Rear mudflaps of Early Tigers
Early in the Tiger production run, folding mudflaps were designed for the vehicle. They had hinged side flaps that could fold up.
The main panel of both left and right mudflaps was the same. This is a model of it. The side flap was screwed to either its left side or its right side as needed. The cross-shaped hole was needed to clear a small metal plate that carried the tank's tail lamp.
At some time in early 1943, two metal frames were eliminated from the Tiger's rear wall. The metal plate, which had been attached to one of them, was also deleted. The tail lamp was now fixed directly on the Tiger's rear wall.
Since the metal plate was gone, the cross-shaped hole was no longer needed. The mudflaps were changed, then or shortly afterward, to look like this.
Problems in the kit
This kit provides a rear wall with the frames molded in. The small metal plate (arrowed) is correctly represented on the left-hand frame.
There is no option to omit these frames, unless you painstakingly scrape them off. But that is needed for some of the kit's decal options. For example, this is the real Tiger "212" as on the decal sheet. I have pointed out that it has no frames, and of course, it also has the second type of mudflaps, with no cross-shaped hole.
The kit's mudflaps make the situation worse. They are accurate representations of the second type, including its side notches (arrowed). But the frames on the kit's rear wall were associated with the first type of mudflap, which is not provided in the kit.