Academy 1/35 Tiger 1 Early

[Mr Bowcat]

Hi guys,

Pulled this from the stash the other day.

I got this in a job lot I bought a few years ago and was in no rush to build it as I had heard it was a dog of a kit. Spoiler warning, it is. This version dates to 1996, but I believe the original tool is from 1990. It suffers in a number of ways, including:

Unclear and confusing instructions.
Poor or completely absent location pins/marks.
Poor fitting and inaccurate parts.
Loads of flash and heavy seam lines.
A lot of mis-molded parts.
Brittle plastic.
Ridiculous connecting points (oversize and often bridging raised detail). Exhibit A below.

Nonetheless I decided to give it a go, I'm not taking it too seriously, for this one good enough will do.

Started with the lower hull, it's a full interior kit so had some fun with the weathering.

 

[Jim R]

Front and centre please Bob. You can't have too many big pussy cats. There is also much entertainment to be had from watching someone else tame a rotten kit. Having said that it looks like a good start.

 

[Andy T]

Well, if it's a dog of a kit it certainly doesn't look thay way now you've worked your magic on it!

 

[scottie3158]

Bob,
I'm in mate. You are more than up to the task of turning this into a fine build, and by the looks of it your already off to a great start.

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Min too
Looking nice so far despite the problems... Talking about vague instructions... I know all about that from my current build!!
Looking forward to seeing this develop

 

[Mark1]

Looking very nice mate.
Not that bad, now these are big connection points! Lol

 

[Jakko]

Cool I built that cut in half, intending it for an action diorama with the crew inside. Never did finish that, but I had to build a lot of interior stuff that isn’t in the kit despite it saying it’s “completely detailed” … You haven’t gone that far, I see

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers guys.

No extra detail on this one Jakko, I'm not that anal.

 

[PatrickH]

for an old kit, I am loving the interior on that =)

 

[Mini Me]

Looks good from here.

 

[Lee Drennen]

Nice Bob. I never knew Academy made these

 

[Scratchbuilder]

Good to go Bob, whip and chair out, best way to train these kind of kits, show them you are not scared, let them see the whites of your eyes.... I have sat in the corner whimpering with some of my builds so can sympathise. But the work so far looks to your usual high standard.

 

[Scratchbuilder]

More... If you need a brass etched Zimmerit set let me know, had one laying around for years....

 

[peterairfix]

Well for what you said about the kit you ain't half doing a decent job on it
Excellent work

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers all, I've been getting the turret interior together, will get some pics up in the next few days.

Michael, thanks for the offer but I'm painting this one as an Afrika Korps early Tiger so no Zim to worry about.

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Nice Bob. I never knew Academy made these

I could be wrong (I usually am according to the wife) but I read this is an old Airfix kit, rebranded by Academy with some extra parts. That would probably explain why the sprues are different colours. All the interior parts are a light grey, the rest of the kit is beige/brown.

 

[Jakko]

Sorry, but it’s an original Academy kit, first released something like 25 years ago. The interior parts are a light grey probably (is my guess) only because modellers expect interior parts to have a light colour It was Matchbox, BTW, who did each sprue in a different colour, but the parts on them were strategically placed to (sort of) get the right colours in the right places.

 

[Scratchbuilder]

Sorry, but it’s an original Academy kit, first released something like 25 years ago. The interior parts are a light grey probably (is my guess) only because modellers expect interior parts to have a light colour It was Matchbox, BTW, who did each sprue in a different colour, but the parts on them were strategically placed to (sort of) get the right colours in the right places.

Can you remember that attrocious brown and green plastic....

 

[Jakko]

I grew up on Matchbox kits, so the sight of it makes me nostalgic

 

[Lee Drennen]

I kinda got that feeling too about the Matchbox kit thing. Always liked there box art but not the colored plastic. Ok I’m ready for my lashing now.