Topic title pretty much says it all. I want to build either a Panther or Tiger in 1/35 scale with the turret removed (using one of the Strabokran kits), so I'd like to know what the best options are. I also plan to have the engine and air filter compartments open, with some parts in various stages of disassembly if that affects your recommendation. TIA.

I can't speak to any of the Tiger kits, but I have several of the Panther kits. If you want an Ausf. G, get the RFM kit. If you want an Ausf D or Ausf A, then one of the Takom kits will work just fine.

Your best bet may be the "Lucky Pack" from Takom. You get the Strabokran with one of the full interior Panter kits all in one box.

Rye Field's Eastern Front Tiger is the best Tiger interior kit you can buy, unless you're willing to pay big money for the discontinued multi-media kits from Model Factory Hiro, which are at a very similar level.

Rye Field's Mid Production should in theory have equal quality, but they didn't have photo books of an example in Bovington to work from, so they didn't have a clear idea of the version differences for this version, and they sort of made a guess at something between Early and Late, so a number of things in it are wrong or missing.

We were expecting a Late Tiger with interior from them, to round out the set. Funny thing is, they then released a Late Tiger without interior. That makes you wonder if an interior really repays the model company's investment.

But who knows, maybe they're plugging away at the research right now, trying to find out what makes a Command Tiger like "007" different from a normal one. One of the great questions of our era!

The next contender is the very old Academy Early Tiger and it's terrible. Apart from some important stuff being missing, the dimensions of everything inside the model are distorted. This is too long, that's too wide, this is squashed to make room for that.... and if you want to fix it, everything needs replacing ! With so many photos available from inside the Bovington Tiger, this kit will fool nobody any more.

David

Has anyone compared the Meng King Tiger with interior to the Takom offerings (with interiors)?

I'm wondering which is better in terms of accuracy, fit, etc.

This mystery has been resolved at the Nurnberg show. Rye Field intend to sell a "Tiger interior" set. Their future kits of the Tiger will have no interior but the set can be added to them. A great solution!




Unfortunately they don't seem to know that this is an issue. They showed a preview of a "Wittman's S04" with their standard interior in it, but it requires a Command interior.

So I can predict this; Rye Field's interior will be great for Spring 1943 Early Tigers and Final Tigers - because these two exist in museums. For all other variants of the Tiger E their set will be somewhat wrong, but they'll use it anyway.

David