Small Scale Military Headquarters

It was originally a UML exclusive from the 2nd 40 Collection but I guess we get a crack at it now.

Personally I am not crazy about the camo scheme

This is Wil Fey's tank when he served in Normandy. He happens to be one of the lesser known panzer aces but wiley nonetheless. It might have been nice if they included his figure with the vehicle instead of just the tank.

Anyway, Corgi recently offered up this same tank in 1:50 scale...

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

Am I wrong but does this tank appear to be missing the outer most set of combat road wheels? Why would that be? an oversight? Photo example of one fresh off the train?

Were there 3 rows of wheels with the steel only road wheels? My 21st Tiger has only 2 rows of the late production road wheels.

My 21stC Tiger is the same. I presume(d) that the road wheel configuration is the transport and 21stC did it to save on material. My one complaint about these. The tracks themselves appear to be combat width.
My FoV Tigers however have the full set of outer road wheels (doesn't help keep them from throwing the tread though) as well as the combat tracks.

I did some poking around and came up with what appears to be a photo of the actual tank the Dragon Tiger was modeled after. Since this photo was obviously taken after the war, feel free to draw your own conclusions.



Okay, I located an actual war time photo. I'd say the Cyber Hobby Tiger is accurate so far as the road wheels are concerned.

Yes. They clearly modeled it on that tank. In both pics the Tiger has the combat tracks without the outer set of road wheels.
On another forum I was just discussing the removal of that first combat road wheel, the one that overlaps the drive wheel, in order to eliminate/limit mud/ice build up. Apparently that was fairly common on the Eastern Front. I find it hard to believe that all the outer road wheels would be removed but I suppose it is conceivable. I don't know.
Thanks for the research there, by the way.
On a broader note I pulled out some of my Tiger reference books and did some picture peeking and find that while all the line drawings show all combat road wheels, many of the photos do not. There are a number showing Tigers without the first wheel, much fewer that show it without the entire outer set but with the combat tracks. Apparently actual war necessitates whatever it takes.
One book has a series of pictures showing a training exercise on replacing the travel with combat tracks and it shows that prior to the placement of the combat tracks all the combat roadwheels are in place. Clearly "proper training techniques" weren't always carried out in the field. Pretty surprising, huh?

As a former Marine Infantryman, I am shocked. No, appalled. lol