I'm thinking about building a Tiger 1 depicted in these pictures. Factory fresh Tiger at the Henschel factory in Kassel. Which kit would best represent this Tiger? Is that Dunkelgelb with no camo? Does any Tiger 1 kit come with transport tracks? If not, who makes a set?






Thanks for any help

Cheers,
Dustin

AFV club makes a transport version.
AF35525

AFV Club's kit AF35S25 represents a Late Tiger with transport tracks. As a Late, it required no change to its wheels.

A Mid or Early (like the one in your photo) requires all of the outer wheels to be removed, exposing special hubs. And there is your problem. Kits don't tend to provide those hubs.

The recent Dragon Mid and Early kits include the odd-numbered hubs, but not the other ones, which are different. I don't know where to get them.

As for the colour of that tank; it's unusually light. It could be Dunkelgelb, but I suspect that it's RAL8020 and the tank is headed to Italy or southern Russia.

David

Hi Dustin!
Friulmodel also makes transport tracks for Tiger (ATL-26)

Antal

David, thank you for that info. Perhaps it seems that I'll have to make a small sacrifice and use the regular kit wheels an leave all of the outers off and just buy some extra parts to show the hubs. Even though the road wheels won't match exactly, that seems to be the only option?

Any idea as to why the road wheels are so different on that Tiger? The one in the background had all proper/normal road wheels and combat tracks.

Thank you Antal! I'll remember that.

I guess that one is in transport mode because they're shipping it. The other one is unfinished and is probably going out for a test run. It's still in red primer paint.

I don't know where you would get those extra hubs.

David

David,

What's the kit # for the Dragon Tiger early you mentioned above?

"I don't know where you would get those extra hubs."

The Voyager PRO35004 kit contains those outer hubs.

Antal

The hubs in that Voyager set don't look right.
In particular, the even-numbered hubs, which are the ones you can't get in any Dragon kit, had round hubs. Voyager have made them round with two flattened sides. I have no idea what they were looking at but it wasn't the real thing.

David

The most recent DML release -Tunisia Initial #6608? - might be the go-to for you. IIRC from what I read, it has the correct outer hub detail that allows for the outer wheels to be left off.

David...can you confirm that?

The following Dragon kits have one half of the necessary hubs, that is, the odd-numbered hubs. No kit has all of the hubs.

6608 Tunisian Initial
6763 Otto Carius Tiger I
6700 Tiger I Mid-Production
6820 Tiger "131"
6730 Wittmann's Command Tiger
6660 Tiger I Mid Command Version

Gotcha. Thanks David

That looks like the closest thing I'm going to get to matching the Tiger in my pictures.

Thank you everybody for that help, it's much appreciated.

When using/switching to transport tracks, are the same drive sprockets used? Or are they narrower?

The sprockets remain the same ones.

David

Thank you David.

The trouble with the Friul transport tracks, are that they are not "handed" in the sense that you will have to mount one of the tracks in reverse of the other, to avoid the open end of the track (where the pin is inserted) showing (ie face outwards).

I'm building a Tiger I in transport mode, and all my reference photos of that tank, show the tracks to be mounted in the same direction (you can tell from the pattern in the track surface).

My solution was go get a set of AFV Club transport tracks, which are available separately (AF35129). Or you can grab the AFV Club Late Tiger, and use battle tracks for that one. The AFV Club Tiger I is a nice, and inexpensive kit. But, the tracks in that one are rubber tracks, which may not be your cup of tea.

Another issue with the hubs in the Voyager PRO35004 set, is that half of them are too long by at least 1 mm. I cut mine down to match references. I failed to notice the error with the flat sides, pointed out by David B, but I shall find a way to live with those.

Arild

Alrid,

Thank you for that advice. Those AFV club tracks are cheaper as well. I'll have to search and see if the make some for my King Tiger.

About the Voyager set, do they make a less exstinsive set that still offer the hubs?

Cheers,
Dustin

Don't know about Voyager, but a totally unrelated search brought me to Tank Workshop, who also offer these hubs. A set is $12.

http://www.tankworkshop.com/newshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=251

These may even be more accurate than those in the Voyager set?

Arild

Those do seem very accurate. Thank you for sharing that!

I like the profile of those Tank Workshop items, but they seem to have long bolts going from front to rear within the hub. This isn't real.

David

Would just removing those bolts solve the problem, then?

Arild

I'd have to see them glued in place. That photo is blurry. I can't see any other obvious problems.

David

I've purchased everything needed to re-create this Tiger, except the MG cover. Does anybody make one? If so where can it be purchased? I bought the muzzle cover from Tank Workshop, but I haven't found an MG cover.



Cheers,
Dustin

The MG cover could probably be done fairly easily the old fashioned way. Tissue and white glue.