Kit #35-29  Zimmerit Panzerkampfwagen VI (P) for Dragon 6210

1/35 Scale

Resin

Ah, the Tiger (P).  First we found out out about this thing from our good friend J.J. Fedorowicz .  The team of Jentz and Doyle enhanced our knowledge with their fine book on the Porsche Tigers.  Then 2004 saw the release of Dragon's fine kit of the “one off” Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 653 beast, which I immediately started as my one year build.

Forging ahead, confident that all was in hand, the kit was almost ready for final assembly when we all find, thanks to the Internet and the David Byrden's TIGER 1.info site, that the 653 vehicle had an escape hatch, lower vision ports and off center Pilze!  With knife and Dremel at the ready, we set forth once again.  No big deal, a new hatch from a redundant Academy Tiger 1 and a little surgery… but wait, we still have Zimmerit to do and those Aber fenders, Jaguar links, etc.  It’s not looking good for a one year build at this point.

Last night when I spied this attractive little white box in a lonely corner at a local shop, I knew that it was the answer to this dilemma.  Zimmerit and a corrected turret all in one box for a mere $32 CDN!

The kit consists of a Zimmerited turret with lowered side vision ports, separate escape hatch with Zimmerit, a new roof with Pilz in the correct location and a Zimmerited mantlet.  Two glacis plates are provided, one with the extra plates over the hull machine gun and drivers vision block, and the earlier one as seen on p372 of Munch’s Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 653. This page has two front views of this big cat on its rail car at halt in Lemberg.  The tank clearly does not have extra front armour in these shots.  The Dragon kit has the later type only, so this is a nice addition and is the one that I will do.

The lower front plate is also included as a replacement part.  With all the large bolts on these plates they would prove to be time-consuming to apply Zimmerit on.  Four new circular hull vision ports are here as well, with pre-applied Zimmerit of course!

The final part is a 12x18-cm sheet of the entire hull Zimmerit that will be required, 16 pieces in all.  These are extremely thin and very well cast.

I am very excited about this set.  It is well-researched and accurate, blemish-free and the turret pieces fit well.  The Dragon parts like the loader’s hatch and cupola, which must be used, mate perfectly with the resin bits.  I can only assume that the rest of the kit will work as well.

The one criticism that I have is in regard to the lack of specific instructions for this kit.  A generic sheet with text and photos showing how to “prep, cut and paste” their products could have been supplemented with something to show the location of all the bits.  This is a complex vehicle that went though some changes in its brief lifetime.  For those without a wealth of reference on this rare cat, some head-scratching may ensue.