Well it seems this guys just cannot stop challenging himself
to up the ante. Now we see another bust from Life Miniatures and it is now
painted and ready to be shipped – we thought we would give you a look at him
unpainted as well as some references of the source material in today’s preview.
Construction Review: "King Tiger Commander
s.Pz.Abt. 503 Hungary 1944"
Life Miniatures
Sculpted by Sang-Eon Lee
Sculpted by Sang-Eon Lee
1/10 scale resin bustCast in grey resin plus a length of copper wire
Available from Life
Miniature’s Distributors Worldwide.
Sang Eon Lee’s new bust is a 1/10th resin cast in
which he has captured the essence of a King Tiger commander of the s.Pz.Abt.
503 in the winter of Hungary in 1944.
The Heavy tank regiment of s.Pz.Abt. 503 was sent to Hungary
in September 1944 to help defend the approaches to Budapest against the
advancing soviet army. Arriving in early October the 3./sPzAbt 503, under
Leutnant Freiherr von Rosen, provided support for Otto Skorzeny's Operation
Panzerfaust, a coup which replaced the Hungarian leader, Admiral Miklós Horthy,
and resulted in the Hungarians remaining as Germany's allies until the end of
the War. Six King Tigers of the 3rd Company helped take the Buda Castle.
The 503rd now played a major role in the Battle of Debrecen.
The detachment formed the vanguard of the 23rd Panzer Division's drive to sever
Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliyev's lines of communication, thus allowing the
encirclement and eventual destruction of the Soviet force. During this period
of action, the 503rd claimed 1,500 vehicles and 120 anti-tank guns destroyed.
In early November, a powerful Soviet offensive pushed the
Axis forces back towards Budapest. The 503rd regularly acted in co-operation
with the 60th Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle, providing a mobile
reserve for the Armeegruppe, now commanded by General der Panzertruppen Hermann
Balck and so renamed Armeegruppe Balck. By mid-December, the Germans had been
pushed back to Budapest, and the Soviets were probing the outskirts of the
city. The 503rd, along with the Feldherrnhalle, having lost many of its Tigers
to combat and to mechanical issues, was engaged in fighting off Soviet attacks
on Budapest's government district.
On December 21, the 503rd, having lost virtually all of its
armour, was renamed schwere – Panzer -Abteilung Feldherrnhalle (abbreviated
sPzAbt FHH) and officially attached to the 60th Panzergrenadier Division
Feldherrnhalle.
On 31 December, the Soviets completed the encirclement of
Budapest and the siege of the city began. During the Battle of Budapest, the
majority of the FHH along with roughly 70,000 German and Hungarian troops of
the IX SS Mountain Corps were trapped. The remnants of the detachment saw heavy
fighting during the final Soviet assaults to annihilate the trapped forces. The
503rd took part in several failed attempts to relieve Budapest, codenamed
Operation Konrad.
Now for this model bust... Firstly, the package…
The figure bust from Life Miniatures is sculpted by the boss
and founder of the company Mr. Sang Eon Lee in 1/10th scale. The
package comes in the regular sized box you may be familiar with from Life
Miniatures, but with a sleeve printed in colour which slides over the other box
inside. It’s a nice looking presentation already and I like this extra sleeve’s
quality look.
The side of the box shows you the very complicated looking
earphone set up and RT system of this boxing. Detailed pictures show you just
what to do with your resin pictures and at first I was a little alarmed at
making wire fit into tiny receptacle holes. All would become known once I built
the kit so I worried no further until the moment. The whole set up certainly
has depth and looks good here. On to the kit….
The figure of this tank officer from the 503rd is made up
from eighteen parts in grey resin which looks to me to be fairly sharp in
detail. From seeing the figure unpainted we can pick out several interesting
details.
His face is rather good looking and his features are very
poster boy. The large radio transmitter “cans” on his ears are made up of
several pieces and they look a little complicated but eventually a great deal
of effort has gone into their detailing and that will come thru on the finished
and painted subject. The throat mic is also present and it further adds detail
to this bust.
Notice that the figure's ears are sculpted flat for the radio "cans" to fit snugly upon...
The flat field cap is seen with a tanker’s braid and
national eagle symbol as well as the cockade on the front and the unit’s “King
Tiger” badge on the side of the forage cap.
Flat cap pictures +
head
The unit's badge on
the side of the cap is quite clear and a nice inclusion showing the sculptor
though hard and looked into this figure before he made it. The unit's badge on the side of the cap is quite clear
The reversible anorak of the German soldiers had the
splinter camouflage on one side and the white cloth on the other so you could
use either side depending on the weather and terrain conditions. It sits on his
body in a way that anything loose is wrinkly and the hood especially shows this
wear and moisture. The wrinkly stitching on the edges of the jacket, along with
the folds in the thick material that folds and bends on the figure’s torso is
realistically portrayed and the depth of the material and later on the things
that go over it add a lot of help to the figure painter’s toolbox.
You can see from looking down his Iron cross on his throat
which is the first class “sore throat” decoration. It sits in the neck between
the collars of the soldier and the open jacket.
The rear of the jacket is an interesting point to mention. You
can see here the wrinkles in the hood and the lining again with heavy stitches
and the thick seam with pulled material giving more weight to the bust.
If you follow the eye down, you can see where the straps go
to meet the small field glasses that the tiger commander is wearing. These are
small models that would suit a cramped cupola access.
The addition of all of the RT cables that flow down past the
chest. This is what the commanders would be wearing if they are in the tank and
so they need to be replicated. This was the challenging part of the kit for me.
The parts include:
2 “cans”, 1 headphone strap, 8 coiled wire connectors, one
R/T switch and some brass wire to hold it all together.
Construction:
After removing all of the resin stubs from the parts the
first part of the build sees the head slip straight into the socket provided.
This is easy to do and the way that the socket is formed sees only one way to
sit the head inside and I have shown here with the slight gap in the socket
exposed before it is pushed in and glued together.
The next part is the kicker. Now I am not going to sugar
coat this – it’s hard to get right. You need thin and medium thickness
superglue to make it work. Thin to secure it all and thicker stuff to plug and
gaps in the cable. In essence you are rigging an eight-point intersection of
brass wire onto resin with superglue. At the most congested point you are
putting three bits of wire into the switch and then those go to the voice box.
It got me really frustrated at times, and although the wire is thin if you have
some even softer stuff it would help you. Maybe lead wire?
Yes, it all inevitably broke a few times while
trying to rig it all together – it really drove me right up the wall – but after
some struggling – and some of it my fault – the wiring harness was roughly all
put together. Once painted and tweaked
this set up will add a lot to this figure – and apart from maybe some softer
wiring and you drilling out the holes a little more than I did. This is the
hardest part of the kit, but one of the most rewarding if it all works.
This figure comes with a base stand in resin as well just like all of Life Miniature’s other busts. Here he is all together – the head and torso and the RT connected
up – what do you think?
After that little struggle with the comms equipment I look
at this figure and I am really happy with what he turned out like. It can only
make a modeller more satisfied when he paints it I think. The depth created by
this construction and the layers of sculpting in the resin make this a more
complicated but not at all unpleasant way to spend your afternoon at the
modelling desk.
I can only think of the reward a good painter would get from
finishing him off.
Great work from Life Miniatures and this again shows why
they are at the top of the pile when it comes to making resin busts.
Adam Norenberg.
Here he is all painted up by Sang Eon Lee. (helps to have a good painter on hand doesn’t it)
