Hi there

I have managed to get my hands on a Cyber Hobby DAK Tiger at a reasonable price (cannot believe some of the prices I have seen on ebay for them!). I plan on building it and I have also been offered the Verlinden interior #2300 for the Dargon Tiger #6253.

So i have 2 questions... would the interior (I am primarily interested in the engines and transmission) be correct for the DAK Initial Tiger and would it fit the Cyber Hobby Initial (I really cannot see why not but want to be 100% sure)

Secondly, are these Verlinden interiors actually any good? I have also been offered one for the Dragon Pz III I am building at the moment. I know it is for the Tamiya L but I think it could be trimmed to fit.

Thanks

VM

I have the Verlinden Interior for the Tiger 1 although I have yet to build it. I will be building mine into a late production vehicle - Normandy 1944.

Well the instructions are simply awful, they are poor quality black and white this will not aid you in constructing the kit. A good reference book or web references are manditory.

If you want to build a complete interior, you will need to add lots of details yourself too like floor supports as these are missing from the kit.

Oh be careful when fitting the internal hull support, the Dragon kit bends in slightly I installed the Verlinden part to see how it looked and the slight pressure broke it in half ! I will make it out of brass when I start the project.

Basically I am not a big fan of Verlinden, I much perfer the Aber interior for the Panzer 1 that I am currently building, the instructions are mostly excellent and the quality is first rate. I wish Aber moved onto building interior kits for Tigers and Panthers.

It will be a challenging build, remember to do a build log

One thing that you may want to consider on your build.

I believe the Verlinden Kit that you are considering using is designed for as mid or late production vehicle.

If you are going to produce a DAK Tiger 1 you will need to install a Maybach HL 210 TRM P45 engine. This engine was installed in the first 250 Tigers.

The Verlinden Kit has a Maybach HL 230 TRM P45 engine, installed in the Mid and Late production tanks and there are some fairly obvious differences to the HL 210.

The main difference is inescapable, the number of air cleaners, your kit the HL230 has two where as the earlier engine had three.

In otherwords you cant use this engine on a DAK Tiger

Sorry !

Thanks for your replies...

so in summary the Verlinden is badly instructed, missing loads of parts and wrong for this Initial tank!

I like a challenge but that seems ridiculous! Thanks for your advice... OOB it will be!

Well the Verlinden Kit does provide a fairly accurate depiction of an mid/lateTiger interior, there are some parts they have not included as they would be challenging to produce in resin. Verlinden does not include ant PE with the kit so I guess that limits the options box on what they can produce.

The Verlinden interior will provide nore than an enough detail for a decent interior but dont expect Aber standards

Hi there,

whilst I cannot comment on the Tiger I interior, I certainly have gained some experience with another Verlinden interior. It's the one for the Ferdinand / Elefant. Let me tell you, it was the biggest waste of money in my modelling life so far. Parts are well oversized, not existent or simply wrong in shape. As mentioned before, the instructions are lousy, too. So I ended up scratching the whole interior.
On the other hand, though, I got an old release (when Verlinden was placed in Belgium) of a Tiger I engine (compartment) for the Tamiya kit. This looks nice and much more accurate. It's probably the same with their armor accesoires as it is with their figures. The higher the reference number the lower are fit, accuracy and overall quality.
I wouldn't go for any Verlinden interior anymore. You're better off spending the money for plastic sheet or a CMK interior. They too aren't perfect, but at least much closer to the original subject. And with a little trimming and sanding you can use an interior designed for a Tamiya kit in a DML model, usually.
One last thing. If I remember correctly, there was a build of a Pz. III here on armorama. The builder was also referring to the Verlinden interior as crap. A friend of mine ripped their Pz. IV interior as well...
Sorry for being so hard on Verlinden, but truth must be told when it's time to.

Cheers!

Hi Von, hi Steve! Hello Johannes

Some of the parts included in the sets I have of Verlindens are rather 'fanciful' to say the least. Especially the Mid-Lates fighting compartments interior... Turret basket supports, stowage, drivers seating arrangement, and tool stowage... I have yet to see the firewall but expect that will also have a high level of errors also. Strangely the stowed turret items were more akin to an Early than any Mid or Late that I have seen internal shots of (not seen any Mids actually, just drawings) so the upshot of this is 'buyer beware' if you are after a really accurate depiction of a Tiger's interior, expect a lot of scratching and supplanting if you follow the Verlinden route, but still good value for money if you buy direct from 3dverlinden over on E-bay.
At the moment I am evaluating the CMK Tiger 1 interiors... And they are little pricier, but a darn sight closer to a fair solution for including an interior in your Tiger!
You can see the sets on the #3833 Tiger Mod blog below.

Cheers Phil

I am currently building a Tristar/Dragon/Aber Panzer 1, and recording a build log of it on the forum.

I really like the ABER parts which are well detailed. I wish they included engine PE details though.

ABER should produce a Tiger 1 interior - i am sure that it would sell very well. I fact I have sent them an E-mail asking them to consider it.

Might be expensive though

All the Verlinden interior sets I've used make good starting points, but always need improvement. (They were ground-breaking in their day but today are a bit long in the tooth.) Aber's PE will complement the Verlinden set nicely.