This is the $600 1/12 kit, not the $100 1/28 kit?
2 Likes
Per the video description for the video link in post #60, it’s the 1/12 scale Lego Tiger.
@DByrden David,
After scouring the carpet repeatedly, the lost S-mine launcher was found! So just repairs and no new fabrication.
3 Likes
Based on this picture 218 of sPzAbt 502 had hand drawn or rough markings in my opinion.
So the markings were applied by hand.
At this point I’m stuck waiting on the spare track links ordered a few days ago to arrive. Final filter and flat coat will be applied after track is installed.
Special guest appearance…
Working on this project again after several months away has me wanting to build a newer Tiger kit.
Edit - (6pm est) Later this evening the track links finally arrived! Painted “missing link” (
pun) and installed it.
Lot of details are damaged. Hope to repair them tomorrow, do filter & flat coat.
7 Likes
Calling this Tiger wrapped, for the Great Ones Campaign honoring Shepherd Paine, Francois Verlinden & Bob Letterman.
My interpretation of 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion, Tiger #218 w/waffle zimmerit, ~June, 1944. While the smoke gernade launchers were supposed to be removed, the 502nd had a few early Tigers retain them.
Very happy this one is built, my most difficult project since returning to the hobby.
13 Likes
@Baron-ZuZu, Hi Nicholas welcome back to the forum! Your very talented as that’s an awesome looking Kurk era Tiger I. Really like the base and setting as well.
I’m happy Covid isn’t much of a problem these days but it was easier to find time for the hobby back then. What are you working on these days?
Steve, thank you!
House keeping today, partly because JoeyCat declared he had dibs on the airbrush station “to work on modern art”.
Comedy as that other set of spare Model-Kasten early Tiger track links arrived today! 
Woot! Better late than never.
Anyway, ready for the next project.
Kali’s happy her nap chair is vacant again…
Before getting after that Meng Leopard 1A3 again, feel motivated to return this 30 year old shelf queen…
5 Likes
I’m bored this Christmas Eve morning, drinking coffee while everyone in the house is still resting 
Last year about this time, 218 aka Tiger w/waffles was creeping forward very slowly. Likewise, a fat stack ~10 to 12 incomplete model kits were stacked around the hobbyroom. Today, it’s three and 218 aka Tiger w/waffles is completed.
Hobbywise, this has been an amazing year, my best since sometime in the early 1990’s.
I want to say thank you to the forum and everyone who took the time to look, read or comment on my various build blogs.
That kept the momentum fueled at several discouraging points.
Currently working on a “How To” guide for
make-your-own-zimmerit-with-tamiya-gray-putty-testors-liquid-cement. One side effect, there’s another Tiger kit on the workbench just for zimmerit coating.
To keep that old Tamiya Late Tiger 1 kit from becoming another incomplete build/shelf queen after coating, I’ve decided add it to this thread. This build will be nothing like the 1970 vintage Tamiya Early Tiger build, as this will be a basic slap-per-to-get-her and hose down with the airbrush.
What it is…
I have built this kit previously.
Half a life time ago in 1990-1995, my first Holy Grail project. Absolutely no idea what I was doing making Milliput Zimmerit, scratching an interior, adding an engine and working with PE, all for the first time on a then expensive, complicated state of the art, seemingly complex kit.
Complicated? 
Yes, the instructions had ~15 steps and the old Tamiya Tiger’s instructions had 8 steps. Very complicated!
Anyway, the kit isn’t complex, nor is it state of the art anymore nor was it expensive given I paid $20 for it. The build plan is zimmerit, aftermarket tracks, metal gun barrels, Eureka tow cables, Heavy Hobby headlight & PE engine deck screens.
Select parts needed to support zimmerit coating are removed, attachment points dressed and deburred.
Assembled
Various subassemblies
Mock up w/wheels
Inner most road wheel has four outward facing punch marks. Most can be hidden with carefully wheel placement etc but they need some attention as several are visible from the side to Panzer Police detectives in the know.
I can’t believe how simple this kit looks to me in 2024 vs 1989.
Side note
Tiger 1, knocked out by well meaning Christmas Caroler’s FPV drone strike. (J/k)
My old junior high era 1/25 Tamiya Tiger 1 has been slowly falling apart on the display shelf for 45+ years.
It’s worse than I realized 
.
Panzermodellwerk Nord zur Überholung und Sanierung
11 Likes
Grinding along…I’d forgotten how much I like Tamiya’s old Late Tiger 1 kit.
The kit is a joy to work with after some of the builds that crossed the work bench this year.
So how much of a joy?
Seems like there’s ~$100 of aftermarket junk on the way to my mom’s house…all duplicates of aftermarket junk in the stash back home…all for this old classic. Some would say that’s a waste of money and they’d be right. It’s better to waste a few dollars than waste time in my experience.
Striking while the iron is hot 
build wise not about to wait and risk motivation fading.
7 Likes
My review and rating of Tamiya #35146, Late Tiger 1, from 1989
Just my opinion of course and passing time isn’t any older model kits friend. I’ve built the kit twice previously and this makes the third one.
3 Price ~$51 Sprue Brothers (paid ~$20, vendor wanted it gone)
5 Instructions while the location of Zimmerit has some questionable accuracy on the front glacis, overall the instructions are clear and concise.
5 Molding Quality crisp but dated, no sink marks, no short shots, no flash, zero complaints from me
5 Plastic Quality higher quality plastic than the competition, slightly hard but cleans up well
3 Parts Clean Up lots of punch marks to fix, exterior faces of some road wheels, internal face of muffler guards, side of jack, 4 punch markers per track link, 100 links per track plus spares so ~800+ punch marks for inside face of the individual link tracks. Tow cables & track cable unfortunately there’s a lot of mold seams to remove.
3 Ease of Build would be 5 but the model needs a zimmerit coating that complicates construction, lot of RAW openings to fix, four where engine deck grates are located, drivers visor and air intake. If not boarded up with sheet styrene the empty internals can be see from various angles. Likewise massive punch marks to fix on kit tracks or an aftermarket solution which complicates the build. Likewise finding appropriate engine deck screens separately.
2 Accuracy - looks fairly accurate at first but don’t look too hard at the turret. Armorama Archive - Tamiya Tiger Turret , shape? main gun placement? Tiger Model Design makes replacement turrets to address this issue.
5 Fit - meticulously cleaning parts of attachment points and burrs works wonders. Test fitting is also helpful.
0 Doesn’t Require Aftermarket - the kit really deserve a negative score because so much benefits from being replaced with aftermarket or enhanced by aftermarket. This was true in 1989 when the kit was a new release. It’s very easy to drop $100 in upgrades and that just covers the basics!
Tracks, main gun, turret, MG’s, engine deck screens, tool clasps, track cable, tow cables, the list keeps going…
0 Details built Out of the Box - built out of the box the lack of fidelity to the appearance of a Late Tiger 1 is striking. If fidelity to identity matters to the modeler this kit shouldn’t be built OOTB. This was true in 1989 and with today’s rising standards of kit excellence hasn’t changed.
**31 points out of 50 **
31/50
Not recommended 
This once stellar must buy kit has been surpassed by many other kits that cost roughly the same or less. Likewise cost will spiral quickly acquiring aftermarket upgrades to improve this kit.
If one has the kit in the the stash, it’s a nice nostalgia build and can use up a lot of old dated aftermarket parts on the storage shelf.
Despite my objective opinion this kit is light years past it’s prime, it’s still a fun build. The kit builds very nicely. There another Tamiya Late Tiger kit in the stash plus two very similar mid models. In time all will probably see the work bench.
Cheers 
5 Likes