Dragon Can.Do 1/144 Tiger "F01"

After the long sought Panther Ausf. F, another 1/144 scale tank miniature that I once dreamed of getting was one of unusual rarity, both in real history and miniature form - the Dragon Can.Do / Doyusha 1/144 Tiger I, "F01" of Gruppe Fehrmann unit. It could only be obtained as a bonus item upon signing up for NICOS card many years ago, and with a swift of luck I managed to find it on Yahoo Auctions Japan. Quite a scary place to browse around I gotta say ^^;


Front view


And rear view


The original tank in the real war. Towards the end of World War Two, military units had to be formed out of reserved and/or spare units out of desperation. Gruppe Fehrmann was one of them, named after its group commander. It's a mixture of Tiger I and Panther tanks, which fought against the American and British units near Rethem.


Tiger F01 was one of the tanks in Gruppe Fehrmann. What makes it special are its unique marking (starting with F along with other tanks in the same unit, a feature not seen in any other tank units), as well as its hybrid nature of using both parts from early and late production types. The tall cupola on the turret is a nice tell-tale sign of an early type Tiger I tank, but it's mated with steel wheels of the late type. The miniature is not of a fully accurate depiction though; the V-shape air cleaners seen above the engines, as well as the smoke dischargers on turrets are not present on the actual tank. This is most likely to due the restrictions in model's mould back then as it was one of the earliest one made for the shokugan series back then.


A quick "diorama" setup using my phone and Instagram. I hope it looks convincing enough?