After Market parts for armor

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:56 pm

I see that one of our members make after market Sturmtiger and Jagdpanther parts. There are alot of cottage industries out there making resin parts for smaller scale stuff. If anybody made parts for say a Tiger would this be something that we would want? I am talking about early bogie wheels back dated mantlet and maybe fiefil (spelling ?) air breather. About the Panther new mantlet, new crew doors ,rear radiator fan covers. Or should this go into the who cares section?

nfafan · Post by **nfafan** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 10:47 pm

Would be nice to see correct spare track hangers for the Tiger I, and maybe resin zimm sheets to cover the turret and hull. Maybe tow cables as well. Zimm and cables for the Panther as well.

exether_mega · Post by **exether_mega** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:40 pm

Tiger air breather are called Feifel

That's a good question about third party add-on parts. Unfortunately, I guess the market is realy small for such enterprise.

Let me explain: we are just a minor collector group from 21st basic buyers. Most of those who collect or just play with armor and so on are just happy with what they have. Don't forget it just toys, not 300 parts kits to glue and paint.
Now just count how many we are here in this forum, how many we are to be ready to pay for some extra add-ons. Gary1930 made great schurtzen kit for Panzer IV but how many of us bought it . How many of us will buy his forthcoming Jagdpanther kit...

Some of us are doing add-on for themselves then will not buy schurtzen or jagdpanther kit...

So, how many are we realy ?

Build-A-Rama is offering extra stuff but not only for 1:18 scale because they have to make money to run their business.

So that's why I don't think we will see a third party add-on company before long. It's sad but it's reality.

phil

steelbonnet · Post by **steelbonnet** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:09 am

I think Phil summed it up pretty well.

We still are a small body really for accurate/alternatives of armour at 1/18th scale. Moreso when you compare us to the Joe collectors who`ll happily use a piece of armour just cause of the looks or has joe stickers on it.

Also there have been a few customs done as one off`s as well as Gary1930 wonderfull smallrun produced pieces too.
Maybe in the future when we have more collectors/customizers on board then maybe.

Ja

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:41 am

I know that I would like to have a backdated kit to have for the Tiger 1. Even the new FOV Tiger (Wittman) has the steel wheels. It would be nice to have the rubber wheels with other items to backdate. The zimmermit is easy . Use the tile mastic and you can have your project done in about 45 min. If you goof scrape it off and do it again. It is very forgiving.

red69charger · Post by **red69charger** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:14 pm

I must have been sleeping for a while. Somehow I missed this whole development. Does Gary1930 have a website? Or is there an old thread on these aftermarket kits? I'm possibly interested in some of his schurzen and would like to see the Jagdpanther pieces.

KAMIKAZE · Post by **KAMIKAZE** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:15 pm

I bought a bunch of Gary's schurzen and they are first rate Red69Charger. Gary makes small numbers of kits because he realizes that the market is limited. We (especially us armor guys) are a very small group.

Mark

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:59 pm

What about the rocket launchers on top of the Sherman as well as dozer blades or mine flailers?

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:13 pm

Somebody around here had an unfinished T26 type 76mm turret for the XD Sherman up on e-bay a while back. They were made by one of those small scale "cottage industry" type outfits, but they've been OOP for years and are no longer available except maybe once in a blue moon like the one this guy had on the bay. It was a pretty nice looking cast resin piece, only problem was that the gun and mantlet appeared to be molded into one piece with the turret and therefore could not be elevated or depressed, which was a serious flaw in my opinion.

Still, I guess it would have been pretty cool for someone who wanted to make a custom 76mm version of the 21C Sherman.

STUKA · Post by **STUKA** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:47 pm

pickelhaube wrote:What about the rocket launchers on top of the Sherman as well as dozer blades or mine flailers?

yes the rocket launchers for the sherman is a must

i have a feeling we will see it through 21st.

red69charger · Post by **red69charger** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:49 pm

The turret was actually made and sold by me several years ago. It was 9th Waffen who was selling it. He got out of 1/18th in favor of 1/6th. I agree, it would have been nice to have a raising and lowering gun but this would have been tricky with resin as it is rather brittle in smaller pieces. Also the guy who did my molding was somewhat insistent that we have as few parts as possible.

I've got two on Shermans right now and I've still got one last kit left in my basement. I'll get around to putting it on another vehicle one day. You are right that there are a lot less of us armor guys ... and even fewer who want to do mods. I guess I'll try emailing Gary and see what's up. Thanks guys.

KAMIKAZE · Post by **KAMIKAZE** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:44 pm

I was one of 2 people that purchased one of 9thWaffenSS's kits. Red69Charger did a great job on the kit. I am looking into making aluminum barrels for the customs as the resin has a tendency to warp over time.

Mark

momaw nadon · Post by **momaw nadon** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:54 pm

All I have to say to this is for now

. I think once the level of detail jumps high enough, then the model guys with start buying XD and other 1/18th scale stuff. If you look at it like right now 1/18th military is at a crawl, but I believe once able to walk you will see a big bomb in the market. I have seen a few planes on the modelers table, so in time it'll happen. It's just when new things are planned they can't cut corners that makes them take steps back ei M113 and Panzer IV from where they were headed with the Tiger and Walker Bulldog in terms of armor. The planes have the growth in detail, that for some reason regrassed in armor. Even the figures took some steps back before what we have today. Anyone remember the Modern figures, talk about worse than the first series WWII figures and don't get me started on the figures they gave with the M113. If you can understand me rambling on

.
momaw nadon

red69charger · Post by **red69charger** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:02 pm

Since the thread I decided to look over the 76mm turrets and you are right Kamikaze, one of my barrels is warping too. Sorry about that. I'm planning on trying to dunk it in warm to hot water and bend it back into shape. Have you tried that? While I'm at it I should see if my molder friend still has the aluminum barrel we used on the prototype.

tkjaer21 · Post by **tkjaer21** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:28 pm

I'd like to see the hedgerow blades for the Sherman.

gary1930 · Post by **gary1930** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:36 pm

I'm coming from the 1/6th world where the number of vehicle customizers and scratchbuilders is very small. So when somebody makes a part others can use, they offer it around as a way of offsetting development time and costs. That's what I've done here to some extent, and I hope others do the same.

I don't think we'll see the bigger companies jumping in, because the market is just too small. That means you can't mass produce, which in turn means the costs are high.

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