As the war with Germany progressed. The German Army seemed to become obsessed with building larger and larger tanks. Few will doubt that these vehicles were among the most powerful to be built and were extremely difficult and dangerous to destroy. One might, at this time, toss in that the only Allied nation to really field a heavy tank during most of the war was Russia with its KV tanks. The US put its faith in the Sherman medium tank, though the Pershing did arrive late in the conflict. Along with the British, more faith was put into numbers, reliability and up-gunning existing chassis than in really striving for a heavy tank.

If you think about it, while the heavier firepower and armor of these German tanks was nice to have, these large tanks broke down rather frequently, were unable to use many road and bridges due to their weight, consumed a prodigious amount of petrol, and really were not built in the large numbers that would really make any difference. I would imagine that more of these large tanks were lost because they broke down and couldn't be removed for repair than were actually lost to enemy action.

Since the Dragon instructions provide no historical background, I'll go to a competitor, tamiya.com for a short historical background. "Rolling onto the battlefield in late WWII, the German King Tiger used its powerful 88mm cannon against the Allied Forces. Its development was started in Jan. 1943, with the earliest model equipped with a body from the Henschel firm and an armored turret of up to 100mm in thickness designed by Dr. Porsche. Officially designated the Panzerkampfwagen VI-B Tiger II, only fifty Porsche turrets for this version were produced prior to the official adoption of the Henschel turret for mass production. It was however the Porsche turret equipped King Tiger, which left its mark on history by facing off with the Allied Forces in the Normandy Invasion."

I had a lot of fun building the Revell 1/72 Panzer IV kit and so wanted to do another 1/72 tank, but this time from someone else. Looking over the excellent Masterpiece Models resin bases, I noticed that one of them had a pretty wide set of track marks on it. The Panzer IV was too narrow, so I figured I needed a big tank. Since I'm currently doing a Tiger I in 1/48, I thought a King Tiger might fill the bill, so while at the local hobby shop for my weekly fix, I noticed this nice Dragon kit. I was especially impressed with the low price and what came with the kit.

Molded in Dragon's usual light grey, the detailing is superb and the state of the plastic is all one could ask for with no immediately apparent glitches. All the ejector pin marks I found were on the inside of things and should be invisible when the kit is finished. The hull halves are not on sprues and my turret had been torn free from the sprue, leaving a rather nasty gouge where it tore away. The tracks are of the 'rubber band' type. Many dislike these and prefer individual links or at least singe and short run types. I was impressed by how the join works, and after hooking one of the tracks to itself, found the the join area nearly disappeared. It very much seems as if no cement is needed and I'll be interested to see how well paint adheres.

There are few optional parts, and the only ones I could find was a different ventilator cover and a different piece into which the main barrel fits. The kit includes a small etched fret of screens used for engine cooling vent covers.

Dragon's instructions are very nicely done in a photo-realistic effect and they are in color. Paint references are in Gunze and ModelMaster shades. There are a number of marking options provided with four distinct camo schemes from Russia, Ardennes, and Germany in 1944/45. An interesting inclusion is a chart for sPzAbt 505, showing the different turret markings/numbers for this unit. Two small decal sheets are included, one specifically for the four camo options provided and a second with a number of different numbers so one can do any of 505s tanks. The decals are well printed and while they appear a tad thick, should work quite well.

This kit looks every bit as good as some of the others in this scale and in some ways is probably better. I've seen quite a few of the earlier kits built and they seem to be great. It is one that I'm looking forward to building one of these days.

Thanks to the Internet for the historical section.