Hobby Boss 1/35 VK4502 (P) Hintern

There really isn't a ton of information on the Internet about this vehicle. Safe to say that this is a prototype for what became the King Tiger or Tiger II tank, differing mostly in the position of the turret. The turret is what is known as the 'Porsche' design turret, though in actuality, both Henschel and Porsche were provided turrets from Krupp for use in their prototype tanks.

The chassis for this tank looks very much like what was later used for the Elefant/Ferdinand tank destroyers.

I have always found prototypes to be intriguing and apparently so have the major Chinese kit makers as we now have a second offering of this tank in the short space of a few months. Hobby Boss has their kit molded mostly in tan plastic with the individual track links being done in black. The kit provides a detailed suspension and there is quite a bit of detail included inside the turret as well. For most builders, this may well go unnoticed, but it is there nonetheless

In fact, five of the eight construction pages are dedicated to the construction of the turret and its various bits and pieces. You get the gunner's and commander's seats as well as the various radios and ammunition storage that was included in the turret. There is also a fully detailed gun breech and I'd be very surprised if most who build this kit would not arrange it so the all this detail could be seen. Simply not cementing the upper turret will allow all the inner work to be quite easily seen and will show off the upper turret hatch and storage detail as well. Interestingly, there is no 'key' when attaching the turret assembly to the rest of the hull. It simply drops in place.

The kit does include photo etch and that consists of three engine cover screens. For a tow cable, a nice length of brass wire is provided that certainly looks like the steel cables these tanks used. Instructions are well done with color information such as it is, provided during the build. For the outside, these would have been painted panzer grey. A generic decal sheet is provided. Probably the only markings this would have carried would be the national insignia as I'm thinking that none of these were actually used operationally. However, if you know more about this, then please pass it along and I'll include it in the background information.

Another superlative kit from our friends at Hobby Boss and one that will be a real delight to detail fans. The amount of detail in the turret is something that is truly amazing and will make this one an excellent addition to any armor builder's display shelf.

June 2011