Dragon Tiger 1 Initial Production.

[Guest]

Well, this bad-boy appeared under the tree this year, and I've been itching to get my hands on it.






It's a beauty, and no mistake, but not the kit that has been reviewed in a few esteemed places. Apparently, Dragon have a habit of releasing kits, getting them reviewed, then a while later, changing the contents of the box - in this case, quite radically! Gone is the aluminium barrel, the bucket, the solid brass ammunition, the brass smoke launchers, the metal shackles, most of the etch, the Magic Tracks (thank god for that!) and the (apparently superior) one piece turret! Naughty boys, if you ask me, but having said all this, it's still a beautiful kit and it was a Present, so I'm ok with this, but forewarned for next time.


Here's a box of wheels, primed...






I have no idea what the designers were on when they came up with this scheme! But this is one of the reasons I love building military equipment, one really gets an insight into the tools of war. My guess is that the keywords are weight distribution, as these babies were well heavy. It's a lot of tyres to paint, but mostly gonna be covered in Russian mud, so I don't have to go mad!


And here's the arse end:






I'll be painting her in panzer grey with mud accessories, and oil stained hubs etc. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves, there's still a shed-load of plastic to cut and stick... Not to mention figuring out some pretty daft instructions!

[Guest]

I'm glad to see that you're starting on this one John, I've been waiting for it!


Kinda shocking that so many goodies are missing though personally I'd prefer the Magic Tracks over their DS ones.


You're right about the role the roadwheels played. The designers knew weight distribution would be vital in Russia. Unfortunately they forgot about mud & snow clogging up those inter-leaved wheels!


Gonna enjoy watching this one

[Guest]

A nice model, ever a classic, i'll watching it, cheers

[Guest]

I'll tag along for this one John, really like to see these big kitties

[takeslousyphotos]

I'm in for this John.

[Guest]

I've inspected the DS tracks closely, and they are really good, if an odd colour. I have always had success with vinyl tracks, only problem with some being a bit short, but this kitty has an adjustable axle for the idler wheel, (however, this feature is completely ignored by the instructions, that blithely show it being glued at a very early stage).

[monica]

very nice start John,liking the look of this one,


as I have one in my swop meet hauls will keep an eye on this big cat,

[Guest]

Nice looking kit, I will be watching as well.


scott

[Guest]

I'm glad to see that you're starting on this one John, I've been waiting for it!
Kinda shocking that so many goodies are missing though personally I'd prefer the Magic Tracks over their DS ones.


You're right about the role the roadwheels played. The designers knew weight distribution would be vital in Russia. Unfortunately they forgot about mud & snow clogging up those inter-leaved wheels!


Gonna enjoy watching this one

Ok, maybe (hopefully) you can help me here Patrick, as you are ahead on this build. I've followed the instructions (!) to the letter in the hull build, and have got to this point






Now, I have been worried about how this is going to work, and your kit will have been essentially the same, am I supposed to tuck the flap on the lower front plate and push down? Cos I'm thinking this is going to break!! I can't see it working, but cannot undo anything I have done. Any wisdom to offer me here?

[Guest]

I'll be watching.

[Guest]

Ok, maybe (hopefully) you can help me here Patrick, as you are ahead on this build. I've followed the instructions (!) to the letter in the hull build, and have got to this point
[ATTACH]141839[/ATTACH]


Now, I have been worried about how this is going to work, and your kit will have been essentially the same, am I supposed to tuck the flap on the lower front plate and push down? Cos I'm thinking this is going to break!! I can't see it working, but cannot undo anything I have done. Any wisdom to offer me here?

It was a while ago John - I didn't realise until now that I started my Tiger back in May!


If I remember rightly, I glued the forward deck plate to the vertical hull section first - as shown in the destructions for my Tiger






Then I glued the entire section to the hull - it needed some clamping as seen below






but it did the trick

[Guest]

Do us a favour and have a look at your instructions and see if the attached moment is the same? If it is, then I'll plough on, if not, I'm gonna have to do some trimming

[Guest]

Ah, I didn't realise that you'd already glued the forward deck plate to the hull.


From what I can see, it's identical. But looking again at your instructions, could you bring the bow plate in at an angle (so the rear is higher), and then slip the lip at the bottom of the bow plate under the horizontal deck plate? You can then lower the rear of the upper hull, clamp or tape it in place & use Tamiya extra thin cement to glue it all together.

[aaron]

John, you got an awesome kit mate. Are you going to use the split storage bins? I came across split binned #100 in my research and it is a really appealing tiger. Lucky to receive such a nice gift.

[Guest]

Ah, I didn't realise that you'd already glued the forward deck plate to the hull.
From what I can see, it's identical. But looking again at your instructions, could you bring the bow plate in at an angle (so the rear is higher), and then slip the lip at the bottom of the bow plate under the horizontal deck plate? You can then lower the rear of the upper hull, clamp or tape it in place & use Tamiya extra thin cement to glue it all together.

That's what I've tried to do, but it's not gonna work! I glued the forward plate on, as that's what the instructions said, I should have trusted my doubts! I've now pared off the lower lip on the bow plate with a shoulder plane, and now it seems to be ok. Apart from this, everything is going together nicely, although you could never call it a beginners kit!


One of my daughters bought me Michael Rinaldi's "TankArt", a wonderful book covering painting and weathering, in particular, oil paint rendering, which I am going to apply to this tank. The book is part of a series of 4, but they all seem to be out of print, which is odd and frustrating, as they are absolutely superb.