In addition to high level of detail I have but two requirements: turret front has to be square (not Porsche) and it should have zimmerit texture out of the box.
Does such a kit even exist?
well you’d want the Henschel turret then, that’s the turret that went into production, only a fure Porsche turret existed. Umm as for out of the box zimmerit, I don’t think it does exist, but you can get different kinds of zimmerit from a few companies, or you can make your own!
For makes, get one of the two new Dragon KT’s, they are really good in detail and fit.
Dragon is only about a year old on the moldings and they offer so much more than Tamiya. However, no mainstream kit offers zimmerit as an addition. I’d recommend Cavalier for Resin or Eduard for Pe if they carry them. Resin is definately more detailed, but more expensive.
That came from the MAN himself. should listen up.
anyway i am still okay with the tamiya king tiger though. they are getting kinda dated but the fit is still superb and the details are really crisp. plus nowadays you can finally get a tamiya tiger for lower price than the dragons… finally!!! but then again the dragon KTs has a lot more parts you can play with.
You’d get most bang for the buck with the Dragon.
Kirin once did an entire replacement hull and turret that had zimmerit … but it was a horrible kit if you ask me.
Cavalier and Eduard would be your best choice.
As a little side info, there were 50 of the so called Porsche turrets. The first 3 were fitted to chassis number V1, V2 and V3 which were test vehicles, in other words there were 47 service vehicles with the so called Porsche turret. The first production turret was mounted on chassis number 280048 which rolled of the assembly line in June 1944.
Guys, based on your responses I think I will focus on the Henshel turret Dragon KT.
Which aftermarket zimmerit set is recommended for that specific Dragon kit?
Do you have a link?
Greatmodels has Cavalier on pre-order for $17.95 and Atak for $36.95. One thing about pre-orders, is that they can take some time to get them in. Eduard is only $10.35, but isn’t as detailed. Verlinden is $26 for pe zim. I recommend resin such as Cavalier or Atak.
As said allready, the Dragon KTs are, IMHO, the best kits on offer out there.
Why not try making the zimm yourself?
Here is the DML KT with the Verlinden PE zim set. This set was designed for the Tamiya kit, so I had to modify and fill in to fit the Dragon kit.
Regards,
Steve
By the way, if you don’t want to fiddle with putting two hundred track links together, get the Tamiya. It has vinyl tracks.
That said, it certainly seems that the Dragon kit (the newest one) is the way to go for Tiger II kits these days.
I didn’t even realize that you could get PE Zimmeritt - I assumed that resin or do-it-yourself were the only options. In particular, I thought that the way PE was done you really only got flat surfaces (albeit possibly several planes of them), yet that stuff you show looks nicely textured.
Given the pictures you showed, I’m hard pressed to see what is wrong with it, and if it is 1) cheaper and 2) in stock I guess I’d go with it.
Nothing wrong with am zimmerit. If it saves the hassle and the worry of screwing up a perfectly good kit, then I think it is a viable option. Me? Too chicken to try my own…yet. I admit that the Verlinden looks better than Eduard probably would for PE. Atak is very nice, but you will pay more than what the cost of the kit is. I still recommend Cavalier and it is more cost friendly than Verlinden’s PE. Just MHO.
Dragon kingtigers are great and why do you want zimerate when you dont have to have it on the Kingtiger
If want to assemble a 1/35 King Tiger without big troubles, from Tamiya is the model.
If you want a superb, amazing, astonishing 1/35 King Tiger, Dragon is the brand.
Manuel Antonio Gutiérrez Amezcua, from Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
I agree with Caveman. The later KT’s didn’t even have zim. Don’t spend the money if you don’t have too. More money for more kits[:D]
The later King Tigers that were built did not have zimmerit. But if u want zimmerit, go with the Cavalier resin zimmerit and model it as an early Henschel turret KT. The resin zimmerit is easy to work with. I used it on my KT.
TigerII
I have both of DMLs new KTs, and the Ardennes one is not correct . There were no KTs “late” that saw action in the Ardennes. The KT “Battle of the Bulge” is correct and is the best KT avalible on the market! Also comes with 8 fallschirmjager figs. I got mine still sealed for $27. One of the best deals I have ever gotten! And BTW, squadron has their Tamiya KT on sale for $20 bucks if anyone is interested!
Perry
There were no final versions of the KT that saw action in the Ardennes, that is correct. But a few vehicles were outfitted with the late style single link tracks ( Kgs 73/800/152 ) How many is a bit uncertain, some say 2-3 but i’ve heard numbers as high as 8-9.
Here is a picture of a destroyed Kingtiger from the Ardenne area with the single link tracks.
A word of caution, it is pretty easy to misallign PE zim. Large pieces that wrap around a turret or hull can be a little tricky and impossible to fix if a mistake is made. The usual patience and care should be taken when fixing a kit with PE zim.