It has zimmerit - it says so on the box.
Thank you very much, did not notice - it’s me eyes!!
I guess that the CAD-renders were done before adding the zimmerit structure
OR the zimmerit comes as separate sheets of some thin material
I wonder about the accuracy of this kit’s interior. I’ve been looking out for Tiger internals data for many years, and this particular vehicle is a mystery still.
Turret : standard like a Tiger H? But which version Tiger H? Or is the layout specific to the Tiger P project?
Hull : I can only recall a couple of prototype mockups at the front. What’s in the rear?
Modifications: even if we knew the above, this tank has been altered. An extra radio set is added. Do we even know where?
To me, this seems equivalent to a “Panzer 46” model.
David
Thanks!!!
Damn it. First I thought, yeah, yeah, they reissue a model… and then boom- an interior.
Ten years ago I would have been ecstatic about it, now I am just weeping for my wallet.
So many tanks with interiors out there… first world problems for sure.
I’ve done a little research into this vehicle, and now I can say that the interior displayed by Amusing Hobby is… flawed.
e.g. they basically give us the turret interior from Tiger 131.
They SHOULD have backdated to the very first Tiger H (which were different) and then they SHOULD have swapped the hydraulic motor for an electric motor, and then they SHOULD have removed the turret floor (the Tiger P didn’t have a floor) and then they SHOULD have added the large shell-catching bin where the floor was.
In other words, they skipped on the research and they’re hoping we won’t notice. But those of us with the Spielberger book, will notice.
As for the hull, they apparently did some research there. Their hull front interior is based on actual Tiger P information.
But…that information is photos of the wooden prototype (ref. the Spielberger book). Amusing Hobby didn’t have a finished tank to look at. Consequently, the dozen or so items of standard tank equipment that should be in the hull, are not. I don’t see them in the CAD images.
Come on, Amusing Hobby, even if you don’t know where the loose items go, you could at least put them in the kit and make a guess at it!
They DID add the second radio set. But nobody knows where it was placed in Tiger 003, so Amusing Hobby took a guess at its position (left rear corner). I’m not convinced it’s a good guess.
In summary, if you hope this kit will correctly reproduce the insides of Tiger “003” - which were largely unknown up to now - sorry, but it won’t. They remain unknown. We have enough information to say this kit is wrong, but we don’t have enough information to correct it.
David
2 replies
Thanks!
Too bad for those who want to show interiors.
If I get this kit and build it it will be built with all hatches closed.
Krupp produced the turrets for both Henschel and Porsche so there is no reason to suspect that there were any differences in layout.
Given that Porsche lost the contractual race so to speak, the turrets initially intended for Porsche were instead given over to Henschel.
Only one Porsche Tiger saw combat before it was destroyed after surviving more than a year on the Eastern Front.
As there are no surviving plans of the Tiger P - one can only treat the interior of the kit as a what if but that should not stop anyone building this or any other Tiger P given that the interior is hardly pivotal in telling a story
1 reply
The H had a mechanical drive train; the P had electric.
The turret of the H was turned by a hydraulic pump with a mechanical link to the transmission shaft. There was, of course, no transmission shaft in the P. So this feature could not possibly be the same.
It gets worse. Documents tell us that the P didn’t have a hydraulic system at all; it had an electric motor (the Panzer 4 also had one). So, the H had that big hydraulic pump on its turret floor, but the P must have had a completely different electric motor up by the turret ring.
It gets worse. Documents tell us the P didn’t even HAVE a floor. Photos of the wooden prototype support this. It had dangling chairs, like the Panzer III. And in fact the chairs in the H are probably the same in both tanks because they’re not attached to the floor legs.
So, if that large dangling floor panel, and all the jerrycans and the pump and the equipment on it, did not exist in the P. That’s a major difference.
It gets worse. The layout of the tools and wiring on the turret walls was changed a few times. We know that the very first H vehicles had a different layout to Tiger “131”. That original layout probably existed in the P as well. But Amusing Hobby have copied the layout of Tiger “131”, ignoring Tiger “712” in the USA which is older and would surely be a better likeness to a P vehicle.
In summary: there is plenty of “reason” to conclude that these turrets were different inside. When researchers have spent time finding and translating documents, please respect the work that they’ve done.
David
1 reply
Some interesting points for sure - There is book called ‘the other Tiger’ I would expect some insight there.
As for respecting research - of course but I haven’t seen anything that supports what you posit anywhere.
All I have done is use logical reasoning. I can’t see Porsche throwing out some tanks without a floor when competing against another firm that has them.
Fitting an auxiliary motor wouldn’t be too difficult - especially given that it must have been easier to do for electric motors.
As for the guess - it is pretty much a good one - if you use deductive reasoning.
You see the ammo load outs were different for command tanks in that they carried less because of the extra radio set and the generator.
I do have sources for everything I said.
The lack of a turret floor was considered to be a design choice, not a disadvantage. e.g. the Panzer III was upgraded and improved many times over the years, with four different guns installed, but it was never given a turret floor.
This WW2 photograph is reproduced in Spielberger’s “Tiger” volume. It shows the inside of the Porsche vehicle’s turret; or, rather, a wooden mockup of the turret they intended to build. Every panzer started out as a wooden prototype which was used to test and finalise equipment layout.
We are in the region of the commander’s feet, looking forward at the gunner’s chair. As I point out on the photo, there is a crossbar passing under the gun, apparently identical to the one in the Tiger (H). It also has the same elevation gearing over on the right. But there is no floor and no gearbox. Instead there is a large shell-catching bin, connected to a central post which doubtless would carry the electrical connections to the turret.
David
