"Comparison review Revell and Dragon Tiger I, 1/72 scale" Topic

The Dragon Gruppe Fehrmann Tiger kit was the first 1/72 model I bought in a very long time. A spontaneous purchase in my now gone model shop. Its a Dragon kit and a Tiger I thought what better way to start back into 1/72 scale.
Having made a number of Dragon 1/35th scale kits I opened up the box with some anticipation. Very nice it was, odd certainly as its a sort of cobbled together mid/late Tiger for a special unit in the Ruhr pocket ( as memory allows).

First problem is a rather fundamental one. All the pictures of the actual vehicles
show them having zimeritt, the kit is non zimeritt. Then there's the rear idler wheel that is molded so as to sit to far ‘out' and throws the tracks out of alignment. Then the tracks, never liked rubber tracks much but these are beautifully molded and with a bit of work you can get the sag etc.

Only problem is the tracks are too long. Too short fairly easily sorted, too long a pain in the rear.Metal tow cables are included, absolutely terrible. The twist of the wire nowhere near tight enough to be right and the wire itself so springy as to be a nightmare to fit. Replaced with the lovely EUREKA ones.

Then there is the exhaust baffles. Someone at Dragon HQ thought it would be a great idea to have these cast in pretty thick brass. Must be someone who never makes models I'd suggest. Looks very nice but if like me you like to do a bit of battle damage to a model is almost impossible to cut, bend or anything else the brass is so tough.
Otherwise its a nice enough kit but the problems above rather make the £14.95 GBP I spent seem a heck of a lot.

Now to a kit I bought after a bit more research, the Dragon Tiger I E with Zimmerrt. Wanted this for my Normandy Tiger unit and thought as it was a later release it wouldn't have the problems of the Gruppe Fehrmann one. Oh you mad optimist!
Lovely kit in the box, beautifully rendered Zimmerrt and really sharp moulding.
Then the same problems as above, idler same defect requiring major surgery, tracks too long, exhaust baffles made from left over battleship Armour plate, grim tow cables. In addition whereas the Fehrmann kit had separate tools this kit has them molded on and not that sharply either.

The to cap it I was hoping for an open option for the hatches, the Fehrmann had the commanders and loaders hatches separate. In this kit just the commanders hatch! Never sure why kit makers do this. Takes virtually no more work or cost to produce open hatches as an option. So major surgery needed to get that on the kit.

I have a second Zimmerrt Tiger but this time I've bought some OKB tracks which look fantastic.

Now on to the Revell Tiger I offering, going to be a lot shorter review on this one.
Its a great kit. The tracks are of the ‘section' type which looks a bit intimidating at first but after a few dry runs are a doddle. One tip tempting though it is to paint the tracks and wheels before assembly this deos mean you have to resort to superglue. Better in my opinion to paint the lower hull and wheels serperatly, then assemble the wheels, Then you can scrape the paint off the wheels where they will connect with the tracks. Painting the tracks in situ is pretty easy.

These are brilliant kits.

The only problem for me was that I wanted zimmerit for my Normandy Tigers.

You can get an etched kit to add this I just did it with milliput and a tool as I out-
lined a while ago with some Panthers. If you do this just remember to drill through
the holes for the exhaust manifolds, track cables and mudguards.

Nothing else to say really, out of the box these kits make a great Tiger.

Comparison shots of the Revell and Dragon Tigers

All models airbrushed over a base coat of PSC dunklegelb using an Iwat plus B
using Life colour paints. Then gloss varnished, decaled , various washes, oil based,
Humbrol and first outing for the MIG ones ( and very nice they are too).

Various artists pastels/wax pencils used for wear and tear. Then matt varnished.

Simple as that really, both makes a joy to paint.

£15.00 GBP for a 1/72 Tiger! That's pricey! Particularly when you spent extra to correct faults. That's getting pretty close to the cost of 1/56 versions.

Indeed Fred Cartwright, for that kind of money you don't expect to have to be correcting basic faults do you?
The Revell ones can be got for a tenner or less.
Any one tried the Zvezda one?
Problem with 28mm stuff that Ive seen is that they just don't look right and never quite understood the idea of increasing the footprint of units ( and the cost) for no apparent reason. Always seemed a more of a marketing move than anything else to me but then again I'm an old cynic lol
L

Great looking models, I have made both kits, I am a Revel fan to, good review.

Thank you for the reviews!

There are some more of these and different makes here:

scalemates.com/products/reviews.php?scale=1%3A72&topic=Panzerkampfwagen+VI+Tiger+I

The Rubicon 1/56 Tiger is very nice and you can do early, mid or late versions out of the box. I use 28mm (and 15mm) because I game other periods in those sizes and have all the scenery, particularly things like buildings and fortifications. Getting more scenery just for WW2 didn't seem to make sense.
The other thing about 20mm I don't like is the wide variation in size. Airfix plastics compared to Revell or SHQ metals vs Raventhorpe for example. In 15mm I mix Peter Pig, FoW, Essex, QRF and Skyrrex and in 28mm Foundry, Warlord, Black Tree, TAG and Perry's without problems. The main advantage of 20mm used to be cheap plastic kits, but with the likes of PSC entering the market things are changing. 4 Tiger I's for £20.00 GBP comes out a lot cheaper than even the Revell kits.
Very nicely done models though and an interesting choice of unit.

£20.00 GBP for a vehicle? Good grief!
Well most of the variation is the difference between 1/72 and 1/76 which as they are they different scales is fair enough.
Certainly I couldn't mix say Warlords and Perry's as they seem to be two entirely different scales as well. Not quite sure how the variations in 28mm came about given that 28mm is a newly invented scale. Then again using 20mm, 15, 28mm etc rather than ratio scales always makes life tricky. As if we didnt all have enough complications to deal with as it is lol
L

You don't need as many Tigers in 1/56. Or were you referring to the 15mm PSC ones? That's £20.00 GBP for 4. So about half the price of 20mm. I happily use Perry and Warlord together. The Perry figures are a little shorter and less chunky than Warlord, but the equipment and weapons match so it doesn't bother me. There are people shorter and less chunky than me. That's real life for you!
Unfortunately there are no scale plans for humans, which makes doing a 1/76 version tricky. It is the weapons and equipment that can be scaled as they didn't issue you with a bigger Bren gun just because you were 6' 5" and built like a brick s**t house.

Very true lol
Though amazing how many times the smallest fella in a squad ends up carrying more than his share of ammo lol
L

In your comparison shot of all 3: Which 1 is which?

First shot, Revell, Dragon with zim and the Fehrmann second shot Fehrmann , Dragon with zim and Revell. In the pic with just two those are both Revell ones. Should have captioned them better.
L