Dragon 1/72 Sd.Kfz 182 King Tiger (Porsche Turret w Zimmerit

Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B and the tank also had the ordnance inventory designation SdKfz 182. It is also known under the informal name Königstiger (German: King Tiger),  and by the British as Royal Tiger.

The Tiger II combined the heavy armor of the Tiger I with the sloped armor of the Panther. The design followed the same concept as the Tiger I, but was intended to be even more formidable. The Tiger II chassis supplied the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless tank destroyer. The Tiger II weighed 68.5 (early turret) to 69.8 (production turret) tonnes, was protected by 150 to 180 mm of frontal armor, and was armed with the 88 mm KwK 43 L/71 gun.

The very heavy armor and powerful long-range gun gave the Tiger II the advantage against virtually all opposing tanks. This was especially true on the Western Front, where the British and U.S. forces had almost no heavy tanks with which to oppose it. In a defensive position it was difficult to destroy, but offensively it performed with less success.

The Tiger II performed very well against Allied and Soviet tanks being able to penetrate the front armour of the M4 Sherman, M26 Pershing and IS-2 at respectively 2500 m, 1800 m and 1200 m. Defensively, the M4 Sherman was unable to penetrate the front even at point blank and the M26 Pershing and IS-2 had to come within 1300 m and 200 m respectively.

The Tiger II was widely photographed due to its large size and propaganda value.

This kit comes shortly after their 1/35 Henschel turret release (with zimmerit), and portrays a Porsche turretted version. Now I am not sure how much of this kit is from an earlier version, but I can tell you that there are at least three new sprues as they all have parts with the zimmerit molded in place.

The overall level of detail is superb, as you would expect from Dragon. There are a number of pieces that are not used with this kit, most of them being additional track links, one of the two barrels provided and some other bits and pieces.

This kit also includes a set of Dragon's superb one-piece DS tracks. These are easy to glue and hold paint beautifully. There is also a small etched fret that contains a couple of cooling grilles for the engine access hatches.

Assembly seems to be rather easy as there are only 8 construction steps, each illustrated in the photo-realistic style that seems to be gaining popularity. It is also in color. There are a few places where one has to open up some holes and a couple of detail sections will help quite a bit with getting the bits properly located. Preliminary painting information is also provided using Gunze and Model Master references. Apparently the King Tiger did not have rubber edged road wheels, so those of us who despise painting these items will be pleased with this.

Late Note: Actually, the wheels were rubber rimmed, as I have come to find out. Instructions didn't show these as being painted.

Markings are provided for six vehicles, each with a distinctive camouflage scheme. I would imagine that in this scale, the more interesting schemes would be hand painted, as they probably were in the field. Decals are provided to cover all the options. They are well printed and my past experiences with them have been good. You'll probably need a setting solution to get them to snuggle down over all the zimmerit.

This is a superlative kit of one of the coolest tanks of WWII. It is such that even a new modeler should not have any real difficulty with it. Just make sure that one is frugal with the cement on the tracks as glues can eat right through them if too much is applied.

http://en.wikipedia.org

October 2007

My thanks towww.dragonmodelsusa.com for the review kit. Get yours at your favorite hobby shop and visit the website for more neat models and accessories.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

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