This was built for a club contest. One of our younger, long time members had diabetes and it finally caused his death... suddenly. The club auctioned some of his incomplete models for a contest, the proceeds of which went to the widow. We were to complete the models for the July 2011 meeting. My little Bergetiger took second place.

When I received the model, it was all built except for the side skirts, road wheels and track. I don't like to build tracks, I'm not very good at keeping them straight and these old style Dragon tracks were reported not to like glue of any kind. There is some confusion as to the purpose of this modified fighting vehicle. Googling, I found a photo of the "real thing" abandon by the road and on the front was a tow bar and fitting not found in the kit. So I assumed this was indeed a recovery vehicle and that the light weight crane was to help lift and move track and road wheels. Anyway, the photo showed one run of track gone (yeah!) and I decided the Germans had stripped most of the other track and all removable equipment on the deck.

I built and added the fitting to the glasic plate then built a tow bar and its fitting. The crane was modified to match closeup photos found on Google. I drilled out the solid webbing on the drive sprocket, very easy to do with a Dremel and small bit. Since this was just for the club I didn't make any more mods or try for super detailing. The paint is a typical Italian theatre scheme and the weathering is as if the real vehicle had been sitting there long enough to collect a heavy coat of road dust. The base was for practice as an experiment in making scenic bases. The tank is attached with a hefty screw through the bottom, accessed by removing the turret.

Except for the old style tracks, this was a very nice kit, but I had to shim out the return/idler wheel because it didn't line up with the track. The zimmerit is very nicely done.