SPA Modeler

The other night I was watching "Greatest Tank Battles: Battle of the Bulge" on Youtube.



I found it very interesting to watch and as usual. anything I read or see inspires me to want to build one. This time, it's the Tiger tank. I have checked out various Tiger tank kits and found these:

Academy kits:

https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagorie ... roduct.php

https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagorie ... roduct.php

Dragon kit:

https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagorie ... roduct.php

Eduard kit:

https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagorie ... roduct.php

My plan is to build a couple of Tigers that were involved in the Battle of the Bulge. The Dragon kit I would assume would be fine as the Royal Tiger. The Academy kit seems to be a decent kit but I'd like to hear your opinions on them as well as the others I posted.

Right out of the box, the Eduard kit is exactly what you need. I'll explain more in a bit

Sorry, I was on my phone, and typing a detiled message takes too damn long on that tiny screen. So...

1) There were only a couple Tiger units, AKA Schwere Panzer Abteilung involved in the Ardennes Offensive. The vast majority of the Tigers were King Tigers, Tiger IIs, Royal Tiger. IIRC , only one Company of Tiger Is saw action there, and that was as the third company of a Battalion due to not enough Tiger IIs being available.

2) There were only 50 Porsche Turret Tiger IIs made, they were the first 50 off the production line in mid 1944 and saw service mostly in the East, where some survived to the end of the war, and in France & Holland where most were lost. The Tiger Battalions in the Ardennes had been re equipped after combat losses in France and had pretty much all new production Henschel Turret Tiger IIs, with the exception of the 3rd Company of the one Battalion having Tiger Is.

3) Tiger I production had ceased in early 1944 to make room for Tiger IIs. So the Tiger Is used in Ardennes would essentially have been "trade ins" of various production batches and possibly even some rebuilds with hybrid features of early, mid, and late production Tiger Is. Actual photos documenting that Tiger company are hard to come by.

4) In September of 1944, zimmerit was no longer applied on the production line, so while some Ardennes Tiger IIs had zimmerit, the majority being fresh from the factory would not have had zimmerit in December 1944.

5) the Eduard kit list markings for Schwere Panzer Abteilung 506 in Belguim 1945. 506 s.Panzer Abt. was the Heer (army as opposed to SS) Tiger Battalion part of the Ardennes Offensive. It was the battalion with the 3rd company of Tiger Is due to there not being enough available Tiger IIs to equip the entire Battalion. The other was an SS s.Panzer Abt., 101 IIRC without going thru my reference library or looking online.

Now go sing Panzerlied with Robert Shaw and decide on what Tiger I kit you need afterwards.

Thank you Stik for the insightful info. Armor isn't really my genre nor I know the differences, modifications, and history in various tank models such as the Tiger (and others). I didn't know where to look when researching tanks for a kit be it Tigers, Shermans, Churchills. and more. I will take into consideration on the Eduard kit.

You're very welcome my friend. I have a decent working knowledge of Tiger tanks from a GB our AMPS chapter did here three summers ago. And some reference stuff in my library. I will link you up to a good Tiger reference site on my days off.

As far as I know the Eduard kit is a re-pop of the Academy Königstiger, or King Tiger, or Royal Tiger. I have no idea on the Academy one´s decal options in regards to the Battle of the Bulge, but IMHO the Eduard box is a downgrade of what Academy offers.

Here are the entries of kits from ScaleMates. Each link provides further links to reviews of the respective kit.

Academy: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/100200- ... king-tiger

Eduard: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/318773- ... b-tiger-ii
Eduard Weekend Edition: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/950007- ... b-tiger-ii

Some Tiger variants

Early Tiger I- "drum" cupola, dish road wheels



Tiger I mid production - swivel hatch cupola, dish road wheels



Tiger I late production - swivel hatch cupola, stamped road wheels



Tiger II (Early) Porsche Turret



Tiger II (standard) Henschel Turret

For a nice Tiger II I would recommend Dragon #6303 it's a Henschel with zimm.Tamiya also makes a BoB tiger I helieve.

Tojo72 wrote:For a nice Tiger II I would recommend Dragon #6303 it's a Henschel with zimm.Tamiya also makes a BoB tiger I helieve.

Yes they do....