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I have a question, I looked through 2 of my Tiger I books and could not find the answer so I hope one of you may know...

On the top of the Tiger I turret there is a line behind the mantel a bit on the front slope. What is that? It is not on every Tiger I model, I dont know if that is a mistake and they should all have it or if some had it and others didn't? As you can see in the picture below the Henglong (left) has it, the WSN (on the right) does not...

20180707_211651 by jon newsom, on Flickr

Hi, If you have a copy of HAYNES Tiger Tank Owners Workshop Manual, Turn to page 48 and you will see an illustration of the armoured support of the Main Gun Mantlet,
This Massive cast structure supports the 88 although it does not directly act as a hinge,
The 88 in the Tiger 1 was rather poorly supported and relied on a well located spring because the balance point of the main gun was forward of the trunnions.
As to why the WSN fails to show it I would point out the picture fails to show a number of fixtures and fittings that would be on the Prototype and most of those fixtures and fittings are on the Tamiya, Taigen and Heng Long models.
Does any of this help ?

Hi Jon, this is the diagram from the Haynes tiger tank owner's manual that Shaun was referring to , hth

Cheers, Lee.

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This is interesting info. So it sounds like the intial version and the early version had this inner plate but it was removed on the mid and late version?

This makes since as thickness was increased to give better protection, this internal plate being deleted could have helped reduce weight in the process.

Were weld lines visible at the top or was it welded internally?

Forgive me I think you have been misinformed,
The Cast armoured support for the 88 main gun was incorporated in all Tiger 1 versions,
Without it the 88 would have nothing to hold it in place in the turret.
The updated Turret fitted to the Tiger 1 late had a thicker armoured roof and later the roof armour was thickened even more so that the external signs of its presence are less obvious but it was always there.

jarndice wrote:Forgive me I think you have been misinformed,
The Cast armoured support for the 88 main gun was incorporated in all Tiger 1 versions,
Without it the 88 would have nothing to hold it in place in the turret.
The updated Turret fitted to the Tiger 1 late had a thicker armoured roof and later the roof armour was thickened even more so that the external signs of its presence are less obvious but it was always there.

Thanks for the clarification! Love to learn something new!

Another question I have is when exactly the vision port was added in front of the loaders hatch on the turret. I have seen a lot of early versions that have it and some that don't. I was under the impression that it was only on the mid version and the final version but now I'm questioning that.

This is what it says here
http://tiger1.info/EN/Loaders-periscope.html

Soeren wrote:This is what it says here
http://tiger1.info/EN/Loaders-periscope.html

But I keep finding color plates and photos that have it there along with the early high cupola.