Hi

I am another poor ripped of Brit (Scot to be most precise) and feel the same as yourself. I have the Tiger and the Pershing and prefer the Tiger purely on looks but both are quite good once you have done some work on them. I have not had any major reliability issues but they are both smoke and sound versions which I believe helps. I have modded mine considerably and for little cost, just some time and effort. I have put a picture of one of mine to give you another idea to go along with the excellent one Templars posted.



As for where to get them, I got mine of ebay from Germany as they actually worked out cheaper this way. Postage within the EU is actually not much more than within the UK so it would be worth having a look about.

Whatever way you go have fun with it and I must admint I, and probably a lot of others, are jealous that your wife is actually buying this for you. Mine thinks my toys (her words not mine) are a bit childish. But then again when do I ever listen to her

Cheers
Gorehound

PS. In reply to a previous post we were not actually ravaged by the Tiger 1 and most British troops never actually saw one in action although our Russian allies did suffer more at their hands. Not wanting to start an argument just trying to point out that the Tiger's status has grown out of folk lore rather than fact as they were unreliable underpowered gas guzzlers that were never actually used to their full potential in Europe due to poor tactics by the German High Command - they still look really coll and menacing though. Also the Pershing did actually fight in WWII in the European theatre. I have several documentary films of them engaging Panthers and always coming off best.