Editions Du Barbotin

Focus No. 3: Tiger 1

by  Pascal Danjou; Profiles by Eric Schwartz

Reviewed By  Perry Downen, IPMS# 44000

MSRP: €9.95 Euros ($13.50) ISBN: 978-2-917661-03-1 Website: www.minitracks.fr My thanks go to Editions Du Barbotin for graciously submitting this book to IPMS\USA for review and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it. INTRODUCTION This book is the third in the Focus series from Editions Du Barbotin, a French publishing firm. Each of the Focus books addresses only one vehicle. The subject of this issue, written by Pascal Danjou, is model 1 of possibly the most famous tank of WWII, the German Tiger. The first thing I noticed about this publication is that each page is printed in two columns - the left-hand column is in French and the right-hand column is in English. In addition, the explanation of each B&W photograph is in French and English. The English translation seemed a bit awkward in a few places, but not enough to be distracting. FIRST SECTION This soft cover book is 7"X9-3/4" and contains 50 pages. To start, page 4 provides the Tiger 1s specifications. Then follows a brief discussion on the German military doctrine and philosophy in the 1930s. With this background laid, the author chronicles the history and development as well as the design and armament evolution of the Tiger 1. Significant design improvements and modifications are presented chronologically. This is very important for the modeler with respect to period accuracy. The text portion of the book concludes on page 18. There are 15 B&W photographs of the Tiger 1 sprinkled through out this section of the book. SECOND SECTION The next section of the book, pages 19 to 46, is what I would refer to as a very detailed walkaround. There are more crisp and clear color photographs on these pages than I care to count. The photographs are taken from various perspectives and many are detail close-ups. All photographs are of the Tiger 1 (with zimmerit) housed in the Saumur Tank Museum, Saumur, France. This tank received a new coat of paint in 2005 and the exterior is in excellent condition. However, the interior photographs show that some parts are missing and that the interior needs a lot of work. The photographs are grouped by areas of the tank. For example: overall exterior, gun, turret, turret interior, driver compartment, engine hood, engine, exhaust pipes, rear, deck, and running gear. These are important areas for the modeler trying to achieve accuracy. This neat little book concludes with color plates by Eric Schwartz in 1/35 and 1/72 scales. Each depicts the Tiger 1 in five views, top, front, back, left side, and right side. The artwork is crisp and provides another excellent reference for the modeler. CONCLUSION While this book may be small, it is large in modeling content. The modeler will find this book invaluable in terms of detail and chronological accuracy. I have Dragon's Tiger 1 kit ready to start. I look forward to the build with this book as my main reference. Because the book is jam packed with color details and drawings, I highly recommend it for your Tiger 1 build too.