Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B “King Tiger”
ROCO 1:87 Scale Vehicle Review
The ROCO 1:87 scale Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B “Tiger II”, Sd.Kfz. 182, represents the early version of the “King Tiger” with the rounded turret, which Porsche had ordered from Krupp to go with their heavy tank project 45.02 (P). Only 50 “King Tigers” were fitted with this rounded turret, which has since been erroneously called “Porsche turret”. When production began at Henschel, the improved Krupp Schmalturm production turret with ball mantlet had become available, and the more complicated and expensive rounded turret was no longer produced.
Evaluation
The “King Tiger” with Walzenblende gun mantlet is a hybrid, combining the Henschel hull with the erroneously named “Porsche turret”. ROCO took advantage of this and simply added a rounded “Porsche turret” to their own Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B "King Tiger" with Schmalturm ball turret (ROCO 134). This conversion should actually work if the “Porsche turret” fitted the Henschel hull. And that‘s precisely where the problem lies. ROCO simply inserted their “Porsche turret” into the existing hole in the “King Tiger” hull (ROCO 134), and that was it. As can be seen in the photo above, the “Porsche turret” now sits too far back on the hull, and the model almost resembles a NATO self-propelled gun.
Fortunately, the mistake can be easily corrected by moving the hole for the turret pin forward by approximately 8 mm.