Dragon 1:35 Tiger I Initial Production, s.Pz.Abt. 502, Mga, Russia

[Engine95]

New build starting. Yes, I know I haven't finished the last two yet.

This one is for a friend whose great uncle served with s.Pz.Abt. 502 during the Tiger's its first combat action at Mga, Russia during the fighting around Leningrad in August of '42. You can read about it in this article from Bovington:

Bovington Tank Museum - Tiger Combat Debut

The kit is a Dragon 6600, Tiger I Initial Production. I'm taking some artistic license with this one since my friend doesn't want the dumbo ear or Pz.Kpfw. III turret bustles. So she'll have none at all and won't be historically accurate. Which kind of drives me nuts, but it's his tank. And I'm choosing to build tactical number 100 but without the winter camo white wash from the instructions. Therefore this Tiger will be the standard Dunkelgrau.



Essentially she's going to look like this:



I think she's going to end up on a small vignette and pretty muddied up. I still need to find an Alpine Miniatures commander to stick in the cupola. I'd like to find one looking over the side as if it's the moment the road wheels were packed with mud and the transmission failed.

This is my first Dragon kit and it had me cut off the little nubs that set the swing arms in a fixed position. Although I have no idea why. I thought initially the torsion bars would be functional, but that wasn't the case. So they're just glued in place at this point.

[digger303]

I've never built one , but I did think the torsion bars were only glued on the far end so they moved just like the real thing.
Looks good though.

[Engine95]

Well, I've gone down the rabbit hole again. I ordered the Voyager PE35346 detail set. Let's hope I can do better on this one than I did on the one I bought for the Willys MB. In that instance I bought an entire new Tamiya kit with the original kit and all the PE in the trash. Expected delivery between Mar 14th and Apr 6th.

So this build just came to a screeching halt until that detail kit comes in.

[ForeverPlasticKits]

See you on March or April so, for the next steps of this mythical tank!