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Tiger I Ausf. E

by Ray Peterson

Tamiya's new 1/35 scale Tiger I (early production) is available online at Squadron.com®

This is the original crummy 1/35 scale Tamiya Tiger I kit. At the risk of dating myself, I built this when it was still the best Tiger kit out there. At that time (early 1980's), there were no PE sets, no aluminum barrels, no link by link tracks.

Detailing to the turret includes re-working the commander's cupola and hatch, replacing the turret escape hatch, adding weld beads, plus misc. bits of plastic. The hull was detailed with weld beads plus the tow cables and brackets were completely replaced and redone. The molded-on cable on the hull side was also removed and new brackets and cable were added. The Fiefel air cleaning system was redone and detailed. Screens were added from wedding veil material. Unfortunately, I had to use the kit tracks which were tied down to the roadwheels.

The markings are for a 2nd SS 'Das Reich' Tiger at Kursk. Unfortunately, I made an error in the turret number. It seems there was no '15' at Kursk, they only had 3 Tigers per troop, so they went no higher than 13. It wasn't until a year later that the platoon size was increased to 5 tanks and the number 15 began to be used. The gremlin figure was hand painted.

This model took a 3rd place in Axis - Closed Top AFV's at the 1986 IPMS Nationals.

Model, Text and Images Copyright © 2001 by Ray Peterson
Page Created 07 April, 2001
Last Updated 26 October, 2001

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