1:35 Tiger I (late)

The late Tiger and its steel wheels

The Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I changed so much during production that a late example can be told from an early one at first glance. The cylindrical commander's cupola with vision slits in its wall gave way to a low dome with seven periscopes, mounts for spare track links were added on the sides of the hull and, above all, the road wheels received a steel tire with the suspension hidden inside the disc. Rubber vanished from the suspension, because there was a shortage of it in the Reich and because a rubber tire suffered under the weight of a fifty-ton machine.

A cross on the turret is not a cross on the hull

One sheet of national insignia masks is stated for this item. The Balkenkreuz appeared on the Tiger most often on the sides of the turret and on the rear of the hull, but the two placements look different. The insignia on the turret tends to be smaller, set behind the loader's vision port and often touching a weld in the armor, whereas the one at the rear sits lower and tends to be half hidden by tools, exhausts or a stowage box. A die-cut mask keeps the width of the white border the same around the whole perimeter, which is exactly what neither a brush nor a sticker manages properly.

A procedure that has proved itself

The sheet is applied to a dry base shade, ideally after a gloss coat, so that the paint does not bleed under the edge. The white fill of the cross is sprayed first, then the black center is uncovered from it. Anyone wanting to make the job simpler can reverse the order and let the dark base show through. Once the sheet is lifted, all that remains is to matte the surface and set about the soot and dust. On a machine this large it pays not to hurry, because an insignia painted under a mask holds even after the harshest weathering, whereas a sticker sooner or later lifts on the edge of the armor. That is precisely the main reason to reach for a stencil.