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Hi all,

Was lucky enough to visit Bovington this holiday and took a series of close-up pictures of the Tiger 131. I was a little surprised at some of the details and want to share it with everyone. I am not a rivet counter, especially when it comes to the Tiger but it was quite an eye opener:

Here is the beast: Detail on the driver's vision port. The Tiger 131 has the climbing step at the front and here you can see the handle. I am not too sure if it is added afterwards. Whenever I do a recoil barrel, I always try to make the tightest fit between the barrel and the sleeve but after this visit, I realized that there is a rather large gap in most barrels between the gun tube and the sleeve as you can see here. Details on the step and the aforementioned handle on the front plate. I have only worked with HL Tigers and always thought the side fender is open but HL just omitted it for production simplicity but I guess not ! Here is another detail I was surprised. The side fenders are individual pieces and one of the detailing is to cut it slight open in the model, but in reality they are quite tightly fitted and really looks like one piece after multiple paint jobs Again, always thought the side fenders were open on the front and the back. Details of the "box" Again I have only with with HLs and the side exit hatch on the turret is usually skinny at the top and the bottom and I never figured out right. In reality it is actually try to simulate the fact that the opening of the hatch is not even with the turret opening so the middle part of it is exposed more than the ends. MichaelC.

Michael I hope you enjoyed the Museum, The gap below the the main gun, usually referred to as the "SHOT TRAP" is why 131 surrendered when a shell entered the shot trap and temporarily jammed the turret, the scar can be clearly seen on the underside of the 88. shaun

The step and handle were added by the personnel of s.Pz.Abt. 504 in Tunisia, and you can see similar on some other Tigers of that battalion.

The sleeve on the Tiger's gun was to protect the portion of the gun that enters the mantlet during recoil. As such it didn't need a tight fit, but it had an internal rubber ring to keep dust out.

The first two designs of side fenders didn't have end caps; they were installed on 50 or so Tigers. Bovington has the third design.

The rear toolbox on the Bovington Tiger is not an original part and doesn't really look right.

The flat side hatch was bevelled at the sides, to blend in better with the curved turret, as you can see in the photo. But this was true only for turrets with the drum cupola. All turrets with the improved cupola had a simple flat circular hatch.

David