remove a small portion of the pattern, in order to get the bolted armour plate covers on the inside of the final drive housing to seat correctly and not be proud of the hull.

 

Looking forwards to the rest of theblog Sean... I do like aTiger!

 

 Phil.