Blog- The King Tiger Tank 1/35 Scale - King Tiger Part 1

RSS Fetcher · January 3, 2019

King Tiger 104 at Bovington in 2017 during the Tiger Collection Display

The King Tiger, Germany's Final major Tank Development, combining the Tiger I and Panther, this combined the very best, using this Tiger's Armour with the Panther's Sloped Armour. This tank made all Allied tanks in the field look like toys and the King Tiger almost In penetrable from the front.

These are a few selected Tanks Fielded by the nations fighting the war in France & Belgium)

British Forces:

Comet - Late 1944 Only - Medium Tank
Cromwell - Medium Tank
Centaur - Medium Tank with Cromwell with Howitzer fitted
Churchill Mk VII - Heavy Tank
Sherman - Medium Tank
Sherman Firefly- Medium Tank fitted with British 17pdr Gun the only gun that could take on German Tanks from range.
Achilles (Wolverine) - Tank Destroyer

US Forces:

Sherman - Medium Tank
Wolverine - Tank Destroyer
Hellcat - Tank Destroyer & Recon Tank
Jackson - Tank Destroyer
Chaffee - Recon

German Forces

King Tiger/Tiger II - Heavy Tank
Panther - Medium Tank (Heavy Tank by Allied standards)
Tiger I - Heavy Tank
Panzer IV - Medium Tank
Jagd Panther - Heavy Tank Destroyer/ Assult Gun

The Germans out gunned everything even the Firefly...

So because of my interest building Tanks from the past and so far I've built 3 WW1 Tanks (Two British 1 German) - 2 Cold War Tanks (Centurion & Chieftain) and the Sherman FURY (American ww2) from the film Fury, I thought I'd build a tank from WW2 from the German side of the conflict:

So at Christmas, I was kindly given this Kit of the German King Tiger Tank by MENG in 1/35 Scale. This kit is nothing short but amazing, the quality of the molding is astounding, the kit has had molded into the plastic as if it was properly cast, showing the pitting and rough edges that metal would gain when going through the casting process. Furthermore, the kit has been gas cut out of the steel and the welding marks where it has been put together by the men in the factories (Yes Men not Women - It was deemed un-womenly if the women went into the factories so German Men built and fought in their tanks).

The Modeling News - Photograph

How is it going to look?

History for King Tiger 105

The Tank I intend to do is the King Tiger No.105 as part of the Kompanie SS - Pz, Abt 501 K-G Peiper which was commanded by Obersturmführer Jürgen Wessel, on the 18th of November 1944 (Two Day's into the Battle of the bulge) A formation of King Tigers were moving towards Stavelot in Belgium roughly 107 Miles from Antwerp (The German's Target of the whole operation) The town at the time was held by the American's. A Wolverine Tank knocked out the lead tank (No. 105) 88mm gun, the commander Wessel moved the column along another road which was parallel to the main road, at which point it is believed something spooked the German commander, forcing the tank to retreat, the tank smashed into a house and the gearbox of the tank was destroyed. Following this Commander Wessel jumped onto the second tank King Tiger No. 132 in the column and directed the Tank to the threat, which is believed was destroyed. The Tank Column moved forwards to Antwerp leaving King Tiger 105. After the battle, the tank was found by the American's when these photos were taken.

These photos have been so reliable I've been able to work out what camouflage pattern & style that Tiger 105 carried, in addition to this I've been able to work out the German RAL Colour Schemes. Thankfully German Tanks in 1944 tended to carry only 3 different colours as part of the Camo they carried and German Tanks Tended to be quite personalized as the Sand Coat was applied in the factory & the crews themselves applied the rest of the camouflage as it depended on the area in which they were fighting. In this case, Tiger 105 was in a form of the German Ambush Camouflage but having white dots, dotted around the tank to act as snow. To aid the camouflaging of the tank when trying to avoid Allied Recon or Ground Attack Aircraft.

German Camouflage Numbering Scheme:

RAL 7028 - Sand Basecoat
RAL 6003 - Dark Green
RAL 8017 - Red Brown

So using the photo's I've managed to come up with these photos for the Camo scheme that the tank will carry, further to that I bought some Decals from Star Military Decals via Hannnetts which they have various types of Tanks which modelers can do. In this case, I had the choice of doing 3 King Tigers 2 with the Zimmerit Armour plating and 1 without this being King Tiger 105 and the reason why the whole journey began.