IMPORTANT: the Tiger photos are courtesy of Musée des blindés at Saumur, copy or publication are prohibited whitout the authorization of the museum.
On all the post war drawings and kits of the Tiger, the turret seen from above is like a symmetrical horseshoe, so the gun's center line is not on the turret axis (as a matter of fact the gun mantlet is not symmetrical).
But, in fact, the turret (all versions) is asymmetrical, the front left side is more roomy and large than the right side, consequently the gun is in the center line of the turret. One can see on this plan that the turret is not symmetrical .
I found this detail in 1997 when I studied the original drawingss of the German Turret manual D656/22. I had recently a corroboration on the internet (David Byrden site).
Conclusion : all the plastic kits are wrong, and to give an idea, the mistake is +/- 2mm for a 1/35 scale model .
Resin kits of turrets with the correct shape are now available.
On the kits, the turret's side ports are usually at the same position; this is also a mistake. As a matter of fact, the right port is a little behind the left one, and this is because of the internal position of the bock. This detail is also visible on the same previous diagram. All the kits are wrong except Tamiya.
In an evaluation report of 1946 by the French army after some firing tests, they mentioned that the "new model" turrets are fitted with a metal bin welded on the floor, under the breech, with two springs doors on top of the bin .
This bin is connected to the ceiling ventilator by a tube.
When the gun shoots, the empty shell falls into the bin and the remaining fumes are extracted by the tube to the ceiling ventilator .
According to the French report, this system provides a better fume extraction than the old system in which the shell falls into a cloth bag under the breech.
So, it's the same system as the one fitted in the Panther tanks. This system is not present in the Tiger at Saumur which was evidently never fitted with such equipment; we can assume that only the final version was equipped with this fume extractor.
I'm still searching for further information about this.
Last time I was at the Folkestone exhibition (GB), I saw this 1/35 scale kit of a late Tiger I, it was in a display of an English club.
The interior was scratchbuilt and although there were still little mistakes (colors , electric circuit), it was the most accurate late interior I've ever seen . Unfortunatly, I didn't meet the author of this kit and I would be curious to know where he found his documentation to build this model .
 |
 |
 |
 |
Myself, I am building the 1/15 scale Tiger I from Verlinden. I want to scratchbuild the interior but there is still lot of work to do and there are a lot of mistakes in the kit .
 |
 |
 |
 |
This pictures are a little bit old; since then, I found new documentation (archives and internet) and some of these parts have beeen rebuilt, for example the gun which was not to scale. You can find new photos here .
IMPORTANT: the Tiger photos are courtesy of Musée des blindés at Saumur, copy or publication are prohibited whitout the authorization of the museum.
