I am a novice and would like help on next kit choice.I would like to build a Tiger or T43/85.
I was given good advice for my 1st kits.Trumpeters KV1`s.I have done a couple of these.They are great value,excelent quality at apx £12.Like i was told,leave the £30 kits untill later.
Is there a similar recommendation for a Tiger and T34/85 kit.I am not to bothered on varient but would like to stay away from Zimmerite at the moment.Just a good fitting kit at this stage.
I have tried a couple of Italari kits which were no match for the trumpeter.In fact there were nasty.
Well, the T34/85 never used zimmerit, so any variant can be done without avoiding it. There are less road wheels to paint the rubber portion. The DML kit that has the bedspring armor is pretty cool. Think about the kits you buy that have to have the tracks to build or they use the single piece vinyl tracks which are easier.
Sooner or later, you gotta build a Tiger. The very early versions of Tigers were without the magnetic paste so there’s a possibility to build one.
Should try looking at Tamiya’s kits. Both tanks you’re looking at are made by Tamiya. The T34-85 is an older kit and I think has some accuracy issues but looks the part when built up. Tamiya has great fit and not hard to build.
It’s more accurate, and cheaper, than the Tamiya kit. It’s also a fairly straightforward build, and fits together well. The only significant issue is the vinyl tracks, which are a bit stiff, but you can solve this problem by gently scribing between the track links.
It will aslo give you an opportunity to practice getting the upper run of the tracks to rest on top of the road wheels (glue the top run to the wheels before painting is the simplest way, in my experience).
Looking through the shelves at the LHS i found that there was a Tamiya Tiger I A for sale that I think would not have had zimmerit attached. It looked like it was ment for AK service. The tiger that is on display in Bovington was an early type hat didin’t have zimmerit and was captured in Tunisia http://www.tiger-tank.com/ is where you can have alook at this tank. It is part of the collection at Bovington. hope this helps.
Tamiya’s releases for the T-34/85 and Tiger I would be the best bet for a novice build on both kits. Look for the original Tiger I by Tamiya (#35056) as a simpler build. It is discontinued, but still seen around. The later releases are more challenging, even without zimmerit. I have built the Tamiya and Zvezda T-34/85 and the Tamiya kit is a simpler build again. I encountered fit issues on the rear hull on the two Zvezda T-34s I have built so far. Both turned out nice, but again for the new builder the fit issues do not appear on the Tamiya kit. Dragons T-34s are not for the novice builder.