Rubicon Tiger I Ausf. E

You can't talk about World War II tanks and not talk about the Tiger, probably the most famous tank of the era.

In this case, I do an unboxing of the plastic kit from Rubicon Models. This one is in 1:56 or 28mm scale and covers the Ausführung E, including the parts for early, mid- and late war builds.

Quoted at 29 Euro for the plastic kit, that contains four well filled sprues, a multipage instruction and a decal sheet. The plastic, that Rubicon uses, is a bit smoother and slightly greased with release agent. Therefore we recommend that you rinse off the sprues in warm soap water.

The casting quality is good and the sprues are quite loaded, and like mentioned above, this kit covers different options, along with two sets of tracks, three turrets and the optional air filters.

Construction starts with the tracks, those are included in two different patterns. As this Tiger should be used in an Afrika-themed army, i went with the early pattern. A real nice detail is the depth, that they achieved with the multi-layered build of the track section, but the tracks themselfs are a bit smooth and have dents due to the casting process.

The lower hull consists of a left and right part, that carry the track sections and come along very three-dimensional. This costs space inside the sprue, but is definately worth the final result.

Along with the front and back plate the lower hull is finished. They are plugged together, aided with a bit of glue. The upper part of hull is attached as well.

A big plus of this kit are the three variants of the turret, for the early, mid and late builds. As already mentioned, we are building an early Tiger for an Afrikakorps. The turret gets the pistol hatch, which is optional and a small substructure, as i want to keep the turret hatch open with a commander sitting in it.

The square upper part of the hull consists of the upper body, the front plate along with the skirts. On the left side i replaced a part of the skirt with some plastic card to represent a damaged skirt. And the optional Feifer air filters were added, as these just fit perfectly with the dusty afrika theme.

The only thing missing now are a few details, like the front MG, a few mounts, optional bits and the characteristic 8,8 cm KwK 36. The turret is just pinned on top and can be rotated. The last picture shows the Tiger I Ausf. E with a tank commander from the Perrys Afrikakorps Range.

After the construction there are quite a few bits left, that can be used for wracks or conversions.

The Rubicon kit doesn't need to be shy being compared with the Warlord Games Wittmann Tiger made from resin. There are the typical advantages and disadvantages with plastic and resin. A matter of taste is the thing with Zimmerit. A comparison with the new plastic kit from Warlord Games will be hand in at a later time.

And the final build of the Tiger I looks like this.

Conclusion
The Tiger I is an important kit for Rubicon. The Panzer III and IV are the work horses of the german armies, but a Tiger is a must for every player. With all the variants and options included, the kits makes the choice for you, to buy it more than once (...but, but i need another one for that other project....)
The assembly went fast, the casting is convincing and the fit leaves no wishes unfulfilled. The price of 29 Euros is slighty above average, but still moderate and for the quality that you get, more than fair.

The kit was provided by Fantasy Warehouse.