Tiger I Early Production

Nigel
NGL, I'm curious about the red 'tarp'

Johan Perremans
This is a very ambitious kit, but it suffers from inconsequence and poor execution.
First the good news: this is the FIRST mainstream kit to offer so called Type 2 skirts - an intermediate type between the over complicated initial skirts and the final Type 3. This means that in theory, a batch of Tigers built roughly from November throughout part of December 1942 COULD be built OOB...Could...unfortunately these tanks typically command other details that are not included:
-slanted hull front ends and/or
-pistol port on the right hand side of the turret and/or
-early lay-out of cables and cleaning rods and other details on the hull roof
Basically, Takom could have filled a HUGE gap and made a kit that covers these late Initial through very Early Tigers. Tanks which were used by s.Pz.Abt.503, Totenkopf and LAH. The early turret basket variants are all included, which makes it even more of a shame. This is a major missed opportunity and probably due to poor research.

The instructions are a mess the size of which reminds of Border Model: the drawings are ridden with options but there is no explanation of what should go with which decal options. EG: there seems to be a full set of S Mine Launchers but the instructions only have you install a limited set and even have you remove some of the brackets.
They will have you install a Befehlswagen antenna pod on the rear wall whereas there is not a single Bef.W. in the decal options;

Sadly, this kit will only build more or less standard Early Tigers between January and April of 1943. It could have been much more because the plastic detail is nice and the price is very, very competitive.
Will it build a good Tiger? Yes, it will; it comes with most if not all of the said period's part variants and the accessories are a nice touch. But it is up to you to select them and build an accurate Tiger.
I hope Takom puts its research team back on this project to finish what it started. In the mean time, I would not recommend this kit unless you know
your Tigers very well and can work from pics and excellent research such as David Byrden's Tiger1.info page.