Hi,
I'm building Bovington's Tiger 131 (sure I'm not the first!), and am building as it was when it was abandoned. I need some help on the engine grills. The Haynes manual shows the rear grills with a diamond shaped mesh whilst Tamiya's etch grills (and all others I've seen) are square. Also, looking at the Haynes manual, the two larger grills do not have any mesh at all. Is this vehicle likely to have come from the factory like this as it seems a little odd? I feel like I should be adding mesh to all the grills?
Any advice?
Thanks

I doubt that it would have come from the factory, with mesh on the larger grills. It is more likely that was a field modification. Photos don't lie. The square grills were more common, which is probably the reason that those are all you can find.

I believe that the diamond mesh was added after going to the museum and I further believe that the normal mesh pattern would be accurate.

Thank you. So checking the Haynes manual again, the grills nearest the exhausts do not have any mesh. Is it safe to assume these have been removed since capture and add mesh mysel?f. All the etch kits seem to come with mesh to cover all four grills?

I am going by the images I have of the engine deck of this tank. it also does not look right the way these diamond pattern mesh covers are attached. I suspect given time My Byrden will chime in with the information you seek.

Darren, I think you are correct about the mesh and having just discovered David Bryden's excellent reference work on Tiger 1.info it now appears that the 'square' mesh was added over all four intake grills at the factory but that they had a habit of coming off. On that basis, I will model mine with the mesh attached as the vehicle was only 3/4 months old when it was captured and therefore reasonable to assume the mesh was still attached. I have some other assumptions which would be good to throw out there to see if they sound reasonable. As I am modelling my 131 at the moment it was abandoned I have presumed the following (and based on he vehicle being relatively new:
1) all the pioneer tools would still be in place, Some of the photos after capture show tools missing but I think it reasonable to assume that the tools were there at time of abandonment and that missing tools were taken as souvenirs by British squaddies (it would seem reasonable that German tank crews would look after their tools as they were vital pieces of equipment).
2) I cannot see any sign of the headlight mounting sockets. The headlights themselves were screwed into the sockets which were themselves bolted to mounting brackets welded to the hull. The headlamps themselves where removed before battle and stored inside the hull, but would the crew of Tiger 131 have bothered to remove the sockets as well, especially as it would have required disconnecting the cabling? No matter how closely I look at the photos of the vehicle in theatre shortly after capture I cannot make out anything that looks like a socket, although the angles are not ideal. Any ideas?
3) Tracks. I saw in a recent thread that someone described the tracks as being 'mirror' tracks. Can anyone tell me with any degree of certainty if the tracks shown on the vehicle in theatre (not at Bovington as we know they shipped the vehicle back to the UK with 4 spare tracks from other Tigers) are 'mirror' or 'early' tracks?
Any help would be appreciated.