The Kit>
The Tamiya 1:35th Tiger 1 Afrika kit is quite old, released in 1998. Tamiya added new parts to their Early Production Tiger kit to bring it up to Afrika Korps spec. It’s a nice, easy kit to build, and a lot more user friendly than the Dragon kits for example. It still looks pretty accurate though. I also used quite a bit of aftermarket like sets from:
• Voyager Model Africa Tiger detail sets
• Friulmodel metal track links
• Aluminium and brass gun barrel and metal & resin tow cables.
These sets, when used all together, make a pretty superbly detailed kit.
Construction
The build was started with the main hull. The Tamiya plastic goes together perfectly well with no issues at all. Some fairly large, basic parts that go together in a few steps to assemble the majority of the hull and suspension.
The Voyager Model detail PE sets are very comprehensive to say the least. Every bit of detail is catered for and I found it very time consuming! The finished hull is taken to the next level once all the PE is added, and the bonus of being brass is that dents/damage and bullet holes (in fact, anything you want) can be added by just bending and twisting the brass parts to make them look battle worn.
The turret was assembled and the inside painted dirty white with a bit of weathering. I wasn’t too fussed with the interior as this won’t be seen on the finished model. The aluminium and brass gun is superb.
The Voyager Model turret stowage bin and machined brass smoke dispensers were added. I tried to make the stowage bin look used and dented for added effect.
With all the PE work finished, the hull and turret can now go into paint.
