New and Shiny from Airfix: Tiger and Sherman Firefly

At last Airfix have remade their Tiger Tank kit wit the "correct" bin bit at the back and it look beautiful. To add further to the appeal they have boxed it with a suitable opponent - the Sherman Firefly (see below, for once the box art does not deceive, the Tiger in the box also has a bin on it too):   

The Tiger sprue ()\see below, the sharp eyed will see two sets of tracks one simple the other complicated): 

In hushed reverence I started putting it together (see below, the pieces fit beautifully together .. gasp .. which I said several time during the making of this kit): 

The instructions themselves were also a work of art - clear and unambiguous (see below, the kit sort of started just building itself - akin to modern sets of Lego): 

Not a fast build kit but a clear and clean build kit that encouraged thoughtful assembly (see below, completed with the "Simple [four-piece] Track" system which just slotted over the spokes sweetly):

Spot the difference? (see below, the kit is so precision that I managed to assemble the second set of tracks - simply slot out the first (simple) set and pop over the twenty part tracks. Which was which in the previous photo and this? Am I messing with you .. (?) .. is there a difference at all?):   

Less photos perhaps, but an equally pleasant build the Sherman Firefly! I would now of course love to see the normal Sherman get a similar treatment (see below, although again there were two versions of the tracks I went for the simpler one piece casting, which tells a story of "quality" in itself - plus the Sherman layout does not lend itself to a "slot over" like the Tiger, you have to build one way or the other): 

Sigh, bucket list Tiger from Airfix done. Time for a cup of well earned tea me thinks!