1:72 Tiger I – Dragon 7370

The Tiger is probably the most famous German tank ever produced (aside from the King Tiger). The deadly 88 mm gun instilled fear in the allied tank crews as it dominated the battlefields from 1942 to 1944, when new designs started to rival its power. Even late in the war the main cause of Tiger loses were mechanical breakdowns, not enemy fire.

Introduction

With no further introductions needed, here are the sprues:

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Upper hull and engine details.
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Turret pieces.
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Engine details and the gun.
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Running gear.

Assembly Process

First I glued together the wheels, in preparation for the lower hull. As you can see they are actually grouped together, 4 at once, which eliminates allot of the hassle. Nice job, Dragon!

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Running gear simplified.

I had a bit of trouble with the assembly (it is easy, believe me) but only because i was paying attention to my monitor watching some random movie (never a good idea when doing a model). For a normal and focused modeler these are piece of cake to mount.

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Nice fit and nice look.

The upper hull is next and some details on it are mostly molded. It does look very good though and you still have to glue around 20 details or so yourself on it. I especially appreciated the engine covers which are photo-etchings. I lost one of the headlights (again) so the tank only gets the left one.

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Upper hull details. Notice the 2 closed hatches at the front.

Finally the turret. I am a sucker for the look of the Tiger turret and I was so excited in assembling one. The gun and the actual turret are easy to put together. Most of the details are also easy (lateral ammo baskets, hatches and doors all around) but I had bad luck with the smoke launchers, which are too small for my fingers. Overall I was very pleased with the result.

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A very compact look.

I glued the upper and the lower hull together and this went very smooth. The 2 pieces aligned almost perfectly which was very satisfying for me, as it signified a job well done. I could see already the Tiger taking shape.

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An armored bunker for its time.

All that was left to do was to fit the turret into place. The model does look spectacular and it does feel “crisp”, as in sharp and detailed. The rubber tracks were a blessing and a huge bonus to the assembly of the model. They can be painted fast, they look good and they don’t take an eternity to build. My only problem remains with the smoke detectors which were too small for my hands; however this is easily forgotten in the easy assembly of the rest of the model.

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The legend.
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Evaluation

Plastic Quality 4.5 (Very Good) Very good quality. No amount of flash and it was easy to clean from the sprue.
Number of Details 4.5 (Very Good) Everything that can be detailed is detailed and left to the user to enjoy. Decals included of course.
Instructions 4 (Good) Instructions are of a good quality as usual. Color camouflage scheme also present.
Building Time 4 (Good) It took around 80 minutes to assemble the model.
Enjoyment 4.5 (Very Good) No issue with the model and everything went smoothly step by step. A true pleasure for the modeler.

About Baycee 404 Articles
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