I found the detail of the Cromwell figures to be very good but the ease of fitting the pieces together mediocre. For example, the necks didn't always fit flush onto the torso without a lot of sanding and there was much gap around the arm sockets after positioning them properly. I had to use much milliput and Squadron model putty to fill in these gaps. The most difficult time I had was in positioning the arms of the loader. To put the arms in the same position as in the sketch created so much gap that I thought something had to be way off . For this figure, as with all of them, I drilled holes into the arms and shoulders and inserted copper wire into them to better hold the arms on. I used wire in the same way, without using glue, to hold the heads onto the bodies.

The only additions or modifications that I made to the figures had to do with the headsets and throat microphones. I also added lower legs to the loader. The commander and radio operator came with headsets molded onto their heads, whereas the driver and loader didn't. After reviewing numerous photos of panzer crews, I noticed that most drivers wore headsets. I also noticed that most crew members wore throat microphones. Therefore, I decided that all my figures, except for the loader, should have headsets and throat microphones with all the included wiring. For the driver and my Panzer IV commander, I used headsets from Dragon's 1/35th scale German Sturmartillerie Crew kit. Also, I found good photos of a headset and a throat microphone on pages 100 and 101 of Historie & Collections book, German Soldiers of World War Two. This book and the other book by Historie & Collections, Afrikakorps, Tropical uniforms of the German Army, 1940 - 1945, are great references for figure modelers. They show modern day "models" wearing various German uniforms of the different branches from all fronts and time periods. I'm not sure whether the uniforms are real or reproductions. I assume they are reproductions.

The earpieces that came in the Dragon kit were too small in diameter to cover the ears of the driver and Pz.IV Cdr. To fix this and to make the headphones look more like the real ones in the above mentioned photographs, I made small O rings out of scrap plastic using different metal files. The inside diameter of the O rings were made large enough to fit over the ears while the outside diameter of the O rings were made approximately 1 mm larger than the diameter of the Dragon earpieces. In thickness, the O rings were probably less than 1/2 millimeter. The O rings were simply glued to the bottom of the Dragon earpieces. The modified earpieces were then glued onto the figures using cyanoacrylate glue. Milliput was used to fill in any gaps around the edges of the earpieces and as a further cement. Another problem that I had was that the headbands for the earpieces, which were metal, were too short. I had to cut them in half and glue them on one half at a time, first to the earpiece, then to the top of the caps. I had, consequently, a small gap at the top of the caps between the headband halves. I took milliput and shaped it between the two halves to complete my headbands. Since the metal headbands had a type of ridge running down the middle, I imitated this on my milliput "connections" by digging out a small "trench" with my xacto blade in the milliput between the two headband halves and gluing a small brass wire therein.

I performed the same steps for the headbands of the Tiger commander and radio operator. Though they already came with headsets, their head-bands were molded to the sides of their heads and looked poor and unrealistic compared to the metal Dragon headbands. So, I used my xacto blade to remove them. Since they were made of resin, this was easy. For the commander's earpieces, I glued a small, round, thin piece of plastic, which I fabricated, to the center of each earpiece to give them that "three level" look like the other earpieces had. To hold the headbands onto the earpieces of the radio operator and Tiger commander, I used my pin vise to drill two small holes into the center of each earpiece and then glued small diameter brass wires into the holes. I then glued the metal Dragon headband halves onto each earpiece using the brass wires to anchor them. Milliput was then shaped around the tips of the brass wire give a small knob appearance and to help anchor the headbands onto the earpieces. I further completed the headbands the same way as for the driver and Pz. IV Commander.

One thing I learned in dealing with these small metal parts and trying to glue them on, was the necessity of a slow setting cyanoacrylate glue. I was using a 5-15 second glue and if I didn't place my piece right the first time, I had to scrape off the glue and start over. By using "Slow Jet", one - two minute setting extra thick professional grade cyanoacrylate glue, the gluing on of small, metal pieces became decidedly easier. Then I had much more time to place the small pieces and make sure they were in the right position. And I found that the glue held very well.

As with the headbands, the throat microphones were flat metal strips from the Dragon kit. They were round at the ends to represent the microphone parts. However, I saw no easy way to connect wire to the microphones since they were so flat. I also didn't want to rely on glue alone. Therefore, I came up with a way to give the appearance of the throat microphone wires actually being connected to the microphones. First, I positioned the throat microphones on the neck of each figure individually to determine where to install the wires. I then drilled a tiny hole to the left and the right of each figure's vocal cord location and inserted the smallest diameter copper wire I had into each hole using cyanoacrylate glue and milliput to secure them. I then glued the throat microphones on with the round microphone parts placed on top of the wires.

However, since the throat microphones were too long for the necks of the figures, I had to cut out part of the middle section of each throat microphone band and glue each half on separately. The wires ran out from the bottom of the microphones and with some milliput to fill in the gaps and to sculpt additional shape to the microphones, the wires looked like they were connected directly to the microphones. These throat microphone halves were very small and difficult to handle. I found out that using tweezers to grip photo-etched parts was not wise because if the tweezer teeth slipped, the part would go flying off and become lost in the carpet. A better method was to pick up the part with a small dab of modeling clay on the end of a toothpick.

The next items that I worked on were the throat microphone wire junction boxes that typically hang down just below the crew members' ribs or are clipped on the crew members' uniforms just above their abdomens. Again, pages 100 and 101 of German Soldiers Of World War Two were a great help in showing me the positioning of the junction boxes and the microphone wires. The Tiger commander figure had a junction box already molded to his chest. I drilled two small holes in the top and one in the center of the bottom of the junction box. I glued the bottom wire into the junction box but didn't glue in the top wires since they had already been glued to his neck and I wanted his head to remain removable. Since the driver was a half figure, there was no need for a junction box for him. However, the radio operator needed a junction box as did the Pz. IV commander. The plastic junction boxes that came with the Dragon kit were too thin to drill holes into them.

To solve this problem, I glued a small piece of scrap plastic to the back of each and used Milliput to sculpt them to the proper shape. This gave me a thick enough surface todrill the two holes into the top and one into the bottom of the boxes. I then inserted the two wires that were connected to the throat microphones of the radio operator and Pz. IV commander into the two holes at the top of each junction box after determining their proper lengths. A wire was also inserted into the bottom of the junction boxes of approximately 1/2 inch length. Again, the wires were glued in with cyanoacrylate glue and any gaps were filled in with milliput. The junction boxes were quite small and there wasn't much plastic to work with. A good eye and much patience was needed when drilling the holes into them.

Using the photos of the panzer officer wearing the headset on pages 100 and 101 of the above mentioned book as a guide, I installed the headset wires on the figures. One might notice that the wires coming from each earpiece appear to connect together somewhere around the waist of the panzer officer and then proceed as one wire away from his body. To imitate this connection I decided to make a small plastic sleeve that the wires could fit into. I took a small round piece of scrap plastic and with my smallest drill bit, drilled a hole into it. Using a small metal file, with the bit still in the plastic, I filed the plastic down around the bit until I couldn't file much more without filing all the way through. I then removed the bit and filed the piece to about two to three millimeters in length. The idea was to make this piece as small and thin as possible so that it wouldn't be too noticeable. I then took two of the smallest diameter copper wires that I had and inserted one all the way through the sleeve to about half way up the wire. I inserted the second wire just into the sleeve so that a "Y" was formed. and used the Slow Jet glue to glue the wires in the sleeve. I cut the wires so that the junction of the "Y" would be around the waist level of the figures and then inserted the two upper wires into the earpieces after drilling holes into them just below the headband connections. I then glued the wires to the earpieces and used Milliput to fill in any gaps. The length of the lower wires was not very important because most of the lower wires would be inserted into the hatches and not seen.

The last modification I made to the figures was to the loader. He came as a 3/4 figure with no legs below his shorts. Since he would be sitting up in the loader's hatch and someone might notice his lack of legs, I decided to give him some. I found an old Tamiya kit of plastic Afrika Korps figures and cut the legs off of one of them wearing shorts and installed them on the loader. This was an easy operation to accomplish. Using some instructions from How to Build Dioramas by Shepherd Paine, I modified his feet so that they were not at an unnatural 90 angle with his legs. I cut a wedge into the back of the ankles and holding the ankles over a flame slightly bent the feet downward. Of course, I know that the loader's feet are down inside the turret where they can't be seen, but I know that his ankle muscles aren't getting tired.

I painted all the faces, arms and legs using oil based paints as described in the article by Mark Bannermann, "Painting Faces: A Basic Guide to Improving 1/35th and 54 mm Scale Figures". That included the eyes, lips and hair. For all uniforms and accessories painted, the base coat was applied first, followed by a shade color, then a highlight color. The primary guide I used for the tropical uniforms were the pictures on pages 20 and 21 of the panzer Oberfeldwebel from the Historie & Collections book, Afrikakorps - Tropical uniforms of the German Army, 1940 - 1945. The paints I primarily used for the uniforms were Vallejo acrylic Model Colors. The main reason for using Vallejo paints was because they were the only colors referenced in the Osprey book, Modelling WWII Figures, which I used as a guide for selecting the colors to use on the figures. The Afrikakorps figure on pages 13 - 17 was the primary reference I used from the book. I used the figure's jacket as a color reference for painting the trousers of all the figures since it was close to the color of the Oberfeldwebel's trousers. The Afrikakorps figure's cap was used as a reference for painting the shirts of the figures for the same reason. The olive colored cap of the Oberfeldwebel was used as a reference for the driver's cap, while the light sand colored cap on page 35 of the above mentioned Historie & Collections book was used to help paint the caps of the commander and radio operator. The Osprey book told which paints to mix together but it didn't tell how much of each paint. I just had to mix the colors until I believed I had achieved the right color.

The loader's cap was painted black to represent the preference of some panzer crew members to continue wearing their black panzer caps after they had been transferred to North Africa. Actually, the color wasn't totally black, but a blue-black mixture as described in an article in the April 2001 issue of Fine Scale Modeler called "Paint it black".

One problem I had using the Osprey book was the two different types of Vallejo colors referred to. Sometimes the Model colors were referred to and other times the Film colors were referred to. But everywhere I looked on the Internet, only the Model colors were offered for sale. After much investigation, I found on the Internet a conversion table from Film colors to Model colors at: http://www.lilliputmodel.com/articulos/vallejo/filmcolo.htm Though this is in Spanish, I had no problem using it and it helped me out a lot. I determined while painting the figures that the rank of the Tiger commander would be Feldwebel and the rank of the other three crewmen would be Gefreiter. Oil paints were used to paint the very small details of the figures like the pink piping, the buttons, and the insignia.

To paint the "diamond" on the Tiger commander's shoulder boards, some silver enamel was mixed with white oil paint and "dabbed" on to have a conical, three-dimensional look. The arms on the radio operator's watch were painted with white oil paint using a toothpick. The edge of the watch was also highlighted with the white oil paint. The advantage of using oil paints for small detail is that any excess paint can easily be wiped off. However, one must let the paint dry for several days. A lens was applied to the watch using a drop of Microscale's Micro Krystal Klear.

Upon completion of the figures, they were easily placed into their hatches on the Tiger, except for the driver. The driver figure didn't fit directly down into the hatch, but had to be inserted through the turret ring with his head off using a bent pair of tweezers to position him. Before inserting the driver in his location, I first glued a piece of flat plastic to the shelf below the driver's hatch to act as a platform to hold him up and to raise him up so that his head would protrude out of the hatch more. I also installed a piece of thick wire into the bottom of the radio operator which extended to the hull of the tank to give him some support. In addition, in order to help hold all the hatch covers in the open position better, I used my pin vise to drill corresponding small holes in the hinge areas of the hatches and hatch covers where they connected and inserted small, brass wires.

I really enjoyed modeling the Tunisian Tiger figures. They gave me a chance to add an element of realism and life to the Tiger model that would have been lacking no matter how well the model was built. When a person looks at the model with the figures in their tropical uniforms he should know that the setting is North Africa. Though adding the figures extended the overall time required to complete the Tiger, I believe they were well worth it.

In conclusion, when I set out to build the Tiger I Ausfhrung Afrika, I decided that I would take my time and build it as realistic as possible, no matter how long or the extra trouble it took. Some of the modifications I didn't plan from the start, I just noticed the necessity of adding them as I reviewed more pictures of the Tiger. The notches in the smoke dischargers are an example. I didn't even decide to add the figures until I was far along in the building process. Overall, Tamiya's Tiger I Ausfhrung Afrika kit was a very enjoyable kit to build and one I would recommend to anyone.

Photos by Jeff Junker