Hey Guys,
currently I'm sorting my stash for the rest of this year and there is one more Tiger 1 Mid which I want to built.
I'd like to turn it into a vehicle of the s.Pz.Abt. 505 featuring the yellow marking on the Barrelarmor introduced in the Unit in March 44

However I can't find any references of Tiger 1 with rubber roadwheels and said yellow barrel markings.
Most photos and illustrations show later Tigers already equipped with steel roadwheels having the yellow marking.
Like the famous late Tiger 312 shown in this Illustration:



Does anyone have some reference material that would prove a "mid" Tiger with a yellow number marking on the barrel existed?

The Tiger 1 on Display in Kubinka is a mid command Tiger however it was tank of another Apt. and the museum changed it to fit the markings of 505

Thanks a lot,
Stephan

I spoke to Dale Ritter a while ago, asking if any of the interviewees ever montioned colours of the Ritter and what they signified.
I guess that we'll never know....
No mention of camo colours either.
By now it is quite certain the TigerII's were in regular camo.

The issuance records in "Trail of the Tigers" don't offer much hope to you.

They say that the 505th were given 5 new Tigers in September 1943. We can see all of them in photos; they're a version of Mid Tiger that you can't buy in a kit (Feifel filters, pistol port etc.). Anyway, I can't find photos of a single one of them surviving into 1944 to get a yellow band.

But then, we don't know what the yellow band means or who got it.

505 acquired their next new Tigers in April 1944 so you would expect no more Mids.

But in fact there were one or two more Mids, Command Tigers numbered "I" and / or "II". They didn't have the yellow barrel. I don't have full information about them anyway.

David

Hey Guys,
thanks for the quick replys.
At the moment it seems like I would indeed need a late Version Kit to fit with the camouflage and yellow marking.

I have the „Tiger on the Eastern Front“ Book by Jean Restayn at hand from the library for now and he states that the 505th had 78 Tiger I and 48 II Tiger II in total.
The Author mentions as well some interesting Versions of the Tiger 1 with Zimmert and Air Filters and provides an Illustration (Vehicle No. 213 by Leutnant Scholz).
Sadly there are no photos of these tanks. Here it would be of interest to see which camouflage pattern these tanks had.
The author uses a winterwash over yellow for the illustration.
Maybe a yellow and brown camouflage is possible as well for one of these September Tigers with Zimmerit and Airfilters?
Tiger No. 231 and No 101 might be two of those Tigers judging by some photos.
But it’s hard to tell if they had zimmerit applied by the pictures I found so far.
Tiger 101 already has the number on the barrel but without the yellow marking. If it has a two tone camouflage I would go for this vehicle. The Air Filter, Smoke Candles and Zimmerit is a quite unique setup that would look great as model.

@David do you have some more informations about these five mid Tigers?

The Kit I want to use is the Rye Field Tiger mid, thankfully it comes with a lot of additional parts like the Air Filters. Which should make it possible to create one of the mid Tigers the 505 received in September.

Best,
Stephan

Not all at once! Tigers came and went, got destroyed and replaced.





As I said, the 505th had at least 5 standard Mid Tigers with Zimmerit and air filters. None of them were numbered "213".

It's hard to know what Restayn was thinking of here... did he misread the number off a genuine Mid Tiger photo or did he mistake an Early Tiger or a Late Tiger numbered "213" for a Mid?

When he says that the combination of Zimmerit and air filters is "rather unique", he's wrong. It was standard on a couple of hundred Tigers.

His illustration isn't accurate in itself. It shows a version of Mid Tiger that the 505 didn't have. Their Mids were of an earlier version.





There are plenty of photos of all 5 of these Mid Tigers. Their numbers were;
101 then 111
200 then 224
223
300
312

That's not counting the Mid "Command" Tigers that arrived later.






It's an impossible set up. The smoke candle launchers were deleted from the turret in the Early period. Mid Tigers never had them.
Mids did carry the S-mine launchers on the hull, if that's what you mean.






There are a number of differences between this batch of September mids and the Rye Field kit, which represents the very end of the Mid run.

They had the Feifel system, of course, including the ducting on the engine hatch.

They had the S-mine system and they carried the launchers.

They had the plug pistol port.

They had the disc on the loader's hatch.

They had the "early" tracks.

They had the 15 ton jack.

They had no travel lock at the back.

They had the rear external toolbox.

They had one single headlight, on the roof by the driver.

Granted, they did have C-hooks and the "late" layout of cable on the side, but that's a lot of differences from Rye Field's kit.

David

Hey David,
thanks a lot for that in detail reply. That is amazing input!

You are right of course that the 505th didn't have all tigers at once but over a period of time. I might not have stated the that proper as english isn't my first language.





That wasn't his fault but mine, I tried to read the image he had of Tiger 213 and must have gotten it wrong.





Good to know! Is there a book or website (besides yours ) you can recommend to see more of these Tigers? Now I'm curious about versions with Zimmerit and air filters.





Thanks a lot, that should help me find more reference images!




That's what I meant, sorry for the confusion between S-Mine and Smoke Launchers on the Turret.






Thanks again for taking the time and listing all the features!

Now I'll first do some more research on the mid Tigers of the 505th after that I'll see if I can gather more Infos about Tigers with Zimmerit and and Air Filters in general. And at last I'll need to check what's possible to recreate with the Rye Field Kit and my spare box.

This should keep me busy for a while.

Cheers,
Stephan

It won't be easy to find Tigers with Zimmerit and air filters.

The bulk of them went to S.Pz.Abt.509 and 506. The former unit isn't photographed much. The 506th has a lot of photos but they are mostly of its second set of Tigers - the first 45 Tigers they started with, are very rare to find in photos. And those are the ones you want.

Some of these Tigers went to the 101st SS, and a handful went to a few other places including the training school. Frankly, the ones in 505 are the only ones we get a good look at.

No model kit addresses this type of Tiger but I'm sure that one day I'll be signing off that kit exactly.

David