RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi Chaps,
I've had my HL Tiger 1 about 4 months now, I'm looking at upgrading several parts, but I keep coming across early or late versions,
I would think mine is the 'late' version, can anyone clarify exactly what is what, like what year defines the early & late versions,
many thanks .

Show us a pic


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Do the roadwheels have rubber tires, and is the cupola a drum? If so, then it's early.

Sorry, can't upload photos yet, just been reading how to do photobucket by Snapdragon, hopefully have sorted soon.

Forget Photobucket...and use Imgur. Photobucket went greedy, and you have to have a paid account to link pics.

As far as Tiger variants go, the tank saw a whole host of modifications and detail changes from 1942 onwards. Air filters, commanders cupola, smoke disharger locations, wheels etc. Most to simplify production to allow more to be made, or to limit the use of scarce materials...but really you need to get some good detail pics to be able to tell.

early tiger late tiger

Thanks to all for your replys,
I can now see that mine is the early version, big thankyou to Forgebear for the pics,

I thought henglong only made early Tiger. Never saw a late version by Henglong. I understand late versions are the minority.


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And then there is the Early early AKA Tunisian Tiger 1,
This had Different front and rear fenders, Different shape Exhaust shrouds without caps over the exhaust pipe outlets,
The tow ropes were reversed,
The main Gun Mantlet was different and Different pattern Feifal Air cleaners were fitted,
The twin drivers viewing holes in the front armoured mantlet were initially filled in then later totally removed,This is not a complete list
Then there is the "MID" Which unlike early and late is a title that modellers give it, It was not an official title,
It is a Tiger 1 which incorporates parts from both early and late models which right to the end of WW2 were to be seen in photographs.
They could be called parts bin specials in other words, For example when a Tiger 1 came into the workshop for repair if the stores did not have the early rubber rimmed wheels the fitter would put the later all metal wheels on, or if it was a late model suffering damage to its cupola an early model cupola might be fitted,
The evolution of the Tiger 1 confuses most people ,
The Air Cleaner and exhaust systems were changed throughout production and Headlight/s and the placement of them around the front of the tank seems almost random,
The top of the turret is more subtle,
The most obvious change was the new lower Cupola,
The roof armour was made thicker and the various Turret roof vents were moved and the loaders hatch was altered,
The great advantage from our point of view is that you could fit any model part to your Tiger 1 and it would be difficult to prove it was not a truthful facsimile of a real Tiger1.
When you consider that less than 1500 Tiger 1s of both early and late were built the constant changes do make you wonder how many more could have been built if they had stopped faffing about with it.

Thanks so much for all the great information, seems like you could fit almost any part then, & would still not be far from the real thing,
right, i'm now going to do a bit more work on my smoke unit, which you can't see anyway, LOL,
keep having fun chaps & thanks again.