Tamiya 35169 WWII German King Tiger Porsche Turret 1/35 Scale Plastic Model Kit

Description

Tamiya ventured into the modeling business in 1948, with a scale wooden ship model kit. Since then, Tamiya has been striving to offer merchandise that can truly be called ‘First in Quality Around the World.’ Now Tamiya is offering more than 300 different products, both in the fields of precision static models and high performance radio control vehicles. These products are not only sold in Japan but also exported in vast quantities to the United States, Europe, South East Asia, and to many other parts of the world. The standard of excellence achieved by Tamiya is regarded as among the very finest in the world of model hobbies. During World War II, the German tank that was designated the Panzerkampfwagen VI-B Tiger II, or more commonly known as the ‘King Tiger’ was a much feared weapon by Allied Forces, because of its powerful 88mm main gun and thick armor plate. Germany began development of this tank in February 1943, in order to counter the increasing threat of Russian tanks. During its development stage, both the Henschel and Porsche firms introduced rival prototypes that incorporated different turret configurations. The Porsche designed turret had a very distinctive shape, with a rounded front section and narrow shell, when compared to the rather angular Henschel offering. The turret frontal section armor was 100mm thick and 80mm for the side panels, and it mounted the Type 43 L71 88mm high velocity main gun. Power for this massive tank was from a Maybach HL230 P30 V-12 cylinder, liquid cooled engine developing 700 hp. Porsche had produced 50 turrets for their version of the tank prior to the official adoption of the Henschel model for mass production. Evaluation had revealed that the Porsche turret lacked armor thickness, and required complex tooling due to its rounded contour sculpting. However, the superior performance of the tank allowed the completed Porsche turrets to be deployed to the front. When combined with the Henschel turret version, a total of less than 500 King Tiger tanks were ever available for combat. This finely detailed plastic model kit requires assembly and painting.