Introduction

Considering that Dragon has recently issued the Henschel Tiger II with moulded on Zimmerit, one has to wonder why Eduard would provide this photo-etch set. The answer lies mainly at the hands of the purchaser. Many modellers have had difficulties with the Dragon DS tracks and prefer the link and length plastic tracks supplied by Revell. If you happen to be one of these individuals, then this set is for you. Together with Eduard's earlier Tiger II photo-etch set (22035) one is given all the necessary tools to build a master model.

A closer look

Eduard has introduced an adhesive backed photo-etch set , which they profess, can be "permanently affixed when pressed onto its intended location". The adhesive on the back of the photo-etch is strong enough only to keep on temporarily, a useful tool to help align the parts while you give the perimeter of the part a fine bead of CA glue, but please do not attempt to keep the parts on using only the Eduard adhesive, as you will have a shedding kitty-cat in no time! The set includes 24 zimmerit coated parts on a very thin sheet, and Eduard's usual colour instruction sheet showing where to cut, fill and replace. Eduard has even given you replacement parts for the, tweezer unfriendly, easily lost, very small parts, a nice touch.

The fit

Eduard's set is very well done, an excellent fitting photo-etch set that is slightly marred with a few questionable design choices.

The hull components fit without issue and provide you with the option of placing the side skirts on or leaving them off. The rear hull plate is impressive in both the fit quality and it's level of detail. The turret, is well done but does leave you a tad perplexed on the design. The turret side zimmerit plates extend from the front armour plate to the very rear of the turret, encasing three different armour plates (turret front, turret side and the turret rear), there is no etched relief showing the thickness of the turret front and the dovetailed rear plate, therefore, giving the impression that the turret has bevelled plate joints. This omission can be addressed by carefully scribing a line approximately 2mm off the front of the side turret plate. The single dovetailed rear turret joint is also ommitted which is less of a concern as it is less noticeable with the zimmerit applied. My only other concern is Eduard's choice of flat photo-etch part over the concaved hull machine gun cover. A resin part to provide you with a cleaner, seamless curved part would have been ideal, but would have probably increased the cost beyond acceptable levels.

In conclusion

The set took me about 3 hours, and gives a great alternative to Dragon's recently issued Tiger II with moulded on zimmerit. Minimal clean up and great fitting, a highly recommended set for those with an aversion to Dragon's DS tracks.