Here is a look in the box at the recent Cyber-Hobby orange box release of the Tiger I early production kit.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Darren, thank you again. I hope someone finds this of use.

Wouldn't it need zimmerit? I know I could be wrong but I had thought Tigers at Kursk had it.

Thanks, Darren! I bought the first Tiger I kit that DRAGON is marketing as a "cheaper" alternative to their standard Tigers. The great part about this new series is that some modellers may find that they are better-suited as simplified "beginner" kits that will build up into quite good representatives of Tiger Is costing HALF of what DRAGON's "regular" Tiger Is cost. They're cheaper than what your average TAMIYA Tiger I costs, so they are a perfectly viable option for the buyer that doesn't quite want to spend that $50.00 and up for their first Tiger.

Purists will howl "FOUL", but I don't think that this model is intended to be bought by the more experienced "experts", who will invest an average of $65.00 (retail) and more for a regular DRAGON or CYBERHOBBY Tiger I PLUS extra resin and PE kits, not to mention their own "hand-formed" zimmerit...

Zimmerit made its appearance in December of 1943, plus or minus, so it was not yet in use at the time of Citadel. (Kursk)

..I think it's a pretty nice kit, BTW. There have been some complaints about the wheels and the suspension, but these are not deal-breakers IMHO. (How often do you see the suspension on a Tiger anyway?) I would love to see a Tunisia version released!

I was kinda picky about the wheels too. but you know what you can still cut them loose of one another and then paint them individually... its not all bad. The tracks NOW thats another story all together.

Thanks for the comments.

James, the tracks are very well done for single length. The drape on the Tiger is much easier to show with these than on a pz. III or IV chassis, and it fits the target audience.

One of my main reasons for getting this kit is that no zimmerit was needed.

You KNOW that there are gonna be un-informed guys that go out and buy this kit and apply zimmerit just because they like the looks of it, realism be damned. PLUS, there are the much cheaper prices of this growing series of DRAGON re-pops and "economized" kits of Tiger Is and IIs, IIIs, etc. I've assembled the first Tiger I kit in this new series, using the "odd" interconnected wheel assemblies with the DS tracks- you're only gonna spot this quirky stuff if you look for it.

As I said earlier, these new kits are not meant for the guys that will spend all kinds of money on AM PE and resin upgrades to bring their models up to top-echelon contest standards. They're not intended for the nit-picking rivet counters.

Personally, I'd rather have seen DRAGON re-popping their M2, M3, M16, etc US Half Track kits with NEW FLUSH COUNTER-SUNK SCREWS, and slightly less "flattened and bulging" tires as seen on the real deals... There's no such thing as perfectly round tires on ANY vehicle, even when they're inflated to proper tire pressures. Trust me, I was in the automotive business for 25 years, so I know this to be true...

NOw the halftracks from DML for the US would be the one time I would use DS tracks. I think there it would make much more sense. I have seen one image of a capsized HT in the water where the track is loose at the bottom. With DS track you could replicate that.

Thanks a lot!

Reading all of your comments with considerable interest and thought that I'd throw-out a quick comment/observation: M4A1Sherman: actually almost any Tiger that lasted long-enough would eventually had Zimmerit applied to it, and in this case it could have been done after the fact by the Werkstatt Kompanie who often did this stuff whenever a tank came back in for repairs and provided that there was time. This was how they applied all updates on equipment: prioritize the repair necessity and do what you could with what you had at hand. As such, you could conceivably see virtually any early Tiger with field-applied Zimmerit and it was, according to the photo evidence, a real mixed bag. Usually pretty rough. Same applied to Panthers, etc, up until they discontinued applying Zimmerit late in the war.