King Tiger – Dragon 1/72
Well, normally I build planes, 1/72 scale. Sometimes I like to build tanks.
This is my 4th tank in 35 years of plane.
This is a kit Dragon (7361) of the King Tiger with the Henschel turret, around 1944.
Probably there is a big mistake. each of these tanks had the Zimmerit, but I built this one to improve my weathering technics.
What do you think about this?
Never know that is 1/72! Great job.
Well done indeed...love those Tiger tanks (especially this one).
Hello Paolo,
Your King Tiger may not have had a zimmerit coating after all...
All of the King Tiger types that had the other Porsche style turret had the coating. The Porsche Tigers had a turret with a rounded area in front. They stopped production of these as it was soon discovered the front of the turret would often deflect incoming rounds into the top of the hull behind the driver / radio operator's compartments, or into the turret ring. Not good !
Here's a photo of the Porsche style turret on a King Tiger I am working on. You can see the rounded front portion of the turret. This one has the Zimmerit coating.
The Henschel type used the coating at first, but it was discontinued soon after a directive appeared telling the manufacturers to stop using the Zimmerit coating. I believe the directive came out around September of 1944, but the German Arms industry continued to produce different types of tanks at various facilities with a Zimmerit coating until sometime around January 1945, (if my memory serves me correctly).
So all types of German tanks built between September '44 and January '45 would have been hit or miss as far as the coating goes.
Here's a picture of a King Tiger (Henschel) I built a while ago. I didn't use Zimmerit on mine either.
Bottom line... Early King Tigers had it, later ones did not. Hope this helps...
Yours looks great... I never would have dreamed it was a 1/72 scale kit.
Well done Sir !
Thanks for all these informations. The tracks of your King Tiger are so beautiful... it seems real metal...
Thank you !
I replaced the kit tracks with a set of Friul tracks which are individual track links. They are made out of metal so the weight actually causes them to sag just like the real tanks did.
The Friul tracks are expensive but worth it because they look so realistic.
Paolo, great looking King Tiger, I had to go back and make sure it was actually 1/72. wonderful paint work. Well done !
Thanks!
Very nice, especially in that scale!
Nice 'little' beast of a tank, You've a great job in weathering.
Wonderful little Tiger II, Paolo. Your camo work is outstanding! That's a beautiful camo version and it's easy to see the quality of workmanship that you put into this model! It would be a great looking tank in ANY scale, but being so small it REALLY shows great craftsmanship!
Bravo with 2 thumbs up!
Excellent King Tiger, would make a great addition to the Year of the Cat group build...
This would be a perfect addition to the Group Build ...
very very happy to read every post...