m1/52 for review and a voting poll

[rusted180]

hello fellas!

i know i dont post much on this forum, but ive always enjoyed reading threads and posts! very informative site! i love it!

anyways im thinking of purchasing my very first totenkopf skull! my favorite variation is the m1/52!!! i finally found one that fits my budget but before i agree to make the purchase, i just wanted some opinions about this piece.

i also have a dilemma..... i hope some of you guys can help me make a decision so i decided to post some other pics not related to ss insignia. besides this totenkopf, im thinking of buying a tiger I part from jevgenijss who is supposedly a well known digger from latvia. im not sure if he's a member here on this forum but he has some sort of reputation on warrelics.eu. however, he has no rep power and only posted 6 times, but couple of warrelic members vouch for him so i assume he's ok.... well the part im thinking of buying from him is the loaders turret hatch. jevgenijss states that he dug it from an area where several tigers belonging to heavy tank battalion 510 were destroyed. i researched the loaders hatch and from looking at authentic examples at the bovington tank museum, it looks authentic. my concern about this piece is, are tank parts replicated just like ss items? i know a lot of german militaria can be authenticated such as totenkopf insignias, but tank parts??? hard to say right? well, i guess i have to take the gamble. by the way, both items are the same price, so making a decision is that much harder!

anyways, i just wanted to take a voting poll on what you guys think i should invest my money in..... the 1/52 skull or the tiger I part? i love both pieces but cant make up my mind! LOL!!!

So who wants to vote!!!???!!

here are the m1/52 pics:




here are the tiger tank pics:

[Eddie]

Hello,skull is 100% original in zinc,looks to be ground dug.

as for the tank part best would be to post here http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...splay.php?f=34

[rusted180]

thank you for the reply and the heads up on where to post this.

-rusted

[PaulMann]

Agree w/Ed

,,nice tk, despite being ground dug.
The turret hatch looks believable as well.
The hatch is nice but, Personally, I'd pick the tk!
cheers,
Paul

[Obergruppen2]

The Deschler tk is great and the King Tiger turret/gunners hatch or whatever is left of it looks nice too, i would go for the King Tiger gunners hatch because that is much harder to find, tk's you can always find here at WAF and other sites

[Fritz]

I take it that your budget is low, keeping today's shipping costs in mind: Go for the skull.

Cheers

[maestro]

TK for sure.. Fritz is right, cheaper shipping as well..

[David48]

I would opt for the skull, but I like the welding quality on those hinges.

[rusted180]

thanks for the help guys! i appreciate all the feedback! i think im leaning more toward the hatch now.

[Obergruppen2]

I know this is not the subject for this section but let me explain, it appears to be an earlier version of the loaders hatch form a King Tiger with a Henschel production turret, the Porsche production turret had a loaders hatch same as on the earlier Tiger I, late war production turret had a reinforced loaders hatch ( pic on post #5 )