I just couldn't sit and read Phil's great building blog, so I started a little tiger assembly for myself.
So far this is my stuff for this Tigers:
#1 Dragon Tiger I Late 3 in 1(#6406) + Metal tracks Karaya late + Metal barrel Aber late
#2 Academy Tiger I Early(no int) + Academy early tracks + Metal barrel RBM early


The early one is going to be a white tiger.Not actually sure what turret number but I got this one so far and it seams to fit with all the caracteristics that I have in my kit.


The late tiger it's going to be actually a final tiger of the PzAbt.510.A heavy tank battalion that was formed in June, 1944.Still not sure about the turret number(233 or 133).A characteristic to the 510 was the layout of the spare tracks used as additional armor: three sets of three links on the lower glacis, with additional three-link segments on the extremites of the upper glacis.
Not sure how the frontal links holder looked but I hope someone ca help me.

Hi Paul! This promises to be a really great build log! It should be really interesting to see these two big cats emerge from their boxes together. I like the choice of AM for the #6406, and extremely interested in those Karaya metal tracks going together. Thanks for taking the plunge Paul... I don't feel so alone in Tiger mania now!

Cheers Phil.

The white tiger from the 505th has the early Feifels
, the early loader's periscope

and a HL 210 engine with the 2nd type of adapter

Hi Paul!
How are those Karaya metal tracks like? Price etc.... are they cheaper than Friul´s? Never heard about those before. I have many Tigers in my stash and almost half reguires metal AM tracks.

Hi Paul

I look forward to your build of the Academy Tiger. I built it myself recently with the miniart winter tank crew and it turned out surprisingly well. Are you going to scratch build any parts?

Hy guys!

@ Kimmo & Phil
The Karaya tracks are very hard to get.I got the last ones(jadarhobby) for 24$.I think Accurate Armor has them.Their very good with crisp details.I decided to buy them after I read this feature .He claimed that karaya are better than friuls...I don't know about that as I never worked with friul tiger tracks...the only thing I have to say is that Karaya did a very fine job with this set.

@ David
Many thanks David, as I surely would have picked the late ones, because of the late turret.The late Feifels are too in the Academy kit.This is nice!

@Brett
I've seen your tiger and it turned very nice.I think I'll buy the miniart kit too.
The first thing I have to scratch is the early loader's periscope as David pointed that out.And I really have to buy a PE kit for the Dragon tiger.

The #6406 is such a great kit!!!I've found replacement parts that went like a glove on the Academy tiger.

See here .

Thanks!

Small update.

Hello Paul! Very nice comparisons, I have a few of the Academy kits in the kitty stash, and have found them to be easily built fair kits (especially when you sit them next to the Italeri offering) though with a quite a few inaccuracies, and a little soft detail here and there. They are however a good base for depicting a Tiger... Although it really is a case of scratching your head at times gritting your teeth and rolling up your sleeves for a spot of Tiger wrangling eh?
Looking forwards to this coming together Paul, excellent stuff, I like the 'borrowed' DML Tiger parts on the Early, I once was able to 'shoe-horn' a DML late turret roof into an Academy late turret shell with no fit problem. So maybe a lot more of the Dragon Tiger spares could be used give the Academy some added sharper teeth and claws?
Thanks for putting this together Paul!

Cheers Phil.

Paul what are you going to use to clean up the Karaya tracks? I have two sets and they both have lots of pin marks on them.

@ Phil :Yes the Academy kit is very nice.The nicest thing is the price.
Lots of parts fit.But sadly I have to be very careful not to use something that I need.I never tried to fit the roof since I knew about theasymmetry thing.Too bad...I think I would have tried to fix the turret.

@James: I used some needle files.The tricky thing is that I have to fill some gaps.Really annoying.

Question:
My early tiger had a reinforced gun mantlet?

I'm planning on finishing the early one first.This way I can finish it some time this year.
I borrowed again some parts from the #6406(the late tiger is going to get the voyager PE set).
Not much added, in the next set of photos I hope all the pieces are ready for painting, my favorite step.

Hi Paul,
Looking really good so far, looking forward to seeing them painted.

Regards Paul

Thanks!
I wish I had a fast forward button to skip the construction.

I'm going to use the tools from the DML kit.So I cleaned them and their ready to go on the hull.

Dragon has 2 types of clamps and 2 types of crow bars.
Wich is the one I need for the Final Tiger I?

I filled all the holes and corrected some mistakes in the academy kit as I pointed in the pictures.(AJ-PRESS Tank Power Tiger I for reference)


I finally added the loader periscope and other small details.

Paul,

Your doing an outstanding job on both your Tiger I builds. Have you exclusivily borrowed parts from only the DML #6406 kit to upgrade the Academy kit? I have the same Academy #1386 kit in the stash so I am enjoying watching you put yours together.

Keep up the good work,
-Eddy

Thanks Eddy!
Yes, all the parts are from the 6406 kit.It's really amazing how many spares the DML kit has.

I built the left track.In 4 hours I finished cleaning all the parts and glued them in position.
The Academy tracks are extremely good.For their price the only minus is that the guide teeth aren't drilled.

Finnished the tracks.It looks better now.

Panzer riders dragon 6513 .Bit tricky to place them but I'm not scared at all of a little sculpting.The tiger is considered stationary.

I finally decided that this will be the tank with lots of figures.
The 5 miniart figures aren't so good, but with lots of filling and repositioning they'll fit very nicely.

Looks good, Paul. Some very nice details you are adding.

The Tiger looks nicely crowded and the figures "blends" well with the Tiger I.

Looking forward to see more

Thanks Jesper!

Hi Paul!
That is a very nicely populated Tiger, I am really enjoying watching these two Tigers come to life, some really great detailing and 'bashing' going on here Paul. Realling looking forwards to the finish...

Cheers Phil.