Book Reviews: Anthony Tucker Jones

Today’s post is another of my occasional ‘trinity’ or trilogy reviews. On this occasion under review we have three titles, all on WWII armour, by author Anthony Tucker-Jones: Allied Armour, Stalin’s Armour and Hitler’s Armour. 

Allied Armour, 1939-45

Whilst well enough written, Allied Armour - and by Allied what’s really meant is British and American - is, to a very great extent, rather cloyingly data-rich and dry, mostly comprising recitations of the many campaigns in which its subject was involved, with a lot of commander’s names, unit numbers and place names, but - unusually and, it must be said, unhelpfully - no maps. 

I can see why some might be critical of such books, as they are neither deep dives into the tanks themselves, nor any of the particular campaigns. Rather what we have is a series of succinct synopses of the various campaigns as a whole, with a focus on the armoured warfare aspects. Still, I think having works of this type provides a kind of mid-level matrix, knowledge of which is very useful. This can then be deepened by works of more detail on specific armour or actions. 

From Matildas at Arras, via Faliase to the Rhine, 16 chapters cover not only the entire war in the west - including the North African and Mediterranean campaigns - but also the Australasian and Pacific theatres. And in the final 17th chapter, Industrial Muscle, we learn the true scale of armour production for each of the various combatant powers. For example, British and German tank production was roughly equal in quantity, if not quality. But against the combined industrial output of Uncles Sam and Joe, the Axis were doomed. Sherman tank production alone being more or less equal to all British and German tank manufacture combined!

Two appendices list all the Allied armoured divisions and, crucially, there's an alphabetical list of tank types. This last section is as important to the book as the foregoing chapters, as it's where a lot of the more specific vehicle related info' is. Despite the text veering, in places, perilously close to being rather dry and info-heavy, and in danger of falling between the stools of detail and generality, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Enough to read it all the way through, with enthusiasm, and still look forward to following it up with the Russian companion. 

Stalin’s Armour, 1941-45

Having just read the Allied Armour volume of what one might regard as a ‘tank trilogy’, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I’ve dived straight into Stalin’s Armour, 1941-1945. Thank goodness Anthony Tucker-Jones is a good writer! In less capable hands the data-rich material could induce a coma. 

Fortunately the maelstrom of commander’s names, unit titles, and place names is leavened somewhat by, on the one hand, more general descriptive history, such as on the development of Soviet armour - Kotin’s KVs or Koshkin’s T-34? - and on the other, more specific anecdotal reminiscences.

The total absence of maps is an issue with all the volumes in this tank series, leading me to dock a star/kreuz. And it is, for me, even more of an issue in this particular volume, given the scale of operations on the Ostfront. 

Anyone familiar with Hitler’s costly misadventures on the Eastern Front will almost certainly already know that, as a German talking head (ex-soldier) says in, the superb ITV series, The World At War... eventually millions of ant will overcomne even the elepohant (or words to that effect!*). Echoing this, Tucker-Jones concludes ‘Faced by this crude arithmetic the T-34 carried all before it.’

* I've been unable to locate the exact quote!

As with the other companion volumes, there’s a section of black and white photos. Rather oddly most the images in this volume are of damaged, destroyed or captured Soviet materiel, often being inspected by German troops. There are also two appendices, the first listing the many ‘Red Army Tank Units 1941-45’, the second comprising brief descriptions of ‘Soviet Tanks and Tracked AFVs 1941-45’.

For me, with each volume I read, it seems the three titles in this little trilogy are forming a useful ‘matrix’; the more one reads on these subject and campaigns the better and more detailed a picture one develops. The material here does occasionally veer towards the info-heavy side. But all told this a compelling enough read for me to happily and heartily recommend it.

Hitler’s Armour, ...

And so I come last to the one of these three books that most excites my interest, Hitler’s Panzers, The Complete History, 1933-45. This third title in the AFV trilogy by AT-J is organised somewhat differently from the others. Split into four sections, and with larger appendices, 18 chapters tell the fascinating story of Germany’s legendary WWII Panzerwaffe.

Part I, ‘Designing Tractors’ looks at the development of the various main tank types, from the Versailles-busting but otherwise fairly innocuous Pz I through to the awesome but over-engineered and under-produced Tiger II. This is one of the best and most interesting parts of the trilogy, for my money. 

Parts II, III and IV - Off To War, Sturmgeschütz Not Panzers and Wasted Opportunities - cover the war itself. The balance of bigger picture, and close-up detail, is better here, for my money, than in the Allied or Russian titles, in both of which the maelstrom of campaign info’ can be overwhelming (and without maps hard to make sense of). 

Guderian is referred to more than any other Panzer enthusiast, the theme of his tug of war with Hitler - the latter obsessed with both his idea of the ‘triumph of the will’ and size (big guns, big tanks!) - being something of a theme throughout the book. There are those who feel Guderian overstates his own role and importance in all of this. ATJ doesn't raise this issue.

Whereas the Allied volume ranges across Europe, bridging to North Africa via the Med’, and even the conflict with Japan in the further flung Pacific theatre, and the Russian volume has an early Eastern episode in the Russo-Japanese conflict on the edges of Northern China, this German themed volume kind of ties them all together, via the two Eastern and Western Fronts on which all three of these combatant powers fought.  

David Willey's terrific Tank Chat on the Pz IV.

To those familiar with WWII, Germany’s issues of over-engineering, too much diversity, and insufficient levels of production will all be familiar themes. And, as in other areas, these issues bedevilled tank and AFV development and deployment. But these are also amongst the things that make WWII German tanks the most fascinating. And it doesn’t hurt that they also looked so damn cool! 

Anthony Tucker-Jones ultimately concludes that of all the Panzers Germany produced and fielded during WWII, the best, in terms of efficacy, reliability and sheer weight of numbers, was the Pz IV. Germany built approx’ 8,500 Pz IV, according to T-J, whilst Russia’s factories churned out 55,000 T-34s. And Sherman output totalled about 50,000, all told. The more celebrated Panthers and Tigers are critiqued for being rushed into service (and therefore plagues with technical issues), and their impact dissipated, never being built or deployed in large enough numbers to have a decisive impact. 

Hitler’s Panzers also benefits from more picture sections, and more extensive appendices. The latter include production figures, Panzer and Panzergrenadier Division lists, and individual appendices for each of the Pz I-VI, listing and describing variants. Rather oddly these go I, II III IV, and then VI (Tigers) precedes V (Panthers). A bit odd!? There are, regrettably, no maps or glossary. 

CONCLUSIONS

I’d say that, together or separately, these books are a worthwhile additions to the library of any self-respecting WWII history enthusiast. I read them all, one after another, without losing enthusiasm. In fact the interest and excitement mounted with each new volume. I also think they get better progressively (I don’t know what order the author wrote them in?), the Allied book being pretty good, the Russian one a little better, and the German one the best of the three. 

Their best points are that they cover all the major theatres of war, and do so in a readable manner, albeit occasionally being somewhat dizzyingly data-rich. There are one of two things that might be improved on future editions, such as remedying the complete absence of maps. The picture selections could also be better and more diverse. Maps would help the reader follow the actions described, and the picture segments could do a better job of covering the many AFVs mentioned in the text. 

I can see why for some, these might in places fall between the stools of generality and detail. Taken as a whole, however, I think they form an excellent core of information on the development and combat histories of these mighty brutal metal beasts of war. All told, I really enjoyed reading them, and would definitely recommend them. 

Kit Build/Review: T-34 Factory

The last thing I needed to do prior to undercoating my ten T-34s was add some scratch-built handles to the inner sides of the turret hatches on the Revell kit. With this done I duly sprayed them all with Halfords grey primer. The latter seems to vary in consistency. Occasionally I get a can that's heavier and grainier, producing a rough surface. That's happened this time, and is a nuisance.

Also getting sprayed, the Fujimi BMW R-75 and Kubelwagen kit, and accompanying figures. These latter include a reasonably rare example of a German officer in 1/72 giving the 'Roman' or 'Heil Hitler' salute. 

And there they all are, my little Russian 'horde', in front of similarly large numbers of German armour. I'm really rather chuffed. And I'm particularly pleased that I bothered to detail them all somewhat, to improve them, and give a bit more variety and, hopefully, realism. 

Show Report: On Track, 2019

'Twas a gorgeous sunny day.

I went to Folkestone with my buddy Paul yesterday, to On Track, at The Leas hall on the seafront. I didn't take any pictures of the countless superbly made models. Indeed, I didn't even really spend the time admiring them that perhaps I should have. All the effort expended on them, and I just walked past!

I've been to Euro-Militaire a couple of times with Paul, and enjoyed it. But I thought I should try On Track, as it's more armour/vehicle focussed, whereas at Euro-Militaire it's more figures and all sorts, and a lot less armour, etc. And I'm very glad we went, as it really is much more up my street.

The Fujimi Kübelwagen plus mc/sidecar, my first purchase of the show.

The main reason for going was not to admire others' work, to buy more models, and - I hoped - a few related bits and bobs. And I wasn't disappointed. I had a list of things I was interested in, and was able to get a whole bunch of stuff I've been lusting after. I'd even gone to the trouble of raising some cash specifically as spending money.

The primary thing I was after was rear-echelon vehicles: trucks, cars, etc. I also wanted some vehicles of a similar ilk that could either be military or civilian. In addition to this there were some kits I'd seen browsing online that I was able to purchase. One, the Phanomenon Granit by Attack, was on my list. Another, the V2 and Hanomag SS100 transporter, by Takom, was something I'd only just noticed online, but really wanted. I didn't expect to be getting it at the show.

This looks like it'll be a lot of fun to build!

Two near identical staff cars, from Ace.

Most of my purchases were from Dutch dude Rob Tas of Tas Models, a thoroughly nice guy with an excellent selection of kits. Most of his kits at the show were 1/72, and there were a lot of German WWII models. And his prices were great. Paul bought a brand new Roden WWI truck and gun/limber kit off him for £10, which another stall at the show was selling secondhand for £27!!! This other stall also had a nice Vomag bus, and an Einheitsdiesel truck. I really wanted both, the latter being one of the vehicles on my wish list. But again, they were - in my view - overpriced. So I left them alone.

I also wanted some written and pictorial stuff, for reference. But I had to be careful: Avid Publications had £65 off me for just one book last time I was at the Leas (that was for To The Gates of Moscow, by Türk/Urbanke). I was primarily looking for stuff in the same area as I was re models, softskins, and suchlike. I'd seen online and was intrigued by a new book on German staff cars. Ironically they had copies on the overpriced secondhand kit stall. I had a look at it, but, along with a number of other titles on the Avid stall, it seemed too expensive for the amount of material.

Useful ref for truck building.

I did find a Nuts And Bolts title, pictured above, on German trucks, which, at £26.50, whilst far from cheap, seemed at least to be decent value, in terms of the quantity and variety of material. As well as beaucoup de contemporary photos, there are line diagrams, colour plates, and even model build examples, covering a wide and interesting range of German trucks. So I bought it, with a view to perhaps scratch-building some vehicles using it.

I would've liked to have bought a kit or two (their propaganda halftrack appeals, with the loud-hailers on the roof!), or at least some ancillary stuff (fuel cans, ammo boxes, etc.), from Model Trans Modelbau. But once again, high prices put me off. My most extravagant spending at the show was on two sets of resin Panzer crew, at £8.50 each, from Dan Taylor.

Einheitsdiesel with flak, and Phänomen Granit.

Fingerprint decals, inc. softskins markings, and Dan Taylor panzer crews.

One thing I was really hoping I'd find was a set or two of German WWII softskin decals. In particular the rectangular info markings that you see on the doors of trucks, RSO, and suchlike. Pictured above is a set I bought off a trader (who?) who otherwise specialised in Allied WWII materiel. Apparently Fingerprint, who made these decals, are now defunct. Dan Taylor said he's going to be bringing out a suitable set some time soon.

Anyway, Paul and I enjoyed the show. Paul only bought two kits, both WWI, and nowt else ('crept a couple of beers; cheers Paul!), whilst I bought quite a bit of stuff. Definitely a good show for those of us who like building mini-military stuff. They have a lot of 1/35 and other scales as well, and the various traders cover all sorts of eras.

But for me it was about having a big range of choice in 1/72 WWII, and German stuff mostly. And I was far from disappointed. Indeed, if I'd had more money I'd have splurged considerably more! Tas had the 1/72 Hobbyboss German super railgun, at £140... I'd love to buy/build that!

Book Review: Army of Steel - Nigel Cawthorne

NB: The pictures used to illustrate this post are not from the book under review.

I got this at The Works, for just £2, brand new. RRP was £7.99. At that low a price I thought I might as well take a punt on this. Army of Steel is a small paperback, running to just over 230 pages, and it's a light, easy read. There are a few black and white maps and photos sprinkled throughout, but it's not lavishly illustrated. Subtitled 'Tank Warfare 1939-1945', the focus is primarily on the 'panzers' of the German armed in forces in WWII.

How it started: Pz I, Poland, 1939. 

The book starts with a brief and fairly vivid account of the rapid conquest of Poland, before backtracking to look at the rise of tanks as weapons (their role in WWI, Britain/Churchill's championing of them [1], etc.), and their subsequent ascent to a position of central importance in the new 'Blitzkrieg' approach to war, that initially served the Germans so well. The chapter titles convey the arc of the narrative:

1) The Plains of Poland
2) Tanks and Tank Tactics
3) The Making of the Corps
4) Blitzkrieg
5) Into the Desert (This is one of the biggest chapters! Slightly over-represented, perhaps?)
6) Operation Barbarossa
7) Soviet Superiority
8) Tigers in Normandy
9) Last Gasp in the Ardennes
10) Panzer Kaput

Guderian en route to the Ostfront.

Army of Steel is liberally sprinkled with quotes from a wide variety of sources, ranging from inter-war British theorists (Liddel-Hart, Fuller, Churchill), to Panzer commanders like Rommel and Guderian, right down to crews in the thick of the action (characters like Schmidt and Von Konrad), which definitely make for a more lively engaging account. I've heard it said that Rommel's and Guderian's reputations are over-inflated, the former mostly by admirers (inc. many amongst the Allies), the latter mostly by himself. Certainly this book leans heavily on Guderian, and seems to prortray him quite sympathetically. [2]

This book reminds me of Delderfield's Napoleonic history books, in that it was easy, quick and great fun to read, and not a stodgy academic book attempting to cover all the bases, or trying to come up with some new or unique angle or source (such books are often very good, but often also very long, and frequently quite hard work). I would suggest Army of Steel would make a good intro to the subject of tank warfare, especially as it was in WWII, and in particular from the German perspective.

How it ended: a Tiger II, or King Tiger, amidst the ruins of the 1000 year Reich.

What emerges is that, despite Germany's undoubted verve in tank design, the mass-produced standardised tanks of Russia and the U.S. eventually won out by, if nothing else, sheer weight of numbers. Germany's industry, including her access to raw materials, and her tendency to proliferate and over-engineer, all spelled doom in the long term.

As an avid reader of certain aspects of military history, and a model maker cum wargamer, I found this very enjoyable indeed. It covers a lot of territory, in every sense, but remains basic, and easy to digest. I read it over two days, and I'd definitely recommend this as a light entrée to a big and potentially very heavy subject.

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NOTES:

T-34s on the Eastern Front.

Initially outclassing German panzers when they first met, and continuing to outproduce them throughout the whole war, the T-34, as pictured above, typified the Russian war effort. And as if the 'Red hordes' weren't enough, the Germans had to face U.S. Shermans; another front, another superpower enemy, and another standardised tank in seemingly unlimited numbers.

Shermans on the Western Front.

[1] Cawthorne gives the same basic outline as can be found here, at this IWM link, from which I'll quote the following:

 "The name 'tank' came from British attempts to ensure the secrecy of the new weapons under the guise of water tanks. During the First World War, Britain began the serious development of the tank. Ironically, the Royal Navy led the way with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, establishing the Landships Committee in early 1915."

[2] Most of books I've read on the Ostfront quote Guderian, and usually apparently taking him at his own word. I've ordered both his books: Achtung Panzer and Panzer Leader. The former, published before WWII, is cited by Cawthorne as explicitly counselling against war with Russia, a position Guderian maintained he adhered to, right up until Barbarossa began, after which he stoically did his duty, albeit... well, he paints himself as something of a maverick, in his disobedience and openly critical relations with both the high command and Hitler. He was certainly put out to grass on occasion, even if usually called back in. An interesting subject for further reading?

Pictured above and below, unfinished King Tigers. Had Germany been able to build enough of its end of war weaponry, such tanks as these, along with their jets and intercontinental missiles, might well have significantly prolonged the war. The biggest issues, aside from the proliferation of competing designs, were raw materials and production capacity.

Partizan, 2016

I don't know why, but I felt I had to go to Partizan today. Teresa didn't come with me this time, alas. And it was such a nice day for a spin up the A1 with the top down! The sun shining brightly, it felt like a proper little holiday jaunt.

The former Partizan venue, Kelham Hall.

The new venue, the George Stephenson Exhibition Hall, Newark Showground. Outside view.

The George Stephenson Exhibition Hall. Inside view.

I was intrigued to see what the change from Kelham Hall would feel like (I never went to the show when they had it in tents!), and was unsurprised to find that - despite the worthy invocation of a Victorian giant - the George Stephenson Exhibition Hall was just another characterless marketing shed. But, on t'other hand, it is a more practical and better lit space. What a pity we can't have both character and adequate lighting! Surely it must be possible?

I got there early enough to enjoy queuing for about 15 mins, and to bag the commemorative figure - a miniature steampunk (that theme again!) Stephenson. Frankly I'd have preferred him without the steampunk overlay. 

The show seemed well attended, and there were plenty of traders and games. I must confess I didn't think the games were all up to the old aesthetic standards of some previous Partizans. 

And there weren't enough Napoleonic games for this old grognard. I think I saw just three: one naval, one very small skirmish game (Sharp - or is it Sharpe? - Practice), and one in which Austrians troops were, rather unusually, fighting their old allies, the Rooshians. 

Austrians vs. Russians on the teddy-bear-fur Steppes.

It was nice to see these two reliably recurrent antagonists of the French slugging it out with each other for a change, in what I assumed must be a Russia 1812 scenario. 

I assumed this for two reasons: the only time this happened, I believe, was when Schwarzenberg's Austrians formed the Grand Armée's southern flank, and had some run-ins with the Russians in their sector; oh, and there was one of those onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches.

Exquisite miniature fleets - Dutch foreground, English background - afloat on what looks like a blue faux-leather sea!

There were some other interesting looking games, but I didn't get as snap-happy at this show as I usually do. One of my favourite tables, from a purely visual point of view, was probably the 1666 Anglo-Dutch naval battle. The 'scenery' element was perhaps a little too basic for my tastes, but the sheer quantity of miniature fighting ships was a delightful sight.

As an aside, with reference to the above six pics: By and large I try and avoid getting sucked into new areas of wargaming interest. Potentially every book or film or whatever it might be can spark a desire to buy another army in another era. 

At present I'm confining myself to Napoleonics and WWII (with the ACW lurking in the background!). But I have to say that when I recently listened to an audiobook of extracts from Samuel Pepys' diaries I found it hard to resist the idea of getting all marine and 17th Century. Nautical but nice, as I like to say!

Above and below, SS cavalry, 1/72 by Britannia Miniatures [1]. I love these guys!

Due to limited funds figure purchases were severely restricted. There's another figure in this set, toting a panzerschreck. But they didn't have any (unpainted), alas.

I had second thoughts about going along to Partizan all, both 'cause I'd be on me lonesome, and 'cause our attempts to buy a home mean funds are severely limited.

In the end I only bought two 1/72 WWII German tank kits (an Italeri Hetzer and a Fujimi Tiger I), a nice little group of mounted SS WWII German Cavalry (both these lots from Grubby Tanks/Britannia Miniatures), a magnifying-visor for painting (Barwell Bodyworks), and a biography of Baron Larrey from David Lanchester.

The Baron bandages a biffed bonce, in a detail from Lejeune's fab Borodino painting.

Despite only stopping at the show for a measly two hours, I had fun - except for the moment when I nearly fainted! [2] - and came away with stuff that's both useful and enjoyable.

I had wondered if any bloggers might meet up at the show, as they do at Salute, but I only got wind of such a meeting when I got home afterwards and googled the subject... Doh!

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NOTES:

[1] I realise now that some of the WWII Germans of unknown manufacturer origin in my recent previous posts - the rather dynamically posed if somewhat chunky and oddly proportioned white metal nebelwerfer crew, to be precise - are Britannia figures.

[2] It was the price of ... no, I can't lie... it was purely and simply that I'm apparently inexorably evolving into the archetypical overweight unfit wargamer! The fare they served up at the Bistro didn't exactly help me wage war on my waistline. Oh no, it was more like reinforcements!

1/76 WWII - Fujimi Elefant

In between this post and the one about building tanks with my dad (his a King Tiger, mine a Panther, and both by Airfix), I've actually built several others, and my father and I are now well into building a pair of Airfix Stugs.

I've been documenting most of these activities, with a view to blogging it all, but so far just haven't found the time to do so. Anyway, my wife and I now have a longstanding buddy staying over (in fact he's still here!), and we bought and exchanged our little xmas gifts a night or two back; I got him a 1/100 Revell Eagle lunar lander, and he got me the 1/76 Fujimi Elefant!

The real McCoy.

My box, showing current box art.

The original box... much cooler and funkier!

Yesterday we built them. What fun!

So, to break the long run of not posting - I'm not really counting my last small post, which was just an appeal for info - here's a little 'photo-essay' on the Fujimi Elefant build of yesterday:

Shown above, at top, is the box for the kit I built yesterday, with, below that, the original (and I think better) box artwork. It can be seen that the current kit is a kind of edited version of the original. There are some details in both pictures that might lead one to expect certain details in the kit that aren't actually there, such as towing cables and a commander figure.

Next, the contents of the box. There are four caramel coloured sprues, looking much like some of the more modern Revell kits I've been building, in colour terms; two 'rubber-band' tracks, actually on their own little vinyl sprues (I'd already removed these and cleaned the tracks up when  I took the picture); a small sheet of decals, and the instructions.

Unlike most of the kits I've been building, this one starts with construction of the lower hull, before moving onto the running gear. It seems to me a lot of kits start with the latter.

This is, I believe, quite an old kit. but I think the level of detail is pretty good. There's some flash, but not too much. The fit of most parts is good, the only real area of weakness, at least in my build, being at the rear of the chassis, where there are some joint that don't quite meet. But I'll sort that out with some Superfine Milliput.

Once the hull is more or less complete, the running gear goes on. The Elefant (I'm going to use the german name, whereas Fujimi have opted to box it up using the English variant of the spelling) was built on a Porsche-designed hull, and was in fact initially produced under the name 'Ferdinand', in honour of that designer, originally intended for use in the production of Tiger tanks, but rejected in favour of a competing design.

The beefy suspension arms on this chassis are unlike any of the other models I've built thus far, such as the Panthers, Stugs and so on. All of those have suspension and wheels more flush with the lower line of the hull itself, whereas here we have wheels that end up being slightly lower than the hull, thanks to these meaty suspension mounts.

Frontal hull detail.

Rear hull detail.

The road wheels going on.

Drive sprockets under construction.

The casemate section of most german self-propelled guns was intended to be more roomy than the cramped turrets of tanks, and that shows clearly here. There's a bit of the gun in several of these pictures that I ended up leaving out (the part that looks like two telescopes).

I included the unseen detail of the breech-block end of the gun, thinking it might be good for balancing the barrel, which is pretty damn long, but left out the little bi-tubular part.

Not glued together yet... just having a sneak preview!

As most modellers in this scale know, rubber-band tracks are pretty horrid. I thought I'd use the heated-screwdriver technique suggested in the instructions. It worked pretty well, but I mistakenly did it before getting the tracks in place. This can be done sometimes, but not in this case, as there was insufficient room between the running gear, and especially the toothed drive wheels, and the mudguards. So I had to break the heated join, run the tracks through as shown above, and then re 'solder' the joints, which ended up looking pretty messy.

These matches are there to superglue the tracks down onto the road wheels, so they don't float and give an incongruously weight-free look to the model.

I forgot to document some of the last little bits and bobs, so now the casemate is in place on the hull, and I'm working on the gun support.

I opted to have the gun brace up, but open, that way it can support the gun, but leaves the barrel free to be elevated.

At this point the model itself is all finished, construction-wise, and is left to set, with various bits of support, for the tracks, the upper part of the gun-sipport, and just to keep the Elefant's rather long trunk out of the way

I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit. It was fun in and of itself, even with the rubber-band tracks (which, as those abominations go, weren't bad examples of the type), and despite a few joins in the model either not aligning perfectly, or leaving something of a gap. So, not a perfect model, but a good one nonetheless.

Those with better knowledge of this vehicle might have more to critique, but it looks close enough to the pictures or real Elefant tanks I've browsed on the net for me to be satisfied. The box art, and many 1/35 kits I've sen have Zimmerit, and I'm thinking about whether I ought to try adding some myself. But that and the paint job await another moment of modelling time.

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UPDATE I: Since posting this initially, I've gone to work on the gaps in the rear hull (see two pics immediately below), and even made so bold as to try adding some Zimmerit, both with some superfine Milliput. Here some pics of this work, as yet still in progress:

The above two pics show the gaps in the rear hull. The bottom pic, showing the left-rear, being the particularly big and rather ugly hole.

Initial rough repairs. Hopefully to be refined somewhat when dry.

Some roughly applied and heavily 'weathered' Zimmerit. More of same below!

The Zimmerit on the tank illustrated on the box, and some real instances, show that Zimmerit wasn't necessarily applied all over, or right to the top of the casemate. I'm wondering how much more to do. Any thoughts from anybody out there?

At present I've left a few blank spots, notably the rear portions of hull on both sides, the mudguards/fenders (all round), and all of the casemate. As the photographic refernce below shows, in some instances the Zimmerit was only applied to about half way up the latter anyway. Hmmm!? What to do?

As alluded to above, I found a great link for photographic reference:

Elefant (AKA Ferdinand)

Where I came across these useful pics, amongst many others:

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UPDATE II: Yesterday was my monday model-making get together with dad, and as well as working on our Stugs, I continued with the Zimmerit for this Elefant. Having decided to take the plunge, I eventually also tried the heated screwdriver tip technique, as well as the Milliput approach. And after thinking about stopping with the hull, I eventually grasped the nettle and did the casemate (or a portion of it) as well.

It may look scrappy at this stage, but I think - or is that hope? - it'll look okay once painted.

This odd-looking set-up was how I (sort of) stopped the Milliput from sticking to my work surface. I used the red pen at top left to roll the Milliput into near paper-thin pieces. It stuck to the pen, of course, so I had to roll it under a polythene bag!

I don't know what the technical term is for the two circular depressions either side of the gun mount, but I believe they are a result of the moulding process, and would be better flattened... so I used Milliput for that to.

In addition to the white Superfine Milliput, I've used the heated screwdriver-tip technique - fortunately I have a number of tiny flat-head screwdrivers - thinking it'd be easier to use this approach where there was quite a bit of surface detail on the hull, etc.

The rear hull & casemate view, showing the two techniques, and with more of those pesky sunken circular moulding things filled in with Milliput.

Now I have to be patient and let the Milliput harden, before tidying it all up a bit, and then giving the whole model an undercoat of, probably, matt black Humbrol acrylic from an aerosol.

UPDATE III: Had my father and his wife around for a Yuletide buffet this afternoon. When the dust had finally settled I managed to sneak a few minutes to get the Elefant undercoated.

I think the Zimmerit is looking okay, although I do prefer the raised Milliput sections to the heated-screwdriver bits. But I'm hoping that once the paint-job is done it'll all kind of blend together. I might also add some extra bits and bobs, like spare track (I'll definitely put a bit of track on where it is shown, on the rear of the casemate, in two of the black and white pics above), jerry cans and so on. 

I'll also try again with the hairspray and acriylic top-coat method, to see if can achieve a nicely weathered body colour, with chips and scratches, etc. I'm thinking of going for a colour scheme of dunkelgelb with a web of olive green lines. I'm also hoping I can get my pretty cheap Badger airbrush to spray some fairly thin lines. So far I've only used it to block in base-colours!

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UPDATE IV: It's drawing to a close on Yoolis Night, and I thought I'd quickly update the Elefant, so to speak. Actually today found me building two model kits in one day, as well as cooking (and eating) the Crimbo dinner, etc! Model #1 was a 'stocking filler' gift, from myself via the mrs, a Zvezda 1/100 Sdkfz 251. Model #2 was an Italeri 1/72 Jagdpanther.

The Zvezda half-track.

The Italeri Jagdpanther.

The only work I did on the Elefant was to cannibalise a bit of the Jagdpanther kit; a piece of spare track, to be precise. I've also added some pictures of my second and equally unsuccessful attempt to use arylics with mny budget Badger airbrush. As before, the acrylic paint just wouldn't behave. I tried a whole range of mixtures, gradually increasing the proportion of water that diluted the acrylic. 

First off I simply couldn't get any paint to flow - I'm assuming because the acrylic mixture simply wasn't diluted enough - and then once it began to flow it was either spraying in big droplets, or else became too thing and watery. Last time I tried to use acrylics I did a big batch of models, all at once, and it was soul-crushingly awful. The only advantage of it going so wrong with acrylics was that i could wash all the models under the tap, which I duly did.

In this pic you can see the acrylic paint is both globular, i.e not giving an even coat, and too thin/runny

Here's the Elefant after its bath!

I didn't document that particular debacle, but I did take photos of this recent reiteration of the process (the two above images). Just like the large batch I resprayed successfully a few days back, I've resprayed the Elefant properly using Humbrol enamels... much better!

In terms of painting this model, I want to go with this type of colour scheme:

I found the above picture, a superb model, on the 'Tanks and Trolls' website Elefant page. My thanks to Tanks & Trolls for the permission to use it here.

UPDATE V: 

Some time towards the end of December 2015 I bought some Eureka XXL towing-cables - as pictured below - to add a bit more detail to my Elefant. Looking at some pics of real and model Elefants, I saw that the tow-cable was held in place more often than not by some clips. So I decided to have a go at making these myself from some superfine Milliput. These efforts are also chronicled below!

Starting to remove the excess resin from the eyelet parts.

Uh-oh... breakage!

Breakage fixed with Superglue; cleaning the resin parts up before super-gluing to the cables.

The completed cables, before fitting/painting, etc.

The Elefant, in enamel dunkelgelb; clearing the Milliput zimmerit from the locations where the cable-clips will be placed.

Each rear-side part of lower-hull, below the casemate, gets three clips each. Here's my first three, in Superfine white Milliput.

Here are the second set of three brackets, on the right side of the tank. The middle and left ones look pretty good, but the right-hand one crumbled away a bit, and needed fixing/replacing.

My Elefant acquires a Dali-esque moustache: the tow-ropes are undercoated in black enamel, and attached to the front end of the tank. 

Getting the eyelets onto the U-shaped parts was tricky, and ultimately required that I cut the U-shaped parts in half, as the eyelets weren't large enough to go over the ends.

The left side tow-rope fixed to the clips.

As can be seen I've also now done a successful basecoat in dunkelgelb, using my own ad-libbed Humbrol enamel mix. I also added a bit of spare track. Critical observers may note that the trrack I've added, which mimics what's shown in several black and white reference photographs I've seen, some of which I reproduce above, is not the correct track. I can't recall what other kit it came from at present, but I've decided to let the error stand for now. I super-glued it on anyway, so removing it might damage the model!