Airfix Tiger Tank

[Heedless Horseman]

For those 'Gentlemen of a certain age'...secretly harbouring fantasies of, (for just one last time, before they go... !), building an Airfix TIGER! But who are put off by 'BALDNESS' in the stowage box department...
https://www.dantaylormodelworks.com/tiger-i-turret-bin-405-p.asp

"I'm a Ty..ger, I'm a Ty Ty Ger!"     

[Terry37]

Ah, I remember that kit very well!!! May still have one around somewhere that I built back in the mid 60's. Not much on plastic kits anymore, but love working with metal, or at least the metal that figures and such are made of!

Terry

[Norm]

What a strange omission in the first place.

Interesting how things have moved forward. I have just built two fast build 1/72 Tigers from Italeri. The whole running gear is in a single piece per side, perfect for impatient wargamers, so no more wonky wheels (my fault not the models) or trying to get an over-tight rubber track onto the wheels, while too impatient to let the glue on the wheels dry, so you end up with twisted drive sprockets .... ah those were the days :-)

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

If you built a 1960's tigger it will have disintegrated by now with the infamous track rot..

[Steve J]

Trying to fix those tracks on without damaging any of the running gear was certainly a challenge. IIRC you almost needed to weight the model as it wasn't heavy enough to sit on the tracks!

[Heedless Horseman]

There was a rather interesting piece...I think it was SOMEWHERE on TMP, (Sorry, cannot remember!)...about early Airfix vehicles. In some cases, the designers measured up an existing vehicle...but...remember, this was the '60s when there were far fewer extant to be visited. Hence, the Sdkfz 234 has the wrong mudguards...because it was based on a rebuilt vehicle...when the reconstructors...(And thanks to them for their efforts!)...just did not know that they should have not been the same as on a Sdkfz 231.
Another, (I think it was the Panther), was measured from a relatively easily accessible  French War Memorial...but parts of the suspension had 'dropped' a bit with age. Not sure whether the Tiger was included...or on what the M3 Halftrack was modelled on!
Of course, back then, Plastic Kits were still toys for boys. Real Wargamers...those strange persons...collected/cast metal Napoleonics or such...in LEAD! 

As to 'Track Rot'...I THINK it was the black 'rubbery' tracks from the 1970's which disintegrated on occasion. I should try to find my own box of 1/76 stuff...it is still there...SOMEWHERE! I read that if you had painted the tracks, they did not 'rot'...or maybe, it was only some production  batches that did!

[Wulf]

I saw a recent build video of a new Airfix Cromwell which had one-piece solid plastic tracks. But still all separate wheels! Assemble the inner wheels, put tracks on, assemble outer wheels. Nicely done.