Tiger I 132 (Rubicon models early Production) and musings on 2023.

Warburton Historical, Second World War

Happy New Year, friends! I completed this Tiger I in Panzer Grey as part of Tom Egan‘s Festive Tiger Challenge over on Twitter after being encouraged to join by a fellow tweeter. It was a last minute thing and I painted it very quickly but overall I’m pleased with the results.

I painted it with Hobby Boss SchwarzGrau (black grey) as the base colour using Tamiya XF-63 German Panzer Grey as the highlight colour. Transfers are a mix of Rubicon and Warlord.

I wanted to do a Tiger in Panzer Grey of which about 20 were delivered in this scheme to heavy panzer battalions 502 and 503 which were engaged around Leningrad in 1942-43. Tiger 132 was captured intact and displayed as a trophy in Gorky Park, and whilst this model isn’t an exact replica of that historical tank in fit out or markings I used it as the inspiration.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a transfer of either battalion’s logo–either a mammoth or a leopard–which was a shame as it would have added interest to the front plate, but the actual tank had a blank front plate anyway, though one Tiger (I’m not sure which) had the mammoth on the turret which would have been nice.

Here it is next to a Warlord/Italeri Panzer III I painted a while back. The base of this tank was Tamiya XF-63 which overall I thought was too light, though next to the Tiger it looks perhaps like a tank that has faded from long exposure to the harsh Russian sun. there is a lot of debate about what the actual colour might have been though I tend to think the darker colour looks better and is probably more accurate.

Overall I’m happy but I think the Panzer III I painted earlier came out a lot nicer, except for the colour. The weathering I attempted on the Tiger didn’t really work out, the darker grey was harder to highlight effectively, and it was a bit rushed. I think it’s completely fine as a wargaming piece though and will look good on the battlefield one day! I had no luck at all with weathering poweders this time, despite finding them quite easy and effective when I did the mark III–Weird!

Future of the blog

Let me know your thoughts: I intend to work on a few more Second World War models over 2023, should I post them on this blog or create a separate blog for historical miniatures?

Plans for 2023

My plans for 2023 are:

1. Finish some of the part-painted eldar left over from my old school eldar project.
2. Paint some of my Second World War collection (an intended project for 1941-42 Eastern front using the Chain of Command rules)
3. Necromunda or Gorkamorka – hoping to perhaps get my son interested in one of these – Necromunda ash wastes might be good and the scenery usable for that and for Gorkamorka too.
4. Get my 5th ed Warhammer Fantasy Battle High Elves into playable (if not painted) condition.

I seriously thought about entering C0wabunga’s 4th Second Ed 40K painting challenge but I’m still feeling a bit burnt out after the (admittedly very awesome) challenge of painting 3000 points of eldar, and I couldn’t face the pressure of doing that with my Orks, though I was very tempted to enter. I will be watching the others with interest though!

All the best for you and your projects for 2023!

17 thoughts on “Tiger I 132 (Rubicon models early Production) and musings on 2023.”

    • Thanks John! Not sure how much it will end up being—hopefully a reasonable amount but in all likelihood not as much as I hope to get done. I guess if I get more done than expected I can always revisit the decision!

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  3. Love the tiger! I want to do Bolt Action figures also. But, as with so many things motivation is tied to use for me.

    With regards to the blog – if I were to do it all again I would definitely have split my site in scifi/fantays and historical. Maybe even further… The crowd that likes my old school 40k/fantasy stuff, often detest the Age of Sigmar stuff, and the historical guys don’t want none of the former.

    I guess I have gotten used to seeing the “following” yoyo accordingly, but it would have been smarter if I had just made a site for each kind of poison. It doesn’t matter about activity if they’re mainly galleries. Then they are eternally relevant anyway.

    Just my 50 cents. Oh and love seeing you back at the blogging!

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    • Thanks! I think you’re certainly right from a logical perspective. The thing that holds me back I guess is that the blog is first of all a personal record and only second of all a site for gathering a following. And there is just the convenience factor as a major issue too. But still weighing that all up.
      And thanks—it’s good to get something finished again!

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  5. Looks great! It’s an impressive beast, and I see what you mean about the weathering differences between the two, but as you said – the PzIII just looks like it’s been in the elements that much longer rather than the Tiger being “wrong”. I missed the Tiger challenge myself – seems like something that might have gotten some more FoW models done for me. 😀

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    • Oh yeah, I might not be the best guy to ask – but I’ve just got all my models on the one site, and people either check it or don’t based on their own interest. TBH, my main source of hits seems to come from google image search rather than “regular readers”, and nobody who is a regular seems to be bothered by my shifting focuses on different games and model lines. I get it that with a blog called “classic40k” you might feel a bit more constrained, but I don’t think most people would mind a slight diversion. It’s not like you’re running a paid subscription to view the models or we’re reliant on the YouTube Algorithim for views and monetisation…

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      • Thanks! Yes that’s sort of how I feel—if I hadn’t called the blog “Classic40k” I wouldn’t have had that thought at all but I’m not really inclined to start another blog! Perhaps I’ll just focus on actually getting a few things painted first!!

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    • Thanks it was a good excuse to paint something I wouldn’t have got out of the box otherwise. We may not have answered the question do what the correct “panzer grey” is but it looks good I think!

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  7. That’s incredible work on the Tiger I and at such a small scale. I hope to work on a Tiger 1 as my next AFV project (currently working on the Strum III), but it will be on a much larger 1/35 scale 🙂

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