I am reading an item on the new (and old) releases at the Nurnberg fair. Not sure if this has been up for discussion already or not but here you go:
A Tiger in 1/35 from Zvezda, this guy comes with a detailed turret…
Yet one more Tiger from Dragon, this time from the Orange line, supposedly price competative…
Self adhesive Zimmerit for the 1/35 Tiger from Tamiya…
It seems as if there is still a huge market for the old cat 
Very Best Regards
Johan
Considering half of Zvezda’s armor kits are Italeri armor kits and the other half Dragon armor kits, this is most likely a rebox of one or the other. My bet is that it is a rebox of the older Italeri Ausf. E/H kit since they have reboxed that particular plastic kit about a decade ago.
But, you never know. All the major and minor companies have their own original Tiger kits (Academy, Dragon, AFV Club, Tamiya, Italeri), maybe they think they need to issue the umpteenth Tiger I kit.
EDIT:
I stand corrected, I did some searching and it is a new tool kit, but not without some issues:
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234932911-zvezda-tiger-1-warning/
I didn’t realise Zveda kits were re box’s. The 251’s they released have not been done by anyone else, as far as i know.
Even as a big Tiger fan, this does seem a bit necessaryas i think theres enough Tigers out there to fit all budgets and abilities.
Bish
I have the 251/1 B by Zvezda and its a re box of the old Revel kit, I got it to replace a missing hinge for the back doors as it was cheaper than the Revel!
Phil
O right, i didn’t realise Revell had done an Ausf B. I had read some reviews on the Zveda kit, there was a lot of mention of the incorrect interiour. But i don’t recall anything about it being a re box. Thanks for the info.
Did I miss something with the Orange box release? That seems like a pretty awesome deal, but alas it comes without the magic tracks.
Does make me wounder what the catch is with that Dragon kit. Does seem rather cheap.
for one the dragon tigers suspension arms are molded on.
A lot of reviewers don’t do their homework before writing a review and don’t know. Others might not mention that fact because you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you; i.e. don’t ding a kit too harshly that was provided to you free from a retailer or manufacturer. Telling folks it is just a rebox of an older kit may hurt sales, especially if you can get the older kit for less money.
Zvezda does make a number of original kits, some of them are pretty good. I am building their IS-2, which was reboxed by Italeri in the mid 90s.
But for the most part, the majority of Zvezda’s line are reboxes of Italeri or Dragon kits with other companies scattered within as well. Some of the reboxed Italeri kits are even old Peerless Max kits from 1970s Japan.
Several armor model companies have habitual relationships with one another so generally speaking, unless I see buzz on sites like Missing Lynx or Perth talking about a new tool kit of a particular subject, I assume it is probably a rebox.
Well, even Perth doesn’t mention that the Zveda 251 isn’t a rebox, and he has upset companies in the past. I guess he just didn’t feel it relevant, or as you suggest he didn’t know.
I did a bit of digging and realise i had seen a Revell 251, the /3. I can only assume Zveda used this as a base kit for its Ausf A and B kits.
There were some negative postings at Britmodeller about the Zvezda Tiger, something to do with quality of parts, but alas I can’t load their site to provide a direct link.
Missing-lynx also had several threads on the Orange Tiger kit. One member has compiled an extensive ‘repair’ list. There apparently is quite a few mistakes in the instructions.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1361199426/Orange+Guy+Tiger
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1361256192/I+think...Warning...Rant
regards,
Jack
Jack: Dragon (Cyber-Hobby’s parent) is famous or should I say INfamous for the blunders in the instruction sheets.
You do have to investigate when it comes to Zvezda’s stuff but they do provide new-tool kits as well, so it’s really a matter of judging each case-by-case. Their T-90 for example is generally regarded as being a very well detailed kit by the couple I’ve seen/heard build it (disclaimer: not a modern armor builder!).
As for the DML orange box approach, those also have to be judged case-by-case…many of them are simple reboxings of their older kits with some minor updates thrown in to up the ‘value’ of the kit. In the Tiger’s case I think the main ‘value’ item is the DS tracks with the hollow horns as those weren’t included in the original kit that the Tiger is coming from. It ‘should’ be one of the better combos seen in the Orange box line as a result.
Modern rivet counters suggest using the Tamiya T-72 lower hull, Zvezda T-90 upper hull and Miniarm replacement turret to build the most accurate/best T-90. I’ve seen build ups of the straight Zvezda T-90 and agree that it looks pretty good, but I’m not an expert on the tank so I defer to those who know more about the subject matter than I do.
But if I was to build one, I would just do it OOB since I don’t care enough about the subject matter to bother to accurize it.
!http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f227/JohanT/TAMIYAZIM.jpg
That zimm IS NOT 3 dimensional, it is a set of flat stickers without any texture.
I guess it could be used for a pattern though.
!http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LYauPHADQMo/SnoHjbhn8WI/AAAAAAAAA18/MQXrdGMNCOg/s200/FlatSmiley3.jpg**HELLLPPP, cut me out!**
If it is like the zimmerit stickers I got with my 1/16th scale Tamiya King Tiger, there is a texture to them. Not as thick as resin zimmerit, but more texture than PE zimmerit.
The set Tamiya made for the Elefant has LESS texture than PE zimmerit. The sticker set was totally useless. I have seen paper towels with more of a texture than that set.
That’s the same with the set I put up here earlier. A guy had it on Ebay for $12 - $15 so I shot him a question which confirmed my suspicion.
Hi,
I would not know about the re boxing topic, the report from Nurnberg says it is new tooling, but here is a link where you can find some sprue shots;
www.super-hobby.se/…/Tiger-I-Ausf.-E-Early-Kursk.html
Looks to me as if we get a basic stencil sheet, vinyl tracks and no photo etch or other multi media.
The turret seems to be asymmetric, the barrel is a split assembly, clear parts are provided for the periscopes and the side skirts are the straight type.
I guess the devil is in the detail as usual and will get hold of a sample.
Very Best Regards
Johan
