Introduction

Top Drawings is a really nice series of books from Kagero Publishing that are aimed specifically at the modeller who loves and needs to get the detail on their models just right. As a general rule these titles cover aircraft very nicely but with this release Kagero has turned their attention to the dark side of modelling. The latest one I have obtained a copy of looks at the Panzer Kampf Wagen VI Tiger.

Review

This offering from Kagero is a soft back book written by Slawomir Zajaczkowski. This is a duel language offering with English on the left of the page and Polish on the right of each page where there is dedicated text. The cover is made from a light card with a gloss finish and inside there are 20 pages of high quality matt paper plus a loose line drawing and a particularly pleasing print of a Tiger 1 that has been abandoned after breaking its track.

The book begins with a short written introduction and that is the only pure text in this title as its purpose is to provide accurate visual reference material. The text does have some minor issues in that wrong word or irregular verbs are used as a native English speaker would use, but this does not deter from what is provided to any great extent. The material is presented in the form of scale drawings and colour profiles. Included with this release is a single double sided sheet on the Tiger 1 in 1/48th scale drawings that shows five vehicles from the left side only. I do feel that the appeal of this book would have been greatly enhanced if a large fold out sheet covering the Tiger 1 from the five main angles in a larger scale had been included here. The detail provided in these line drawings is very well done but could have been so much more.

The title offers 15 pages of scale line drawings in 1/35th scale covering the five main angles covered and throwing in an underside view as well. I approve of the fact that Kagero have included line drawings of the Porsche hull and the Porsche hull with the standard Tiger 1 turret mounted as this variant is also provided in model form; also covered here at the very start of the title is the VK36.01 hull from Henschel. The line drawings then start covering the Tiger 1 as everybody sees it in their minds eye with lovely 1/35th scale line drawings covering the Tiger from left and right, front and back, above and below. These drawings should meet the needs of most Tiger 1 fans who are looking for image data only.

In the centre of this title are four pages of colour drawings featuring the Panzer Kampf Wagen VI Tiger shown from the left and right sides only. These drawings are well done but please note that these drawings are not presented in any mentioned scale; I believe they are 1/35th scale just as the rest of the drawings in the book. I appreciate that Kagero has covered some of the specifics of the vehicles covered here in way of the markings.

Conclusion

This offering from Kagero as part of their Top Drawings line of books looking at the Panzer Kampf Wagen VI Tiger and covers the variants that were produced when the Tiger 1 we all know was selected for production. The scale line drawings will enable the modeller to check the size, scale and angle of parts against them and so ease concerns on the accuracy front. I think the inclusion of the double sided sheet is a nice touch but I cannot help feeling that Kagero has missed a trick here as a fold out sheet showing the Tiger 1 from the five main angles in 1/16th scale would have greatly added to appeal this release would have had to the modeller.