AIR01354 TIGER-1 OPERATION CITADEL (EARLY) (1/35)

Everyone that’s even a little bit interested in tanks will know the name of the dreaded Tiger tank from WWII, which was at the forefront of German armoured might, and if it wasn’t for the limited numbers on the battlefield coupled with their unreliability, plus Hitler’s meddling with his General’s decisions, the invasion in 1944 might have been much harder fought than it already was.  Designed to replace the Panzer IV but often fighting alongside it, the Tiger added extra armour and a larger 88mm gun similar to that of the successful Flak 37 artillery piece, and became one of the most dangerous tanks on the field in the later stages of WWII.  The drive-train was stressed to the max due to the huge weight of the gun and armour, which caused many vehicles to be lost due to breakdowns and subsequent abandonment and scuttling of the hull.  This issue was also carried over into the even more lethal King Tiger (Tiger II, Königstiger).

Operation Citadel was the Germans’ last ditch attempt to turn the tide of the Russian tsunami that concentrated on the Kursk salient in an effort to cut-off a large portion of the Russian invasion force, showing initial signs of success but was halted at the decisive Kursk battle that led to huge losses of irreplaceable German armour and aircraft that critically weakened the German forces that accelerated their ultimate downfall in Berlin.

The Kit

This is another of Airfix’s collaborations with Academy in order to get their new 1:35 armour line up and running, with new indigenous tools coming on stream in due course.  The box is an Airfix red-themed affair with a painting of a camouflaged Tiger heading toward us.  Inside the box are nine sprues and lower hull in sand coloured styrene, five sprues in black, a tree of poly-caps, a length of braided cord, small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a small decal sheet.  The instruction booklet has been adapted to the Airfix style but without the shading of newer kits, and there are coloured profiles in the rear for the two decal options in the box.