Brickmania Instructions Club - NEWEST MODELS

Brickmania 209T: PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. E (Tan Variant)

BRICKMANIA 209 (Released May 22, 2003)

PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. E

German Heavy Tank

Designed by Daniel Siskind

The ninth WW2 custom Lego® model kit to be designed by Daniel Siskind and the fifth of a new series of WW2 AFV models to be released by Brickmania.

About the Tiger I

Of all the tank designs to reach a 20th Century battlefield, no other vehicle has attained such legendary and mythical status as the German Tiger heavy tanks. Backed up by undeniable battlefield effectiveness, the Tiger?s mythos grew to legendary status and struck terror into the hearts of those faced with the challenge of defeating it.

The origins of the Tiger tank date back to 1937, when a 30-35 ton heavy tank was discussed by German planners. The idea was dropped in favor of the more lightweight and mobile Panzer III and IV series, which proved adequately effective against allied forces in Poland and France. When Hitler turned his forces against Russia, they were soon shocked to be faced against the formidable T-34 tank (a closely guarded secret weapon up to that point). The Panzertruppe found themselves outgunned, and facing certain defeat, unless they were equipped with more powerful weapons.

On Hitler’s orders, a new 55 ton heavy tank was to be produced, armed with an adaptation of the deadly 88mm anti-aircraft cannon, and 100mm of frontal armor. The winning prototype was designed by Henschel and was ordered into production in July of 1942. While sequentially following the much sleeker Panther tank, the Tiger was clearly a throwback to earlier design work. Instead of sloping armor, the Tiger relied on shear brute strength of it’s armor for protection. This simplified design helped speed the Tiger into production, although not without such innovations as a semiautomatic transmission, power steering (allowing the driver to steer with a wheel instead of a pair of brake levers), and a hydraulically powered turret.

The Tiger made it’s battlefield debut in September of 1942 and immediately proved effective at knocking out virtually any adversary well before itself was within effective range of opposing fire. The Tiger successfully served the Panzertruppe on all fronts on the European continent until the end of the war. The Tiger’s near invincibility against any other allied armored vehicle instilled a fear known as “Tigerphobia” and reports of battlefield encounters with Tiger tanks were censored by British commanders to prevent panic amongst the troops.

While the Tiger (and predecessor Tiger II) was undoubtedly one of the most formidable weapons present at any battle in WW2, only 2500 were produced due to it’s enormous material cost. Even though it was one of the greatest tanks of all time, achieving an unequalled legendary status in AFV history, it never reached the battlefield in sufficient numbers to the turn the tide of the war. Although inferior in almost every aspect, the mass-produced medium tanks of the allies (Sherman and T-34) were deployed in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the limited number of German heavy tanks, even while suffering (criminally) grievous losses to their own units.

Special features of this model include poseable turret and main gun, all five crewment, a completely detailed hull interior (including driver and radio operator stations, fighting compartment, and engine compartment), and seven opening hatches, and 127 links of Technic® conveyer belt chain, and numerous decorated tiles.

This is a limited-run tan variant of the the original Tan Tiger I kit.

45 degree view

Profile + Rear

45 Degree (Rear)

Twins II

Brickmania 209: PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. E

BRICKMANIA 209 (Released May 22, 2003) DISCONTINUED

PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. E

German Heavy Tank

Designed by Daniel Siskind

The ninth WW2 custom Lego® model kit to be designed by Daniel Siskind and the fifth of a new series of WW2 AFV models to be released by Brickmania.

About the Tiger I

Of all the tank designs to reach a 20th Century battlefield, no other vehicle has attained such legendary and mythical status as the German Tiger heavy tanks. Backed up by undeniable battlefield effectiveness, the Tiger?s mythos grew to legendary status and struck terror into the hearts of those faced with the challenge of defeating it.

The origins of the Tiger tank date back to 1937, when a 30-35 ton heavy tank was discussed by German planners. The idea was dropped in favor of the more lightweight and mobile Panzer III and IV series, which proved adequately effective against allied forces in Poland and France. When Hitler turned his forces against Russia, they were soon shocked to be faced against the formidable T-34 tank (a closely guarded secret weapon up to that point). The Panzertruppe found themselves outgunned, and facing certain defeat, unless they were equipped with more powerful weapons.

On Hitler’s orders, a new 55 ton heavy tank was to be produced, armed with an adaptation of the deadly 88mm anti-aircraft cannon, and 100mm of frontal armor. The winning prototype was designed by Henschel and was ordered into production in July of 1942. While sequentially following the much sleeker Panther tank, the Tiger was clearly a throwback to earlier design work. Instead of sloping armor, the Tiger relied on shear brute strength of it’s armor for protection. This simplified design helped speed the Tiger into production, although not without such innovations as a semiautomatic transmission, power steering (allowing the driver to steer with a wheel instead of a pair of brake levers), and a hydraulically powered turret.

The Tiger made it’s battlefield debut in September of 1942 and immediately proved effective at knocking out virtually any adversary well before itself was within effective range of opposing fire. The Tiger successfully served the Panzertruppe on all fronts on the European continent until the end of the war. The Tiger’s near invincibility against any other allied armored vehicle instilled a fear known as “Tigerphobia” and reports of battlefield encounters with Tiger tanks were censored by British commanders to prevent panic amongst the troops.

While the Tiger (and predecessor Tiger II) was undoubtedly one of the most formidable weapons present at any battle in WW2, only 2500 were produced due to it’s enormous material cost. Even though it was one of the greatest tanks of all time, achieving an unequalled legendary status in AFV history, it never reached the battlefield in sufficient numbers to the turn the tide of the war. Although inferior in almost every aspect, the mass-produced medium tanks of the allies (Sherman and T-34) were deployed in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the limited number of German heavy tanks, even while suffering (criminally) grievous losses to their own units.

Special features of this model include poseable turret and main gun, all five crewment, a completely detailed hull interior (including driver and radio operator stations, fighting compartment, and engine compartment), and seven opening hatches, and 127 links of Technic® conveyer belt chain, and numerous decorated tiles.

45 degree view

Profile

45 degree (rear)

Twins

Brickmania 208: Panzer V "Panther" Tank

BRICKMANIA 208 (Released April 4, 2003)

PzKpfw V "Panther"

German Medium Tank

Designed by Daniel Siskind

The eigth WW2 custom Lego® model kit to be designed by Daniel Siskind and the fourth of a new series of WW2 AFV models to be released by Brickmania.

The German Panther (closely followed by the T-34) was probably the best overall tank fielded by any nation during the course of World War two, although it?s almost completely overshadowed in the history books by it?s larger cousins, the Tiger I and Tiger II.

In June of 1941 Germany invaded Russia and the forces were soon face to face with the KV and T-34/76 tanks, superior in firepower and armor protection over anything in the German arsenal. The German High Command urgently laid out specifications for a new series of medium tank to counter the more powerful Soviet models. The submitted prototypes designs borrowed heavily from the T-34, incorporating heavily sloped frontal armor and wide tracks for improved performance of soft ground. However, he final design was far beyond a mere copy of the T-34, with many state of the art improvements. These including large interleaved roadwheels for better cross-country performance, a powerful Maybach engine, and the long-barreled, high velocity 75mm KwK 42 L/70 gun, capable of penetrating 150mm of armor at a range of 1000 meters (slightly better performance than the 88mm gun fitted to the Tiger I). It also had much better armor protection than it?s Russian equivalent, with an overall weight of later models reaching 45 metric tons and comparable to most allied heavy tanks.

By fall of 1942, the Panther went it to full production, even though some technical problems were still being corrected in the prototype models. These early models (designated Ausf. A) were used mainly for testing and training and by January of 1943, an improved version (Ausf. D) began rolling off the production lines and were designated to active units of the Panzertruppe. The Panther made a poor battlefield debut during Operation Citadel (the Kursk Salient), with most units breaking down before reaching or on the battlefield itself, with problems with the gearbox, suspension, and an unfortunate high engine fire occurrence rate.

Lessons learned in Russia were incorporated into an improved and extensively modified new Panther (redesignated Ausf. A). This version saw extensive action in the Normandy campaign, with some 400 units present. They were so effective against allied armor that they were commonly mistaken for the much larger Tiger in battlefield reports. The Panther sustained it?s biggest losses on the Western front from Allied air power, rather than engagement by ground forces. Starting in March of 1944, a further improved Panther, designated Ausf. G, was produced, and went on to become the most numerous of all Panther models manufactured.

By war?s end, some 6000 Panthers of all types were manufactured. While it eventually achieved great battlefield success, the Panther program proved too little, too late to save Germany from ultimate defeat. The lack of credible German air presence at the end of the war, coupled with overwhelming allied numerical and industrial superiority, spelt disaster for all of the Panzertruppe, even though their fighting vehicles and battlefield prowess were unequaled. It is also of note that the Panther hull was the basis for the legendary Jagdpanther, also considered to be the best tank destroyer field during the war. Ten Panthers were also heavily modified to to resemble the American T-10 tank destroyers in an attempt to fool allied troops. These successfully penetrated deep into allied lines and caused great havoc and subterfuge during what later become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

“According to US Army Ground Forces statistics,

destruction of a single Panther was achieved after

destruction of five M4 Shermans or some nine T-34s.”

— http://www.achtungpanzer.com

Special features of this model include poseable turret and main gun, all five crewment, a completely detailed hull interior (including driver and radio operator stations, fighting compartment, and engine compartment), and six opening hatches, and 120 links of Technic® conveyer belt chain, and numerous decorated tiles.

Profile	Commander	Engine Hatches	Rear Detail
Right Side	Interior	Maybach	Interior 2

This limited edition custom model kit contains 857 genuine Lego® building bricks, complete full-color building instructions on CD-Rom (Adobe® Acrobat Reader® required), and is packaged in a sealed box. Each kit also comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, listing the kit number and batch from when it was created.

Brickmania 207: T-34/85 Tank

BRICKMANIA 207 (Released March 8, 2003)

T-34 / 85

Soviet Medium Tank

Designed by Daniel Siskind

The seventh WW2 custom Lego® model kit to be designed by Daniel Siskind and the third of a new series of WW2 AFV models to be released by Brickmania.

Developed in great secrecy, the T-34 was Russia's answer to growing military threat of pre- World War Two Germany. Incorporating many new and innovative features, such as the Christie suspension system and sloping hull armor, it's success was considered a gamble by the Communist Party bosses. While the Soviet Union already had a heavy tank series in production (KV series), it the T-34 program was given the go ahead. Stalin's rationale was that the designers could always be executed if the project failed.

While still not in full production when Hitler unleased the Blitzkreig on the Soviet Union, the appearance of the T-34 on the battlefield soon stunned the German High Command. Not only was the T-34 able to withstand almost anything the Germans could throw at it, but it's 76mm gun could easily knock out the Panzer III's and IV's, then the heaviest tanks in the German arsenal. Hitler responded with a crash program of heavy tank production, spawning the legendary Panther and Tiger models, with thicker armor and every larger weapons.

The first of the new German heavy tanks to arrive in Russia was the Tiger I, which was fitted with a redisgned version of the Luftwaffe's 88mm anti-aircraft canon. This proved to be just what the German's needed to stop the new T-34. They now had the firepower and the Tiger's thick armor made them almost immune to the 76mm gun of the T-34. In reponse, the T-34 was fitted with a similarly powerful new 85mm gun and a larger turret, which also allowed the crew to be increased to five.

While the T-34 was never able to fully stand toe against the Panther or Tigers, due to it's comparatively lighter armor, it was able to achieve effectiveness by matching it in firepower. Ultimately, it was the simplicity of the design, which made it more suitable for mass production than it's German equivelents. With over 40,000 T-34's being produced during the war, it was able to defeat the German invasion through firepower, achieved by strength in numbers.

Special features of this model include poseable turret and main gun, all five crewment, a completely detailed hull interior (including driver and radio operator stations, fighting compartment, and engine compartment), and six opening hatches, and 120 links of Technic® conveyer belt chain, and numerous decorated tiles.

Loading	Front View	Hull Interior	Engine Trouble
Rear Left	Top Right	Rear Detail	Left Profile

Check out my T-34 Gallery for additional images of this kit and prototype!

This limited edition custom model kit contains 701 genuine Lego® building bricks, complete full-color building instructions on CD-Rom (Adobe® Acrobat Reader® required), and is packaged in a sealed box. Each kit also comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, listing the kit number and batch from when it was created.