Rubicon’s Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E

(Tiger I Ausf. E) – A Review

Rubicon set the bar high with this kit, offering a detailed yet easy model to build.  This review will provide an overview of the technical and aesthetic qualities of the kit.

It’s hard to believe that in my 6 years of building scale models, I’d yet to build a Tiger 1 tank.  I’d more than dabbled in German armor, building an E-100, a Jagdtiger, and others, but I never really considered conquering a Tiger 1 kit myself in any scale.  Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E’s, or Tiger 1’s, are usually one of the first kits people look to build.  They’re an iconic presence from the battlefields of World War 2, but I’ve always strayed towards other examples of armor such as the Russian JS line.


Playing Bolt Action has given me every reason to explore different kits that I would normally overlook.  Recently, I began building and acquiring different examples of armor for my German DAK/ Defense of Italy army, and it became quite obvious that building a Tiger 1 was long overdue.  I looked around at different companies and eventually stumbled upon Rubicon’s Tiger 1.  Friend and fellow modeler Andy Singleton, creator of the blog Volleyfire Painting, sold me on the kit so I snapped for it.  In a few short days, the kit was waiting for me at my house.

Coming from 1:35 scale kits, Rubicon’s Tiger 1 was a delight to build.  It combines both the practicality of a kit designed for wargaming with that of a finely detailed model kit accurate for its size.  The box itself gives no mistake to what it contains.  It offers an example of a good color scheme to apply to your own tank when it’s finished and offers a brief bit about the tank’s history.

The kit comes on four different sprues.  Each sprue is individually wrapped as to catch any pieces that may come disconnected during shipping.  Upon first glimpse, you’ll realize there’s actually not that many pieces to this kit.  You will notice, however, that there are duplicate tracks and road wheels.  This kit offers you the ability to create an initial production model, an early war model, and a mid/late war variant of the tank.  To make things easy, the instruction card comes with detailed steps for you to follow, and will distinctly tell you what pieces to add depending on the variant you’re looking to build.

The first steps will guide you through the assembly of the road wheels.  Rubicon eliminates the headache of the over-engineered overlapping wheels that the Germans were famous for.  You start off by selecting the wheels corresponding to the version of tank you were looking to build.  You place these on the arms and then simply slide the tracks with overlapping wheels on after.  It’s really that easy.  For the sake of my own sanity, I placed my wheels and tracks on the arms to ensure that they fit and then glued them to each other after removing them from the tank itself.  (I like to paint my tracks/ wheels separately as I tend to work and paint easier that way.)

Moving on from the track and wheel assembly, the kit has you assemble the two halves of the hull together.  This is easy enough as the two pieces interlock with each other.  From there, you place the front glacis plate and attach a plate to the rear.  The addition of these two pieces creates a sturdy platform to work with.

With the body assembled, the instructions have you move to the rear of the tank where you attach the exhaust system and attach other details such as the jack.  Everything lines up incredibly well at this point, however I would advise that you use some tweezers to line up and apply the tops of the muffler assembly as those can be a little finicky to place with the outside of the assembly in place.  With the mufflers in place, I took the liberty to create some texture to this area that often was the site of accumulated mud and rust.  I created the texture by dabbing Mr. Surfacer 500 on the bits to create a subtle but noticeable textured look.

With the rear of the tank completed, the instructions move you onto the turret itself.  You are given three paths to follow based on the variant you are creating.  For my DAK/ Defense of Italy Germans, I went with the Early Production build and attached the appropriate copula details and hatches.  One thing I did notice was the absence of vision slots on the copula.  This is fine and all as I can make them myself, but it’s just one little detail I noticed that was missing. 

Prior to joining the halves of the turret together, the instructions had me drill the gun port on the rear left side of the turret.  This was easy to do with the guide hole already molded on the inside of the turret and a few twists of my Xacto knife saw the job completed.

With the turret halves joined, the gun mount in place, I glued the turret together.  Next, I added the fearsome 88mm gun that the Tiger 1 was known for.  Rubicon included a neat feature by keying the barrel into the mount; gone are the days of crooked barrels or vertical breaches!  I did take the extra time to drill an opening into the end of the barrel as it’s supplied without an opening.  This is only a small detail, but I feel it does add character.

With a near-completed turret, I decided to get out the Mr. Surfacer 500 one more time and apply some subtle casting texture to the top and sides of the turret.  It’s a small detail, but I feel it adds some character to the model, especially once paint and washes are applied.  Once the texture is dry, I glued the hatches in place.

From here, the Tiger 1 is 99% complete with the application of the side skirts, which I normally leave off of my 1:35 German kits as the crews would normally throw them off with the many wheel issues they had.  At this point, you’re adding small details pertaining to the variant of tank yours will be operating as.  As mine was serving in Libya and Italy, I did install the filtration system that was placed on the tank due to the dusty environment it operated in.  To crown the build off, I placed the smoke launchers on the sides of the turret.  With those, the tank was complete!

Overall, the kit was a joy to build.  From start to finish and was a worry-free kit and it was completed in about an hour.  While lacking only minor details here and there, the kit presents an accurate representation of the Tiger 1 at this scale while lending itself to the functionality of a gaming model.  One thing I’d like to suggest to Rubicon would be the inclusion of zimmerit panels to add to the tank if the user is looking to make the tank into a mid or late production variant, however; the modeler can always add their own to the tank themselves with a bit of time and putty.  To date, this was the most fun I’ve had building a kit for Bolt Action.  I can’t wait to see the other kits that Rubicon is set to produce.  If they’re anything like this kit, I’ll be sure to pick them up as well.

Final verdict:

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate this kit as a 9.9 for ease of build and its attention to detail at such a scale.  Some details can be improved upon, but they’re only minor.  I highly recommend this kit.  If you enjoyed the review, feel free to leave a comment below as it really helps the site out.  Additionally, if you'd like to pick up a Tiger 1 of your own, head on over to Rubicon Models or follow this link to the Tiger I Ausf. E.