Guys:
Hi! I hope that someone can help me with some information on building a DAK Tiger I without having to drop a load of cash on the Dragon Cyber-Hobby kit. I already have an extra Dragon Initial Tiger I and one of the Tamiya Afrika Tigers and was hoping that I could kit bash the two of them into one nice build. The Tamiya kit is nice as is but the Dragon kit has so much more detail, can I use the Dragon kit as the base and just add the missing pieces ( e.g., the rear storage bin and the exhaust covers) from the Tamiya kit? I’m not looking for a master model, just something that will look good in a simple desert scene once it’s done. I don’t have much experience at conversions - I usually build out of box. Any help, ideas, suggestions, advice, would be really appreciated.
Thanks[:)]
Charlie
I missed out on the Cyber-Hobby kit myself[:(].But even before this kit came out i was thinking of doing the same thing… Useing parts from my Academy kit and ordering some Aber Afika Tiger detail set. There also a few other companys that make these sets.I,ve seen a another guy use the Dragon and the Tamiya kit to do this same thing on another site, worked well, looked great i thought it was the Cyber-Hobby-DAK Tiger-1 at first until I paid close attion and read his comments. you should be able to do this with out a lot of problems at all.I think of doing the same thing hear soon myself.
As a side note, make sure you carefully research the camo for the vehicle you’re building. If I’m not mistaken, I believe the first batch of tigers that arrived in Tunisia we’re a light olive color. I have a lot of Tiger reference material so I’ll double check that for you when I get home tonight. I have an early Tiger (Initial Production) which I’m going to do in Afrika Corps scheme once I unbury myself from all my group builds. lol
I only have experience with the Tamiya Tigers so I can’t tell you much about other manufacturers. The Tigers deployed in North Africa were the Initial Production versions and you probably can’t go wrong with either the Dragon or Tamiya offerings.
Dragon/DML has a 1/35 “3 in 1” Tiger I Initial Production kit (6252) which goes for around $30 online.
I have the 1/35 Tamiya Tiger I Initial Production kit (35227) which also goes for around $30.
Tamiya also has a 1/48 scale Initial Production Tiger I “Afrika Corps” (32529) if you’re intested in the 1/48 scale.
As a side note, here is some camouflage info if you’re intested. sPzAbt501 was equipped with the Initial Production Tiger I and were sent to North Africa in late 1942. They were painted “Desert Brown” (RAL8020). When they were deployed to Tunisia they were oversprayed with “Olive Green” (RAL7008). It is very unlikely that any Tigers that were deployed to North Africa were painted in Dark Yellow which was made standard on all combat and front line support vehicles during 1943.
I hope this info is helpful to you. If you’re brave you should be able to kit bash the kits you have, but then again I’ve never done that so I’m not sure how much work would be required to make that happen.
Guys:
Hi! Thanks for the information on the DAK Tiger I project! I was hoping that someone would respond and you guys didn’t let me down. I’m glad that it’s a doable build with the kits I already have since buying the Cyberhobby kit just isn’t in my budget. I’ve been checking a couple websites that I buy stuff from and couldn’t find an aftermarket PE set for the Afrika conversion. It would be great if I could use it in place of stealing parts out of the Tamiya kit.
Anyway, thanks again for all of your help - I’ll post something on my progress once I get going with it - just have to complete my Dragon 253 halftrack. Someday I need to spring for a digital camera!
Charlie[:)][:D]