| Italeri's BergeTiger Reviewed by Rick Knapp |
Well, what fun would a kit be without problems, or, more optimistically, challenges? Italeri's kit of the "Bergetiger" has
some interesting features. It has some well-replicated weld seams, good-looking cast parts, well-detailed hatches,
molded-on zimmerit, and generally overall good detail. In other words, it looks good sitting in the box. The challenges
soon become apparent, though, and it takes a resourceful individual to overcome them, or at least cover them up.
It would be hard to find a German vehicle from WW II that less is known about. It appears that three Tiger Is serving in
Italy were converted to "Bergetigers". Exactly how they were used is not clear, nor is it clear why such a valuable
combat vehicle would be converted in this way. Was this machine used as a support vehicle for demolition teams, using
its crane to place explosives for mine-clearing operations? Was it used to lift engines and/or transmissions? No one
knows for sure. The very few pictures of this piece of armor show a derelict vehicle with an incomplete crane. Perhaps
the smartest fellow to build one of these things is a guy whose model I found on the Internet-his "Bergetiger" was built
to represent that wrecked vehicle. I depicted mine being readied to lift an engine. Right? Wrong? Who knows!
Starting, as usual, from the ground up, it was quickly apparent that the vehicle's mostly non-moving suspension would
have to be painted and weathered as assembly progressed. There was really no other way to ensure a good paint job
in this area. I say that the suspension is mostly non-moving. This is meant to be helpful to the modeler, but take my
word and beware!
Italeri's kit includes link-and-length tracks. The drive sprockets are designed to turn to facilitate joining up the individual
link sections with the solid lengths. My advice: Ignore the Italeri method for doing the tracks. I followed their somewhat
bizarre plan for using short solid lengths of track to join the links around the sprockets with the straight runs on the top
and bottom of the road wheels. I followed this method on one side, that is. On the other side I used individual links all
the way from the top straight run to the bottom one, with much less aggravation. There are individual links to spare for
this, and those short lengths can be used for the spare track on the hull front. Before doing any of this, I had, after
filling umpteen knockout marks, assembled my links on some masking tape and painted and weathered the inside
surfaces. I used tube glue for assembly so as to minimize marring of this paint job.
The links that wrap around the drive sprockets feature the little doodads that cover the openings for the sprocket teeth
as separate parts, but do not despair! The Italeri folks give you extras, and even I managed not lose a single one.
These doohickeys are molded on the rest of the track, which means that the links designed to go around the rear
idlers will not go around the sprockets-it's the difference between real openings and simulated ones.
Now we come to the biggest "challenge" with the kit. Link-and-length is fine if all suspension arms are precisely level,
and with positive locating devices for those arms, one would think they would be. One would be wrong. My suspension
arms were not level, resulting in "floating" road wheels. As a matter of fact, the track itself tends to want to "float" over
the top of the road wheels, a result, no doubt, of the fact that the final joining of the track was quite difficult. It was one
of those situations where one more link would be too much, but the right number was barely adequate. Incidentally,
step 4 of the instructions tells you to use 21 links to go around the idlers in one illustration, but shows 20 links being
used in a side view below that. Use 20 links here, and don't puzzle too much over the fact that 95 links per side doesn't
seem right to you.
Fixing track that doesn't want to touch the road wheels is easy. Correcting the problem of wheels that "float" is harder.
Bolting the vehicle to the base and tightening it down might do the trick, but at the risk of causing damage. I finally
opted for a cover-up. The brush, grass, and other things around my "Bergetiger" are not there by accident, although I
hope they do not look deliberately placed.
Once I had the suspension and tracks done, it was time to think ahead. I wanted to have most of my hatches open, so
this would necessitate some interior work. The kit provides a very partial turret interior. I added considerably to this,
using Shepherd Paine's "gizmology" techniques to build a turret interior that would be convincing when viewed through
tiny hatches. I did the same with the driver's compartment.
Attempting to think ahead again (boy, was my head hurting) when building up the hull front and rear, I prepainted the
area behind the spare tracks on the bow, and also painted in advance when assembling the exhausts. I added pop
caps to the exhaust openings and the standard dents to the exhaust shields. A brief, helpful notice is called for here: In
several places on this kit there are locator holes to be drilled out-no big deal in this case, but I missed drilling the holes
for the spare track holder, so look out for those little pictures of an X-Acto knife drilling a hole, and spare yourself some
embarrassment.
As for the rest of the hull's bow and stern, the kit features nicely detailed towing shackles, an average-looking jack, and
an engine crank that I finally installed upside-down with a shortened handle in order to avoid damaging.
I installed the front and rear mud flaps after doing the customary damage to them. I found them to be nice and thin,
quite a change from the old Tiger kits. The fenders for the hull sides hang on their actual mounting points. That is,
there are no locator holes to make mounting the fenders foolproof. I damaged the fenders (deliberately), removing a
section on one side. I added triangular supports at the open ends of the fender sections on that side, but not to the
rest of the fenders, where they would never be seen. In case you can't tell, I have a problem with modelers who do
detailing just for the sake of detailing.
Moving up the superstructure, I replaced the Bosch headlamp, since, as is often the case with armor kits, the
out-of-the-box lamp is very average. I also wired the lamp. Italeri tried a molded-on wire for the headlamp, but well, see
for yourself there. I replaced the hull MG barrel, since Italeri apparently is not aware that this weapon usually featured
an armored sleeve. I added the compartment for the kit's very abstract version of a Tiger engine, mostly to block off
that area. I painted the engine area and the rest of the hull's interior outside of the driver's space flat black. That's
another of those places where a lot of detailing for its own sake seems to go on. If you need a penlight and a jeweler's
loop to see what you've done in that area, is it really worth it?
The hull roof fits very nicely; only a little extra liquid glue and some deft pressure are needed to conform the zimmerit
for the hull sides perfectly to the roof plate. A word (or several) here about that Italeri zimmerit: Some say that you can't
do chipped zimmerit using this molded on stuff, and that is so if you are after severe chipping. I was able, however, to
carve several small chips in the usually damaged spots, and they look quite good. Having tried carving an actual hole
in the zimmerit on an earlier Italeri offering, I can attest that that is not the way to go. The only substantial problem was
with the wraparound sections for the turret, but liquid glue and patience will remedy that. In a few areas, the edges of
the zimmerit should be concealed, or in some cases roughed up in order to not look too regular.
The kit's wooden jack block has very nice wood grain, but no detail at all on its mounting straps. I wound up replacing
most of the tools, since those offered in the kit seemed too small and delicate. Anyone who has ever pounded on a
portion of a tank with a sledgehammer can attest that these tools should actually be larger-than-life. I replaced the kit's
fire extinguisher simply because the kit part didn't fit. I replaced part of the kit tow cables with twisted solder wire for a
more realistic drape. I made grill covers for the engine deck from plastic screen and styrene strip (only because the
P.E. I ordered was late in arriving).
I got an unpleasant surprise when I examined the turret. The episcope covers on the commander's cupola had not fully
formed when my kit was made. I repaired this by shoving blocks of plastic into the malformed covers from the
underside, covering them with putty, and then sanding and sculpting. I made sure these blocks were of a uniform
length and shape, since they would represent the commander's episcopes. A thick piece of styrene inserted from
below was also used to simulate the loader's periscope.
When I attempted to install the MG ring atop my repaired episcope covers, it was a no-go until I removed the ring's
mounting pins. The turret's vent cover needed some work, since it strangely had five boltholes on its top rather than
the proper six. I did not install the close-in defense weapon. The turret is therefore a mix of mid and late production
features, since the loader's hatch is a late-model one. One minor puzzle during turret assembly was solved when I
finally realized that the proper part for the lifting handle on the commander's hatch was No. 76D, not No. 74C. You
can't believe everything you read! I used a Tamiya AA mount and MG on my turret, just because they were a little
better detailed.
Then there's that crane, and manual winch, and all that stuff. It all went together pretty well, and any defects in this
area of my model are traceable to me, and not to any fault of the kit. There were lots of knockout marks and sinkholes
to fill, but the whole thing lines up well, especially where the molded-in cable meets the spool on the winch. I had some
warpage to the crane's block-and-tackle, but this was easy to straighten out.
I don't know if I was getting hasty by the time I got to the turret, or if I was just afraid of breaking the kit-supplied cable
(not being bold enough to replace same), but after dry-brushing, a faint seam was noticeable on the cable's top edge.
My "fix" was to go back and repaint the dark seams on the cable, thus making this imperfection much less noticeable.
Better than breaking the thing at this late date!
Another error possibly caused by haste (or beer) was that I forgot to paint the area behind the openings for the turret
MG and gun sight ahead of time. Painting with flat black from the outside just doesn't take care of all angles. The worst
of it is that I know better.
I told you that the fellow who modeled the derelict was smart. When I originally planned the display for this thing, I
envisioned a man on the ground and one operating the winch. Gradually I realized that I would need to have a man in
the turret to give the crane traverse and elevating abilities (I included the gun breech, per the kit, for how else would
the thing elevate?), and a fellow on deck to coordinate the efforts of the other crewmen. My man in the turret is using
the manual controls from the commander's seat. For power traverse, the driver's position would have to be occupied.
Finally, there is the matter of how the heck the thing would work (if the kit is correct with a crane that barely clears the
front or rear). That guy who modeled the abandoned "Bergetiger" seems like a genius at this point! If the crane were in
the 3 or 9 o'clock position, the winch operator would have to hang off the end of the mechanism to reach the crank
handles. I've seen all this solved by extending the boom, but the modeler who did this did it poorly from a workmanship
standpoint, and worse yet, did not provide any evidence beyond his word that such an extension would be authentic.
My "Bergetiger's" crane is in approximately the 10 o'clock position, from which the winch operator can still (awkwardly)
reach one crank handle, and, just as importantly, the winches' locking mechanism.
After all this, you may be thinking his couldn't have built up into a very nice scene, but this is not so. With all its defects
(some my fault), the overall effect is quite nice. Is everything about it correct? Is it being used correctly? I don't know.
Sometimes you've got to suspend all doubts and just build the thing. You'll find out at contest time how right or wrong
you were (maybe). The main thing is, did you have fun doing what you did with the kit? I did.
some interesting features. It has some well-replicated weld seams, good-looking cast parts, well-detailed hatches,
molded-on zimmerit, and generally overall good detail. In other words, it looks good sitting in the box. The challenges
soon become apparent, though, and it takes a resourceful individual to overcome them, or at least cover them up.
It would be hard to find a German vehicle from WW II that less is known about. It appears that three Tiger Is serving in
Italy were converted to "Bergetigers". Exactly how they were used is not clear, nor is it clear why such a valuable
combat vehicle would be converted in this way. Was this machine used as a support vehicle for demolition teams, using
its crane to place explosives for mine-clearing operations? Was it used to lift engines and/or transmissions? No one
knows for sure. The very few pictures of this piece of armor show a derelict vehicle with an incomplete crane. Perhaps
the smartest fellow to build one of these things is a guy whose model I found on the Internet-his "Bergetiger" was built
to represent that wrecked vehicle. I depicted mine being readied to lift an engine. Right? Wrong? Who knows!
Starting, as usual, from the ground up, it was quickly apparent that the vehicle's mostly non-moving suspension would
have to be painted and weathered as assembly progressed. There was really no other way to ensure a good paint job
in this area. I say that the suspension is mostly non-moving. This is meant to be helpful to the modeler, but take my
word and beware!
Italeri's kit includes link-and-length tracks. The drive sprockets are designed to turn to facilitate joining up the individual
link sections with the solid lengths. My advice: Ignore the Italeri method for doing the tracks. I followed their somewhat
bizarre plan for using short solid lengths of track to join the links around the sprockets with the straight runs on the top
and bottom of the road wheels. I followed this method on one side, that is. On the other side I used individual links all
the way from the top straight run to the bottom one, with much less aggravation. There are individual links to spare for
this, and those short lengths can be used for the spare track on the hull front. Before doing any of this, I had, after
filling umpteen knockout marks, assembled my links on some masking tape and painted and weathered the inside
surfaces. I used tube glue for assembly so as to minimize marring of this paint job.
The links that wrap around the drive sprockets feature the little doodads that cover the openings for the sprocket teeth
as separate parts, but do not despair! The Italeri folks give you extras, and even I managed not lose a single one.
These doohickeys are molded on the rest of the track, which means that the links designed to go around the rear
idlers will not go around the sprockets-it's the difference between real openings and simulated ones.
Now we come to the biggest "challenge" with the kit. Link-and-length is fine if all suspension arms are precisely level,
and with positive locating devices for those arms, one would think they would be. One would be wrong. My suspension
arms were not level, resulting in "floating" road wheels. As a matter of fact, the track itself tends to want to "float" over
the top of the road wheels, a result, no doubt, of the fact that the final joining of the track was quite difficult. It was one
of those situations where one more link would be too much, but the right number was barely adequate. Incidentally,
step 4 of the instructions tells you to use 21 links to go around the idlers in one illustration, but shows 20 links being
used in a side view below that. Use 20 links here, and don't puzzle too much over the fact that 95 links per side doesn't
seem right to you.
Fixing track that doesn't want to touch the road wheels is easy. Correcting the problem of wheels that "float" is harder.
Bolting the vehicle to the base and tightening it down might do the trick, but at the risk of causing damage. I finally
opted for a cover-up. The brush, grass, and other things around my "Bergetiger" are not there by accident, although I
hope they do not look deliberately placed.
Once I had the suspension and tracks done, it was time to think ahead. I wanted to have most of my hatches open, so
this would necessitate some interior work. The kit provides a very partial turret interior. I added considerably to this,
using Shepherd Paine's "gizmology" techniques to build a turret interior that would be convincing when viewed through
tiny hatches. I did the same with the driver's compartment.
Attempting to think ahead again (boy, was my head hurting) when building up the hull front and rear, I prepainted the
area behind the spare tracks on the bow, and also painted in advance when assembling the exhausts. I added pop
caps to the exhaust openings and the standard dents to the exhaust shields. A brief, helpful notice is called for here: In
several places on this kit there are locator holes to be drilled out-no big deal in this case, but I missed drilling the holes
for the spare track holder, so look out for those little pictures of an X-Acto knife drilling a hole, and spare yourself some
embarrassment.
As for the rest of the hull's bow and stern, the kit features nicely detailed towing shackles, an average-looking jack, and
an engine crank that I finally installed upside-down with a shortened handle in order to avoid damaging.
I installed the front and rear mud flaps after doing the customary damage to them. I found them to be nice and thin,
quite a change from the old Tiger kits. The fenders for the hull sides hang on their actual mounting points. That is,
there are no locator holes to make mounting the fenders foolproof. I damaged the fenders (deliberately), removing a
section on one side. I added triangular supports at the open ends of the fender sections on that side, but not to the
rest of the fenders, where they would never be seen. In case you can't tell, I have a problem with modelers who do
detailing just for the sake of detailing.
Moving up the superstructure, I replaced the Bosch headlamp, since, as is often the case with armor kits, the
out-of-the-box lamp is very average. I also wired the lamp. Italeri tried a molded-on wire for the headlamp, but well, see
for yourself there. I replaced the hull MG barrel, since Italeri apparently is not aware that this weapon usually featured
an armored sleeve. I added the compartment for the kit's very abstract version of a Tiger engine, mostly to block off
that area. I painted the engine area and the rest of the hull's interior outside of the driver's space flat black. That's
another of those places where a lot of detailing for its own sake seems to go on. If you need a penlight and a jeweler's
loop to see what you've done in that area, is it really worth it?
The hull roof fits very nicely; only a little extra liquid glue and some deft pressure are needed to conform the zimmerit
for the hull sides perfectly to the roof plate. A word (or several) here about that Italeri zimmerit: Some say that you can't
do chipped zimmerit using this molded on stuff, and that is so if you are after severe chipping. I was able, however, to
carve several small chips in the usually damaged spots, and they look quite good. Having tried carving an actual hole
in the zimmerit on an earlier Italeri offering, I can attest that that is not the way to go. The only substantial problem was
with the wraparound sections for the turret, but liquid glue and patience will remedy that. In a few areas, the edges of
the zimmerit should be concealed, or in some cases roughed up in order to not look too regular.
The kit's wooden jack block has very nice wood grain, but no detail at all on its mounting straps. I wound up replacing
most of the tools, since those offered in the kit seemed too small and delicate. Anyone who has ever pounded on a
portion of a tank with a sledgehammer can attest that these tools should actually be larger-than-life. I replaced the kit's
fire extinguisher simply because the kit part didn't fit. I replaced part of the kit tow cables with twisted solder wire for a
more realistic drape. I made grill covers for the engine deck from plastic screen and styrene strip (only because the
P.E. I ordered was late in arriving).
I got an unpleasant surprise when I examined the turret. The episcope covers on the commander's cupola had not fully
formed when my kit was made. I repaired this by shoving blocks of plastic into the malformed covers from the
underside, covering them with putty, and then sanding and sculpting. I made sure these blocks were of a uniform
length and shape, since they would represent the commander's episcopes. A thick piece of styrene inserted from
below was also used to simulate the loader's periscope.
When I attempted to install the MG ring atop my repaired episcope covers, it was a no-go until I removed the ring's
mounting pins. The turret's vent cover needed some work, since it strangely had five boltholes on its top rather than
the proper six. I did not install the close-in defense weapon. The turret is therefore a mix of mid and late production
features, since the loader's hatch is a late-model one. One minor puzzle during turret assembly was solved when I
finally realized that the proper part for the lifting handle on the commander's hatch was No. 76D, not No. 74C. You
can't believe everything you read! I used a Tamiya AA mount and MG on my turret, just because they were a little
better detailed.
Then there's that crane, and manual winch, and all that stuff. It all went together pretty well, and any defects in this
area of my model are traceable to me, and not to any fault of the kit. There were lots of knockout marks and sinkholes
to fill, but the whole thing lines up well, especially where the molded-in cable meets the spool on the winch. I had some
warpage to the crane's block-and-tackle, but this was easy to straighten out.
I don't know if I was getting hasty by the time I got to the turret, or if I was just afraid of breaking the kit-supplied cable
(not being bold enough to replace same), but after dry-brushing, a faint seam was noticeable on the cable's top edge.
My "fix" was to go back and repaint the dark seams on the cable, thus making this imperfection much less noticeable.
Better than breaking the thing at this late date!
Another error possibly caused by haste (or beer) was that I forgot to paint the area behind the openings for the turret
MG and gun sight ahead of time. Painting with flat black from the outside just doesn't take care of all angles. The worst
of it is that I know better.
I told you that the fellow who modeled the derelict was smart. When I originally planned the display for this thing, I
envisioned a man on the ground and one operating the winch. Gradually I realized that I would need to have a man in
the turret to give the crane traverse and elevating abilities (I included the gun breech, per the kit, for how else would
the thing elevate?), and a fellow on deck to coordinate the efforts of the other crewmen. My man in the turret is using
the manual controls from the commander's seat. For power traverse, the driver's position would have to be occupied.
Finally, there is the matter of how the heck the thing would work (if the kit is correct with a crane that barely clears the
front or rear). That guy who modeled the abandoned "Bergetiger" seems like a genius at this point! If the crane were in
the 3 or 9 o'clock position, the winch operator would have to hang off the end of the mechanism to reach the crank
handles. I've seen all this solved by extending the boom, but the modeler who did this did it poorly from a workmanship
standpoint, and worse yet, did not provide any evidence beyond his word that such an extension would be authentic.
My "Bergetiger's" crane is in approximately the 10 o'clock position, from which the winch operator can still (awkwardly)
reach one crank handle, and, just as importantly, the winches' locking mechanism.
After all this, you may be thinking his couldn't have built up into a very nice scene, but this is not so. With all its defects
(some my fault), the overall effect is quite nice. Is everything about it correct? Is it being used correctly? I don't know.
Sometimes you've got to suspend all doubts and just build the thing. You'll find out at contest time how right or wrong
you were (maybe). The main thing is, did you have fun doing what you did with the kit? I did.
