Small Scale Military Headquarters

hallo
the new unwethered version of FOV 1/32 scale KING TIGER with numers 333 on the turret germany 1944 by FORCES OF VALOR looks nice
does it represent a real tank?
is it historically accurate?
thanks for your help
regards to all
stefano

The real Tiger numbered 331 is at the tank museum at tankmuseum.org so i would have to say 333 is based on a real tank

333 was a real tank, served with the s.pz.abt 501. The photos that the plate below are referrenced from was when it was in the vicinity of ohrdruf, Germany, also the location of a concentration camp...

It's the last tank:






-Kevin

hallo kevin thanks for your expert replay
king tiger forces of valor n.333 is not the same as shown on your paint scheme is got camouflage in brown in bands around the tank
what do you think??!!
fov 80401 king tiger germany 1944
is the scheme wrong?
thanks for your help!
stefano

nice info!

Tiger 333 is a Porsche turret Tiger. It is an accurate scheme and if I can find a pic of it I will post it.

Edit: Here is 332..

Here is a photo of my Dragon King Tiger-Porsche #322:

GUYS:

Here's a photo of FOV King Tiger #333:

Nevermind, I was looking at FOV80054..

With the photo, hopefully you tank experts can tell Stefano if #333 is a real King Tiger or a fictional one.

It's as close to accurate as FOV can get it seems.

The tank "332" that you guys are referencing is a s.pz.abt 503 vehicle in France. The "333" that FOV is trying to portray, and stefano wants answers about, is King Tiger "333" of the s.pz.abt 501 that was photographed near Orhdruf, Germany in August 1944.

If you look at the color plate that I posted, which is from a Dragon King Tiger model, you'll see a tank that very much resembles FOV's "333". As Stefano brought to my attention however in a pm, the stripes are not the same color, FOV's are brown, Dragon's are olive green. I'm going to give FOV the benefit of the doubt here are say that there is a possibility that they are still right. The grayscale photos used to make color plates of vehicles are not always easy to judge exactly what color camouflage was, and in my book, unless Dragon interviewed the soldier that painted the tanks of the 3rd Kompanie, 3rd Zug, s.pz.abt.501 in late 1944, then the FOV version could possibly be correct. That's why I say it's probably as good a job you'll see on FOV tigers, because compared to a lot of the other ones, it's much closer to being accurate.


-Kevin

Here is a picture of one of "333" brothers in the s.pz.abt 501. This is tank "502" captured by the Russians and on display at Kubinka Tank Museum today:



The battle where this tank was captured, The Battle for Sandomierz Bulge, saw the outright destuction of the s.pz.abt 501 by the 6th Guards Tank Corps. Of the 20 King Tigers that participated in the battle, 14 were destroyed and 2 captured ("102" and "502"). The rest of the abt. was still at Ohrdruf Proving Ground because of mechanical problems (which is probably where tiger "333" was).

By the looks of the picture it is very hard to tell what the scheme was exactly. I wish I could find actual pictures of "333" in Ohrdruf, but without books my hopes of finding them online are slim and none.


-Kevin

And since it was brought up , the King Tiger "332" you guys mentioned, the one of s.pz.abt 503, that is the new porsche king tiger that FOV is due to hit retailers any week now.



As you can see, it's not exactly accurate either. The main problem being the fact that the real "332" had the early porsche designed monobloc gun barrel (designated the 8.8cm KwK 43/2 L/71), like the one on 21st Century's Porsche King Tiger. The FOV one has the later 2-piece production barrel (designated the 8.8cm KwK 43/3 L/71). The funny thing is, that the 21st century King tiger portrays "334", and the real "334" had the 2-piece barrel.





So I guess if you wanted to figure out a way to swap out their barrels you might have an "accurate" tank. Oh, and add zimmerit to the 21st Century KT too. Wish they would have figured out how to do that, would've made my life easier...


-Kevin

hallo kevin
thank you very much absolutely great reserch and excellent pics your expertise really shows and giudes me through realistic accurate models
regards
stefano