About this detail of the Tiger
The Tiger was fitted with a rear travel lock, made of two folding arms. This item was installed in late 1943, the period that the Hobby Boss kit falls into. The kit is lacking this feature.
The turret hatch provided in the kit is for an Early Tiger. It has beveled edges at each side (indicated here). But in fact, the hatch of a Mid Tiger was a simple disc with no beveled edges.
The Hobby Boss kit includes sprocket wheels with rounded hubs, typical of the earliest Tigers.
All Mid Tigers were built with this stepped hub on the sprockets.
The rear adapter plate in the Hobby Boss kit has some differences from the real one. In particular, the holes are not opened.
The mudguard on the right side of the Hobby Bos kit has two openings, a small one and a large one.
The real mudguards had a large hole followed by a small one. The kit has an error on the right side only.
The hull roof in the Hobby Boss kit seems to have weld lines simulated left and right of the turret. The real Tiger had no welds here.
The Hobby Boss kit has a small hook on the rear end of the engine hatch. This is the hinge, which is moulded into the hatch.
In the real Mid Tiger, this hook was moved over to the right in order to clear the triangular panel. There was also a latch for the hook.
Hobby Boss have made the two rear grilles as mirror images of each other. But in a real Mid Tiger, the right hand grille was simply a copy of the left hand one.
At the rear of the engine deck there is a prominent round cover. As you can see in this museum example, the top of it is flattened, with only a casting number on the slanted flat surface. Hobby Boss have a small raised part here, which is not correct.
The flattened area on the Hobby Boss model is too large.
The Hobby Boss kit has two eye holes above the driver's visor. These did not exist in a Mid Tiger.
At the extreme left and right of the glacis plate, there are small raised rings. The holes in these rings should be drilled all the way through the plate, as you can see in the Bovington Tiger's hull.
The Hobby Boss kit has a gap at the front underside of the sponson. This photo of a real Tiger shows how to fill it. Notice that the sponson underside is straight, while the sponson side armour has a slight bend here, so they do not match up at the front.
The Hobby Boss kit has a straight bottom edge to the turret chin, appropriate for an Early Tiger.
Mid Tigers had a notch in the armour here, with a step at the front where the Early version's depth was preserved.