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Verlinden
Tiger I Engine Drop In
Verlinden 2180

1:48th Scale

Review by Terry Ashley

TamiyaVerlinden have joined the 1:48 revolution with this simple update set designed for the Tamiya Tiger I Early Production (kit #32504) that gives you a partial engine compartment and engine.

The set consists of 22 parts cast in the usual grey/green resin and the standard of casting is very good with just the normal casting blocks to be removed with no warping or air holes present, there is also a length of copper wire included.

The engine casting gives you the top three quarters of the engine with the cylinder banks, exhaust manifolds with separate carburettors and two air cleaners and rear piping. There are also twelve small hose connectors to use when adding the plumbing.

The detail on the engine though is very good with well defined details and the separate parts add good definition and allow you to show the engine undergoing maintenance for an interesting diorama.

The engine provided is the Maybach HL230 P45 with the two round air cleaners but this engine was mostly used on the Mid to Late production Tigers with the Maybach HL210 P45 with three top air cleaners and other fitting differences being used on early Tigers and as such the engine is more suited to the SkyBow Late Production Tiger I than the Tamiya Early Production for which it is designed.

To add the engine to the kit you have to remove the engine bay door from the Tamiya hull and you are provided with a resin replacement door. This door is a straight reproduction of the Tamiya kit door and even includes the pin and moulding marks on the underside from the Tamiya kit as well as the two grab handles moulded solid as they are on the Tamiya part. Unfortunately Verlinden passed up the opportunity to improve the Tamiya door by this method and also the two side fittings that extend past the sides of the door are cast level with the edges of the door and you will need to replace these, by carefully cutting these from the Tamiya door as you remove it will allow you to re-use these parts and of course you should cut off the solid grab handles and replace with thin wire. You will also need to fill the cast in pin marks when showing the door open the same as you would have to with the plastic parts.

The same modifications will be needed on the Skybow kit but the details on the door are slightly different on the later Tiger and you will have to update these such as the exhaust outlet cover and no thumb wheel on the ventilator cover.

The engine bay sidewalls simply butt join to the undersides of the rear hull on the kit and after adding the plumbing with wire not provided, the large length of copper wire is quite thick for most instances and there is nothing in the instructions on adding the plumping apart from the box top illustration and you will need additional references for this.

The instructions are fairly basic with a single exploded view drawing of the parts which is adequate due to the small number of parts in the set.

Conclusion:
While the resin parts are well cast and detailed the engine provided is not applicable to the targeted Tamiya kit being the later Maybach HL230 and with the drop in only giving you the top half of the engine means it can’t be used with other detail items such as the Track 48 Tiger 1 engine cooling compartment set to fully detail the rear end.

But as mentioned it will give you a quick engine drop in for the soon to be released SkyBow Tiger I Late Production kit.

The resin parts:
Verlinden
Engine detail and compartment walls fitted to lower engine section
VerlindenVerlinden
Thanks to the Australian Verlinden distributors J.B.Wholesalers for the review set.


Page created 24 May 2005

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