The legendary Pz VI Tiger Tank is another must have for any German force. I was very excited to build this offering from Zvezda and rumble it into battle against some weedy. under equipped British tanks. Advertised as an easy build, snap together model, i was expecting to get through the building phase quickly and smoothly. Unfortunately i found that the “snap together” description turned out to be more just “snap” and “snap off”.

The kit comes with minimal parts, an upper and lower hull, some simplified wheel configurations, 4 or 5 piece turret and gun, plus plenty of details for the upper hull. I painted the wheels, lower hull and tracks before construction to make it easier afterwards. The tracks snap onto a couple of lugs on the road wheels and run along the topside of the wheels first. You then attach the road wheels to the hull with the track lying flat. I had then serious trouble trying to get the front sprocket and rear drive wheel onto the model while then folding the track around the bottom set of wheels. I think you need to leave the model to dry for a good few hours and let the road wheels’ bond with the lower hull get super strong before moving on. In my impatience when i then attempted to wrap around and snap the tracks onto the corresponding lugs in the bottom road wheels, i managed to shift the whole track and wheel assembly out of position and make a big mess.

In my frustration i also managed to snap off the lugs in the road wheels so the track didn’t sit nicely. What a pain. If i had taken my time things might have worked out better. I salvaged the positioning mostly by re-gluing and fiddling but the tank’s rear still sits a little lower than its meant to. The rear drive wheel is also a little low.

You also need to be very careful when trying to snap the upper hull to the lower hull that you only apply pressure to the upper and lower hull sections, do not push from the track assembly as it’s possible you can snap off the whole track. I used a pair of tweezers to grab the hull not the tracks. Upon further research i did find another modeller who had encountered similar issues.

Apart from these frustrations i reckon he came out OK and i was happy with my paint job. Next time i am buying a Revell or Trumpeter Tiger. I don’t like the snap together thing, quite happy to stick to good old glue……..