Henschel & Son Tiger I Heavy Tank

In the Fighting 1:18th’s review of the 21st Century Toys Tiger I the only real complaint we had was that there was no weathering on the tank, and that it looked a little too “factory fresh” for some peoples tastes. I am happy to say that JSI has gone to town on the weathering on this version of the Tiger I.

There is a very nice amount of weathering on parts of the tank that would be expected to weather heavily. Almost all the crew hatches have some sort of scratches or dings or dents, which makes sense. The front of the tank, and the base of the cannon both have significant weathering, likely to represent all the debris that the tank would have driven through. JSI did not go overboard, but the small touches are sometimes what makes the most difference, and I am happy to say they did a “bang up” job on the paint job this time out.

Apart from the weathering, JSI did a good job with the paint application on my Tiger I tank. The application appears uniform and consistent, with a nice gritty overall texture to the paint job. There is some over spray in some of the hatches, but its nothing significant. The only unpainted portion of the tank appears to be the very bottom, as it is simply dark gray.

This Tiger is built like a tank, literally.

I’ve poked and prodded this tank for days, and I’ve never once felt like I was close to breaking any of the hinges or other typically fragile parts. The antennas bend pretty freely, and will break off if ridiculous pressure was applied, but for any kind of normal usage there shouldn’t be any worry.

The body is very solid, better than most 1:18 scale items I’ve worked with in the past. My only construction complaint is that the tracks on the right side of my tank keep jumping off the wheels with extended use, which I won’t be doing much in real life so it’s mostly a non-issue. However if you like to “drive” your tanks around a lot, keep an eye out for the tracks.

None of the current JSI 1:18 scale vehicles come with any kind of driver or commander or figure of any kind. Rumors on the street claim that this helps cut costs and reduces the amount of returns on the items. I can attest to receiving a LOT of broken or mangled figures with previous 21st Century and BBI purchases, so while the exclusion of a pack-in figure is a bummer, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The figure that came with the original 21st Century Toys Tiger was not very good, receiving a C- in our review, so he will not be sorely missed.

I only have one WWII German 1:18 scale figure at the moment, and it is a Forces of Valor machine gunner figure, so I used him in this review to show proper scale.