With due apologies to Jabba... but my AU Turkish mini-Tiger contained so much of the Original that it would be utter waste not to present the real one too:
HMS Tiger was completed in October 1914, when the Great War was already underway. As completed, she had only eight twin searchlights and no AA guns yet
As she worked up, the first alterations were implemented. By January 1914, she had received her two 76mm HA guns and four additional twin searchlights. The topgallant mast was removed and the rig altered accordingly. Immediately prior to the Battle of the Dogger Bank, she was painted in an experimental camouflage scheme consisting of a light gray basic coating, a very dark gray panel along the hull and white stripes on the funnels and the tripod mast. During the battle, her gunnery was very inaccurate, owing to her shortened workup period.
By the time of the Battle of Jutland, she had received modifications to the bridge and the spotting top and a director had replaced the simple rangefinder on the CT. Despite these improvements and the added training her crew had received, she still did not hit very much at Jutland.
After Jutland, Tiger was much more significantly modified. Apart from added horizontal armour, which does not show in SB scale, she had her searchlights replaced with larger ones, which were totally re-arranged, her bridge modified again and an early form of flying-off platform mounted on Turret X. Range clocks were added to the tripod and the aft searchlight tower, and turrets B and Y were painted with range scales. The identifying letters TI were painted on turret X, although I wonder why they bothered, as Tiger was impossible to confuse with any other British capital ship. The units of the Battlecruiser Fleet were painted light gray very soon after Jutland, and in 1917, Tiger again received a dark gray panel on the hull. In 1917, HMS Tiger looked like this:
In the last year of the war, Tiger's bridge and spotting top were modified and enlargened again; additional platforms with rangefinders were added above the upper director and to the forward mast above the bridge. The former displaced the topmast, which was moved on top of the crane post, and she was completely re-rigged. By the time the war ended, the camouflage was painted over with an uniform light gray livery.
After the war, Tiger was again modified in several steps. She received a second flying-off platform on turret B; the old one on turret X was later removed. Her two 76mm HA guns were replaced by four 102mm pieces. Additional superstructure was erected in front of turret Y, and the mainmast was considerably heightened and again re-rigged. Between 1920 and 1924, she was either under refit or serving as a TS, looking like this in 1924:
In the late 1920s, she again went on active service; her AA gun outfit was frequently changed (I lost track somehow); the maximum were four 102mm and two 40mm Pompoms, embarked in 1928. Tiger was scrapped after 1931 in accordance with the LNT.
Greetings
GD
Thank you Kim for the crest
