Tiger 1A1

A custom fictional design created by me, the Tiger 1A1 is a Cold War-era modernization of the PzKpfw. VI Tiger.

Several references from other tanks in that period were used to create this design, mostly different variations of the German Leopard I.

The 'Tiger 1A1' is a significant upgrade from it's predecessor. The firepower has been increased greatly, with the 88 mm KwK36 being replaced by the 105 mm L7A3, a German variant of the Royal Ordnance L7 gun capable of firing APDS, HESH, and HEATFS rounds with high penetration. To further improve fighting capabilities, a stabilizer, laser range finder, NVD device, and better optics have been installed. An XSW-30-U infrared searchlight has also been mounted to the mantlet. Armor protection has been improved, with the frontal plate now being sloped and imported 'Blazer' ERA blocks being applied to the front and sides of the turret and hull. The smoke grenade launchers have been upgraded to 8 canisters per mount, instead of the 3 canisters per mount sometimes found on original Tiger I tanks. The treads have been replaced with modern rubber tracks, which are half the weight of steel tracks and provide several benefits such as reduced vibration, fuel consumption, noise level and more. Finally, the secondary armament has been switched, with the MG 34 machine gun being replaced by the MG 3, a current day variant which uses more widely available 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition.

Worth nothing is that the implementation of ERA is not fully accurate to German tank design, as that type of armor wasn't often utilized by western countries during the Cold War period. While I tried to keep the upgrades mostly realistic, I made this an exception simply because it's about the best way you can give a tank a modernized appearance. Also, upgrading the Tiger I would be a rather unlikely decision, as the Tiger II is already a significant upgrade and would make for a better candidate for modernization. However I decided to make it anyway, just because I've never seen anyone attempt to modernize the Tiger I.

The tank was modeled from scratch using Blender in exactly one week. The textures were made with GIMP, while the rendering was done in Unity. The background in the first picture was created using Unity's terrain feature. Inspiration to make this was taken from Kamil Micek's Tiger 2A1 design.