Review of Italeri 1/35th Scale
Bergtiger Tiger Support Vehicle
(Sd.Kfz. 185)
By Ray Mehlberger
Kit No. 362
MSRP: $28.00
Kit No. 362
MSRP: $28.00
HISTORY:
The Tiger is certainly the best known combat vehicle of WWII. Much has been published about the Tiger and its technical aspects which cover practically all variants of the fighting machine. This kit offers a version which is a rarity, because only little information has been available.
Only a few units had been in service. It represents a support vehicle for demolition teams and an engine replacement vehicle to service other tanks. This Tiger was equipped with a manual crane and is a standard issue without the 8.8 cm gun.
Italeri is a prolific model company based in Italy. They make all manner of model subjects in the popular scales.
THE KIT:
This kit comes in a shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box. The box art shows a Bergtiger crossing a grassy field with a burning Sherman tank in the background and trees in the distance. It is in overall flat tan with a medium green camouflage wave pattern. It carries only a narrowl German black cross outlined in white on the sides of the hull.
There is a white sticker on the box that says that The Testor Corp. was the distributor of this kit and it gives their street address in Rockford IL, USA.
One side panel says the model makes up to be 241 mm long (about 9 ½”), followed by one paragraph histories of the Bergtiger in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian. Each paragraph is labeled with a full color flag of the country that speaks that language.
The other side panel continues with the one paragraph histories in Portuguese, Polish, Japanese and Chinese also marked with flags. “Not suitable for children under 3” appears in multiple languages. A list of Model Master brand paint numbers is next, but the colors are not named, followed by “For modelers over 10” and MADE IN ITALY. Italeri’s street address in Italy is provided.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
The kit contains 5 tan parts trees, the decal sheet and the instructions. The parts trees are not cello bagged.
The instructions consist of a single sheet that accordion folds out into 10 pages in 8 ½” x 13” page format.
Page 1 of the instructions begins with Italeri’s street address again, “Retain this address for future reference”. Below that is the history of the Bergtiger in 11 languages including English.
Page 2 begins with “Attention-Useful advice” about the kit, followed by illustrations of 3 of the parts trees in the 11 languages.
Page 3 has illustrations of 2 more parts trees, followed by a the list of Model Master paint numbers again. The bottom of the page has the first assembly step drawing.
Pages 4 through 9 give a grand total of 13 assembly steps.
Page 10 has a 4-view in the scheme and marking of the box art subject. No unit is mentioned. The bottom of the page has the decal application instructions in 9 languages including English.
The only hull interior detail is the engine and it’s compartment tub. There is a lot of nice interior details supplied for the turret.
Hatches above the driver and gunner positions are separate and hinged to be able to open and close, but there is nothing to see below them.
The kit has very nice zimmerit anti-magnetic mine paste molded into it. No crew figures are included, nor glue or paint.
Tan letter A parts tree holds: the hull top, tow cables, side skirts, turret rear storage basket, engine, hatches, tools, hull tub, suspension arms, idler wheels, drive sprockets etc. (91 parts) Five parts are shaded out in the parts tree illustrations as being excess and not needed to complete the kit.
The Tiger is certainly the best known combat vehicle of WWII. Much has been published about the Tiger and its technical aspects which cover practically all variants of the fighting machine. This kit offers a version which is a rarity, because only little information has been available.
Only a few units had been in service. It represents a support vehicle for demolition teams and an engine replacement vehicle to service other tanks. This Tiger was equipped with a manual crane and is a standard issue without the 8.8 cm gun.
Italeri is a prolific model company based in Italy. They make all manner of model subjects in the popular scales.
THE KIT:
This kit comes in a shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box. The box art shows a Bergtiger crossing a grassy field with a burning Sherman tank in the background and trees in the distance. It is in overall flat tan with a medium green camouflage wave pattern. It carries only a narrowl German black cross outlined in white on the sides of the hull.
There is a white sticker on the box that says that The Testor Corp. was the distributor of this kit and it gives their street address in Rockford IL, USA.
One side panel says the model makes up to be 241 mm long (about 9 ½”), followed by one paragraph histories of the Bergtiger in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian. Each paragraph is labeled with a full color flag of the country that speaks that language.
The other side panel continues with the one paragraph histories in Portuguese, Polish, Japanese and Chinese also marked with flags. “Not suitable for children under 3” appears in multiple languages. A list of Model Master brand paint numbers is next, but the colors are not named, followed by “For modelers over 10” and MADE IN ITALY. Italeri’s street address in Italy is provided.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
The kit contains 5 tan parts trees, the decal sheet and the instructions. The parts trees are not cello bagged.
The instructions consist of a single sheet that accordion folds out into 10 pages in 8 ½” x 13” page format.
Page 1 of the instructions begins with Italeri’s street address again, “Retain this address for future reference”. Below that is the history of the Bergtiger in 11 languages including English.
Page 2 begins with “Attention-Useful advice” about the kit, followed by illustrations of 3 of the parts trees in the 11 languages.
Page 3 has illustrations of 2 more parts trees, followed by a the list of Model Master paint numbers again. The bottom of the page has the first assembly step drawing.
Pages 4 through 9 give a grand total of 13 assembly steps.
Page 10 has a 4-view in the scheme and marking of the box art subject. No unit is mentioned. The bottom of the page has the decal application instructions in 9 languages including English.
The only hull interior detail is the engine and it’s compartment tub. There is a lot of nice interior details supplied for the turret.
Hatches above the driver and gunner positions are separate and hinged to be able to open and close, but there is nothing to see below them.
The kit has very nice zimmerit anti-magnetic mine paste molded into it. No crew figures are included, nor glue or paint.
Tan letter A parts tree holds: the hull top, tow cables, side skirts, turret rear storage basket, engine, hatches, tools, hull tub, suspension arms, idler wheels, drive sprockets etc. (91 parts) Five parts are shaded out in the parts tree illustrations as being excess and not needed to complete the kit.
There are 2 identical tan letter B parts trees. Each holds: road wheels and link and length type tracks (77 parts each)
Tan letter C parts tree holds: the wench, hoist parts, machine gun, turret sides etc. (49 parts) Four are excess.
Tan letter D parts tree holds: side skirts, turret zimmerit, anti-aircraft machine gun and it’s mount, the turret roof, fender extensions, hull front and rear walls etc. (33 parts)
The decal sheet has the narrow crosses and red turret numerals outlined in white. No division or unit marks are provided.
I bought this kit in a store that mainly sells supplies that teachers need for their classrooms. The realized they made a big mistake carrying model kits which sat on the shelf and gathered dust due to next to nil sales.
I bought my kit when the store marked all the model kits down 75%. Pretty much all of the kits they stocked were Italeri. Nice to get a bargain once in a whie.