About this detail of the Tiger
Tamiya's "Tiger I Ausführung Afrika" is not accurate for the decals provided. Indeed, it is not accurate for any Tiger at all. It targets the tanks sent to Africa with s.Pz.Abt.501 but it has several features that are appropriate for later versions. Which Tigers can it most easily be converted to?
Let's look at the constraints. The kit contains only a single glacis plate (part G8). It incorporates the "narrow" mudflaps that are found in Africa Tigers only. The mudflaps are integral to the part and difficult to replace. Therefore we will choose our subjects from the 17 Africa Tigers that had the front mudflaps provided in this kit.
Another constraint is the tow cables. The kit includes the 32mm diameter cables that were stored with their ends at the front of the tank. We cannot build any of the African Tigers that had the narrower 22mm cable with its ends to the rear; the ends of the smaller cable were visibly different to the kit parts.
We will exclude a few more Tigers for having a type of mantlet that is not provided in the kit, or for not being well known from photographs. The final number of subject Tigers is 6. Their turret numbers are 131, 01, 121, 11, 02, and 241. Three of them are covered by the kit's decal sheet.
To model any one of these six Tigers, we must do the following;
1. Scrape off the S-mine strips and the sealing plate on the hull roof.
2. Cut off the legs from the engine hatch.
3. Cut back the front edges of the hull walls to the original slanted shape.
4. Move the tow cables and antenna tube to new positions.
For Tiger 241 only, we must additionally;
5. Use the normal headlight stands (parts F29, F30) and mount the headlights on the hull roof.
6. Move the rear toolbox closer to the hull side and fix it perpendicular to the wall.
For all of these Tigers except for Tiger 131, we must;
7. Add tool storage brackets to the glacis plate.