Porsche Tiger

[general rocket]

For more pictures and a full report on the build head over to Group Build "Conversion".

[Clashcityrocker]

Looks like you'd fill the muzzle with dirt if you hit the brakes too hard

Nigel

[iggie]

That's a great bit of kit bashing!

It certainly looks forward heavy compared to most other contemporary German designs, but I wonder if the concept was inspired by the success (against the Germans of course!) of the Russian tanks, and the T34 especially?

[ShaunW]

I can see from the GB thread that a lot of work went into this conversion General and what a great result I can't remember absolutely for sure, but didn't Porsche try out diesel electric propulsion for this vehicle, which lead to the unreliability? Certainly the Russian T-34 and KV-1 tanks gave the Germans food for thought and IIRC the Tiger and Panther were developed to counter those vehicles. The design of the Panther in particular was very much influenced by that of the T-34 (I read somewhere that it was suggested to the German leadership that the T-34 be simply copied but ultimately national pride prevented that from happening!).

[general rocket]

I can see from the GB thread that a lot of work went into this conversion General and what a great result I can't remember absolutely for sure, but didn't Porsche try out diesel electric propulsion for this vehicle, which lead to the unreliability? Certainly the Russian T-34 and KV-1 tanks gave the Germans food for thought and IIRC the Tiger and Panther were developed to counter those vehicles. The design of the Panther in particular was very much influenced by that of the T-34 (I read somewhere that it was suggested to the German leadership that the T-34 be simply copied but ultimately national pride prevented that from happening!).

You are right, albeit Petrol Electric. The problems where various, Cutting edge technology, over complexity and poor materials. The Ferdinand was put into production without these short comings being cured, with disastrous consequences during the battle of Kursk.
It took until the Elefant variant before the problems where largely cured.
The T34 certainly influenced the design of the Panther, but typically German they over engineered it. Once again the complexity led to reliability issues, though by the end of the war of the war these had been addressed and largely eliminated.

[celt]

Very odd looking tank, nice job.