Scale: 1 / 35
The kit and its subject
Ten Tiger (P) were built in 1942. Only one of them served with the military; it is the subject of the kit.
The Tiger (P) is not my area of study so I am not qualified to analyse this kit's hull. But its turret is related to the Tiger (H) turret, so I can speak about that.
This product claims to be a "full interior kit". While it's true that the model is "full" of interior parts - turret, crew room and engine room - those parts do not truly represent a Tiger (P) interior. Perhaps fifty per cent of them are inaccurate.
The real Tiger (P) interior is not fully known. None of them survive in museums, there are no photographs from inside, and we have only a couple of sketches and some text about it. Nobody can create an accurate kit on that basis, but you could make a "best guess".
Amusing Hobby didn't make a "best guess". This kit's interior does not match what we know about the Tiger (P).
What we know
The Tiger (P) and Tiger (H) had very similar turrets, on the outside at least. But inside there were major differences.
The Tiger (H) had a floor (the item circled in this photo) while the Tiger (P) did not. And therefore, all of the equipment stored on the floor was put somewhere else in the Tiger (P), or was absent.
The largest of those items is a hydraulic gearbox. The Tiger (P) didn't have one of these; instead, it had an electrical motor. We know that this large motor was somewhere inside the turret, but we don't know where, and we don't know what it looked like.
There are other unanswered questions, e.g. the inner turret walls are covered in equipment. But what was the layout of this equipment? We don't know. We don't even have a list.
What the kit provides
If accuracy was the goal, Amusing Hobby would have strictly conformed to the information that we have. For the wall equipment, the best approach is to copy the 1942 Tiger (H) and delete items related to underwater travel.
But that's not how they designed this kit.
The kit's turret interior is from the 1943 Tiger (H). It has a floor, it has a hydraulic gearbox, and it has the 1943 equipment layout with underwater gear. We know for a fact that none of that was in the real Tiger (P).
The kit's hull is distorted by this invalid turret. There is a large hole in the hull floor; the real Tiger (P) didn't need one. And that makes the space under the floor visible, so Amusing Hobby filled it with equipment copied from the Tiger (H). That cannot possibly be correct.
In summary : while nobody can guarantee a correct interior for this model, Amusing Hobby have definitely made an incorrect one.
Features of the kit
The kit's surface panels have "Zimmerit" texture similar to the real tank.
Historical background
Two firms, Porsche and Henschel, vied to design Germany's first heavy tank. Porsche offered the Tiger (P), a large electrically-driven vehicle. It lost the competition.
But political connections already got Porsche an order for 100 vehicles. About 10 were fully completed, and the rest were converted to "Ferdinand" tank destroyers.
Meanwhile, Henschel's winning design urgently needed a turret. A version of Porsche's turret, with an added floor and hydraulic traverse, was designed for it.
The completed Tiger (P) stayed in Germany and were used for training. One of them was acquired by a "Ferdinand" unit to serve as their command vehicle.
This kit represents that command tank, which was numbered "003".
My ongoing review and comments;
| Waterproof seals | Radio sets | Floor and traverse |
| Vision port position | Cupola | Zimmerit |
| Crew hull seats | Turret interior |
These are reviews or examinations of the kit;
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