It is finished in the markings of s.Pz.Abt.101, a crack heavy tank battalion. From 1943 onwards, the battalion’s 45 Tiger Is were attached to the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) Division, an elite panzer unit. This division was based in northern France when the Allies launched its massive amphibious and airborne landings at Normandy on June 6 1944. After being brought forward into the battle, the LAH Division fought fiercely in sectors near Caen and Falaise, including the famous Battle of Villers-Bocage. The unit was eventually encircled in the Falaise pocket, and by the time its remnants had retreated from France, it had suffered 5,000 casualties and most of its Tiger I tanks had been lost.

The 1/72 scale model depicts a tank of the 1st Company of s.Pz.Abt.101 fighting in the Normandy region in the summer of 1944. It’s finished in an attractive three-color camouflage paint scheme. Of special note is the realistically applied Zimmerit coating, and this mighty Tiger I is also weathered to a startlingly realistic degree. Detail is delicate and full, including all the typical features of a Mid-Production variant.