RFM | 5080 | Sd.Kfz. 181 Tiger I Late Production - full interior | 1:35

• Complete interior (driver, combat and engine compartment)
• With workable single-link tracks
• Including photo-etched and clear parts
• 6 marking options

History

The Tiger I was a German heavy tank of World War II that began operational duty in 1942 in Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. It gave the German Army its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted the 8.8 cm KwK 36 gun (derived from the 8.8 cm Flak 36, the famous "eighty-eight" feared by Allied troops). 1,347 were built between August 1942 and August 1944. After August 1944, production of the Tiger I was phased out in favour of the Tiger II.

While the Tiger I has been called an outstanding design for its time, it has also been called overengineered, using expensive materials and labour-intensive production methods. In the early period, the Tiger was prone to certain types of track failures and breakdowns. It was expensive to maintain, but generally mechanically reliable. It was difficult to transport and vulnerable to immobilisation when mud, ice, and snow froze between its overlapping and interleaved Schachtellaufwerk-pattern road wheels, often jamming them solid.

The Tiger differed from earlier German tanks principally in its design philosophy. Its predecessors balanced mobility, armour and firepower and were sometimes outgunned by their opponents.

While heavy, this tank was not slower than the best of its opponents. Although the general design and layout were broadly similar to the Panzer IV medium tank, the Tiger weighed more than twice as much. This was due to its substantially thicker armour, the larger main gun, greater volume of fuel and ammunition storage, larger engine, and a more solidly built transmission and suspension.