EARLY TIGER BY DOUG FRAME

That’s exactly what happened to Scale War Machines contributor Doug Frame.

He describes his initial production Tiger I as a "Heinz 57" model – in other words, made from various spare parts.

The hull is Italeri while the turret is Tamiya. Add to that a metal barrel & some Modelkasten wheels & tracks. There’s the addition of an Eduard etched set as well as a long-out-of-production Kirin Early Tiger Conversion Set.

Doug describes the build as long & fastidious, mainly due to the resin being really tough to glue – despite using various types of cyano.

After adding various scratch parts & with the model nearing completion, Dragon brought out their kit. Darn it! So it was that the 1:35th Franken-Tiger remained on the shelf for about a year. Finally, the decision was taken to use it to try out different weathering techniques, including old school painting methods like dry-brushing.

This was followed by washes & home-brew filters using oils & ground pastels. Added to this were thin localized spray coats using Tamiya shades & finally flicked & painted on mud splashes.

We have to say, we are glad that the Tiger didn’t remain unfinished, the paint job does justice to all those hours of patient cross-kitting & upgrading. It certainly is an attractive model & well worth taking in, so well done Doug. Now go & do it all again with the Dragon early Tiger!