. . . A Friend Indeed!

While confirming arrangements for my last wargame, my regular opponent John asked me if I wanted a plastic 1:72nd Tiger II model that he had.  Since I didn’t have a Tiger II for my WW2 Germans, I said I’d be more than happy to give it a new home.  At that point, I didn’t know what the model looked like, but a Tiger II’s a Tiger II and always worth having!

So, this is what I got (picture above)!  According to John (and his memory’s better than mine) he bought it at a wargames show somewhere, in the condition shown, and never needed to paint it or even base it!  Since he later bought two of the Dragon 1:72nd ready-built Tiger IIs, this model became surplus to requirements.

The camouflage is based on one of the last Tiger IIs issued for service in March 1945, to 511 sPz Abt (511th Heavy Tank Battalion).  Most sources these days refer to this camouflage pattern as the “Octopus” scheme but I suspect that’s not a term that would have been originally used to describe it (if it even had a name).  It’s significantly different from all my other German WW2 late-war vehicles because of the amount of green in the scheme, but I like it and it’s been very tidily painted and lightly drybrushed with a highlight.

Just poking their heads out are the tank commander and radio operator/hull gunner, both very nicely painted Britannia Miniatures figures (well, heads and shoulders really)!

So, as you can imagine, I’m pretty pleased with getting this and it’s a substantial boost to my German forces.  Pretty decent of John to give me this, so I almost felt bad about beating him in that last wargame!  Emphasis on “almost”!