Kit: No. 35079
Scale: 1/35
Manufacturer: AFV Club, from Merit International, 626-912-2212, http://merit-intl.com
Price: $38.50
Comments: Injection-molded, 255 parts (24 vinyl, 3 metal), decals
Pros: Good detail and fit, excellent photoetched screens and turned aluminum barrel
Cons: Turret parts warped, no figures, aluminum barrel too heavy for trunnions
It seems that every plastic armor kit manufacturer has brought out a new Tiger tank kit in the last couple of years. AFV Club enters the Tiger’s den with a new kit of the last version of the Tiger I tank. Molded in olive green plastic, the kit shows excellent surface detail. Included are photoetched-metal screens for the engine grates and a turned-metal barrel for the main gun. Tracks are flexible one-piece vinyl with excellent detail. An interesting spring system is used on the idler to adjust the tension of the tracks.
All of the crew hatches can be posed open or closed and have good interior detail. However, only the basic main-gun breech is provided for the turret interior, which is otherwise bare. No figures are included in the kit.
Actual torsion bars are provided for the main suspension. Take care not to glue them so they won’t turn. They have to work or you won’t be able to install the road wheels. Installing the springs for the idler tension was a bit tricky as they are a little stronger than they need to be. I didn’t install the running gear in step 5 as shown, preferring to wait until everything was painted.
Assembling the main turret parts was complicated by warped side panels. which had to be held in place, attached to the turret top and bottom plate with several rubber bands while the adhesive set. The turned-metal barrel proved to be too heavy for the trunnions and drooped, so I had to glue the gun mantlet.
Almost all Tigers of this era came out of the factory with a coat of Zimmerit. This was an anti-magnetic-mine coating that was troweled on the flat surfaces of the tank, and then raked into ridges. AFV Club sells a Zimmerit tool separately, but I applied hardware-store vinyl spackle with micro saw blades. I assembled the hull and the turret, leaving off many of the small parts that would interfere with the application of the Zimmerit.
If you plan on building a vehicle that has the side skirts in place, you will need to remove the attachment bolts on the hull sides.
Tigers of this period had a wide variety of colorful camouflage schemes, and the decal sheet provides for five different ones. I chose to do the vehicle from the 103rd SS Panzer division based in Normandy in 1944. I used lightened Tamiya dark yellow, red brown, and olive green, matching the pattern shown on the instructions. Unfortunately a top view is not provided, so I guessed.
Take care when applying the decals over the Zimmerit surfaces. They are thin and almost impossible to move over the rough surface. When the decals were dry, I gave the model my usual wash and drybrush treatment. Finally, I added the running gear, tools, and cables.
The finished model matches the dimensions given in the Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two by Doyle, Chamberlain, and Jentz. Another useful reference is Military Miniatures in Review’s “Modeler’s Guide to the Tiger Tank.”
It took me about 23 hours to build my cat, a little longer than usual, mainly due to the application of the Zimmerit and the somewhat complex color scheme. If you are looking for a late-production Tiger kit, you won’t go wrong with the AFV Club edition.
– John Plzak