Airfix Tiger I Early version (A1363) 1:35

[Mike]

Tiger I Early version (A1363)

1:35 Airfix

 

 

The Tiger tank was part of Hitler's obsession for bigger, heavier and stronger, which drove him to extraordinary and dizzying heights of impracticality later in the war, but in this case served him well. The goal was to mount the extremely successful and powerful 88mm cannon (used in the Flak 36) in a tank with sufficient armour to withstand any round then-fielded by the enemy, and this was achieved, but at the cost of reliability and  a legendary thirst for fuel. It also made for some interesting bridge-crossing as the finished article weighed in at almost 60 tonnes, which was too much for many smaller bridges of the day.

 

There was a competition with only two contenders, and it was the filmed breakdown of the Porsche designed prototype and subsequent fire that decided Hitler in the favour of the less ambitious Henschel design which became the Tiger, and then the Tiger I when the King Tiger came into being. When it first reached the front it caused panic and disaster for the Allies, being able to do almost everything it was designed to do, including knocking out tanks long before their enemy's guns were able to bring them in range. Even when the Allies could get into range, it wasn't until they got much closer that they had any significant chance of crippling or destroying the mighty Tiger, especially during frontal engagements. Many of the early Tigers were lost to mechanical breakdown due to the excessive strain on the transmission, and had to either be dragged off the field by half-tracks under the cover of darkness, armoured protection, or failing that, destroyed to stop them falling into the enemy's hands.  The Tiger underwent many and constant changes throughout production to improve performance, fix problems and to simplify construction, but these are generally lumped together into early, mid or late productions for the sake of us modellers. If you want to get maximum accuracy of fit and finish, check your references for certainty.

 

The Kit

This is one of Airfix's new range of 1:35 AFV models, which is a scale that they have not entered until now due to previous management apparently (this could well be nonsense) swearing off the scale.  Whether that's true or not the current management are much more switched-on to the hobby, so order to be able to hit the ground running, they have reached an agreement to rebox some Academy AFV kits with the Airfix touch, and we should eventually see new tools from them in due course with a little luck.

 

This kit arrives in the familiar red-themed box with a Tiger engaged in combat in a furious rain storm, and inside are seven sprues of sand coloured styrene, three more in a medium grey, five sprues in black, a fret of nickel-plated Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a small decal sheet and a three-part instruction sheet, which is in the Academy style with Airfix additions to top and tail it.  This boxing includes an interior, plus individual track links, which are a visual improvement on rubber-band style originally used on kit.  The instructions are printed on fold-out glossy paper, which can get a bit unwieldy if you need to fold them all out together and you have limited space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction starts with adding the suspension arms to the lower hull with eight double sets of outer road wheels made up, followed by eight double sets of inner road wheels , sandwiching a ploy cap between to the two wheels (inner ones only) . The drive sprockets and idler wheels are made up, again sandwiching the poly caps between the halves, and fitting those last.  The inner single wheels are added to the hull, followed by the interleaved main wheels (two sets), and lastly the outer singles.  Once all the wheels are on the rear bulkhead of the tank is made up with the mud guards and exhausts being added. 

 

The aft bulkhead is next, with mud guards, exhausts and cast armoured covers fitted before it is installed in the rear hull, then tied in with inner exhaust trunking.  Inside the hull the fake torsion-rods are added to the floor, and the Fievel filters are made up for each side, then attached at the rear on each corner.  There are two types of filter on the early Tiger, one with two chambers, the other later one a single box.  These were later removed to simplify production and if damaged were sometimes left off even on the early vehicles.  Jack block, jack and towing hooks plus the outer covers for the exhausts are fitted, then the engine and transmission are constructed over the following steps.  The radio gear is balanced on top of the transmission, and the crew seats, battery boxes and driver controls are glued in place then the engine, transmission and ammo stowage are dropped into the interior, the engine separated from the crew compartment and radiators by internal bulkheads.  The radiator bays and fans are made up and more ammo is stowed on the lower surface of the sponsons, accompanied by some photos of the completed area to help and inspire you.  There are plenty of photos of the real model throughout to show all the detail once painted, which is useful but would have been even better if they had been printed in colour.

 

Next up the upper deck is assembled with photo etch screens are provided for the engine cooling vents. Full detailed hatches are provided which can be opened to show off the interior and the moulded styrene towing cables and filter hoses are added to the deck once in place. The angular glacis plate of the tank is also assembled at this time along with the ball-mounted bow machine gun and this has internal detail and the stock of the MG34 added. The tracks can then be assembled and added to the tank, and as mentioned earlier these are individual links, however no note of the number of links required is mentioned.  A two-page cut-away drawing of the interior is given showing the layout and labelling it all for our information

 

Construction now moves to the turret with internal detail moulded in, to which various detail parts and crew seats are added before the halves are joined together.  Externally the two smoke grenade launcher packs are added to the front corners and shell ejection hatch fills the hole in the port side.  The turret basket has a circular tread-plated bottom, which has three additional fuel canisters, the coax machine gun trigger pedal and the traverse motor fitted, and the breech is made up behind the mantlet then has the two-part barrel inserted into the shroud.  It is split vertically, so if the thought of hiding the seam upsets you, you should be able to pick up an aftermarket metal barrel quite easily.  With the various components now finished the turret is made up around the breech and the basket floor is suspended from the seat mounts.  The two hatches are next to be made up, with the more complex commander's cupola taking up the majority of parts and able to be posed open or closed.  The loader's hatch is much more simple, with just a handle on the outside, two on the inside and a wheel to close it up.  These are added to the turret roof along with a vent, with internal parts fitted before it is glued in place on the turret.  All that is left to do is twist the turret into place with its bayonet fitting, fit the side skirts, tow cable stays and a shovel on the glacis plate.

 

Markings

There are two decal options in the box utilising the small decal sheet, and from the box you can build one of the following:

 

• SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich, Normandy, May 1944
• SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich, Russia, Spring 1943

 

 

 

These are different schemes on the same tank, but the codes might make you go cross-eyed or wonder if you've got a faulty sheet, but it's simply a case of a black 832 overpainted (somewhat lazily by the crew) with 823 in outlined white.  It's surprising that even though they managed to completely repaint the tank, they still kept the icky overpainted code.  Who'd have known they'd be confusing modellers 76 years later?

 

 

Conclusion

The Tiger is an iconic AFV from WWII, and the Academy kit under Airfix's auspices is a good compromise between ease of construction and detail.  The addition of the interior is a bonus if you're planning on posing any of the hatches open too.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[vppelt68]

German tank divisions didn´t have organic heavy tank companies anymore that late in 1944, as they were evolved to independent heavy tank battalions. In this case, the 13th company of the 2. SS Panzer Division formed the cadre for 102. schwere SS Panzer Abteilung. And they were not in Normandy until quite late June 1944. And they were very unlikely to have early versions of the Tigger 🤭 in their inventory, those were left in Ukraine, I believe. But it should be a very nice KIT anyway .

[DByrden]

The decal sheet / history information has problems.

 

• The real Tiger " 823 / 832 " was not exactly the same version of Tiger as this kit builds. Its turret bin was quite different.
• The real Tiger " 823 / 832 " was destroyed in Operation Citadel, so Airfix are wrong when they tell us it went to France and fought after D-day.
• Airfix drew 2 camouflage schemes for Tiger 823/832. The real vehicle did have 2 schemes but they were not the same as the Airfix ones.
• The brief history of the Tiger, which Airfix put on the side of the box, describes some very specific Tiger actions near Leningrad but has no bearing on the Tiger 823/832 that the decals represent.

 

FYI, the reason for the overpainting of the number 832 is that when the crew were given the new 1943 paints (red+green+dark yellow), they decided to not apply the green because their tank was already greenish. So they left part of their tank untouched, keeping the old digits. Later they were obliged to paint new digits, and they didn't bother to erase the old ones.

 

How do I know that? Because we have many photos. Photos that Airfix' researcher apparently didn't find.

 

David

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by DByrden
for clarity