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ARM: Review - DML Sd.Kfz. 182 Tiger Ausf B (Porsche turret)

Kit Review: DML 1/35 scale ?39-?45 Series Kit No. 6189; Sd. Kfz. 182 King Tiger (Porsche Turret); 553 parts (544 in grey styrene, 8 etched brass, 1 section of nylon string); price estimated at $34-40

Advantages: new, clean kit of this popular vehicle with many of the small details provided in styrene; includes separate grilles for the engine deck, detailed gun access hatch, and early/late gun barrels

Disadvantages: no AA machine gun, some ejection pin marks

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: for all German heavy tank fans

F I R S T L O O K

I have to state up front that I am not a Tiger II fan. This vehicle, to give its due, was BIG; but it was also one of the biggest dogs ever fielded by the Germans. Consider this: for the same weight as a modern Abrams or Challenger 2, each of which has a 1500 HP engine with modern torque converter transmission, the Tiger II limped along on the same overtaxed 700 HP gasoline engine used in the Panther. Coupled with a relatively slow speed of only 35 kph on flat ground and a range of just over 100 miles (170 km) it was not a very good offensive weapon. Prone to snapping axles and track links, the tank was as likely to be a victim of its failings more than it was to be a victim of enemy action. It was awkward, had serious problems with bridges and soft ground, and was occasionally even a victim of its own success!

Consider this anecdote from "After the Battle Then and Now: Battle of the Bulge." A Tiger II crew managed to get to the top of an icy road in Belgium to discover a US M10 tank destroyer about 300 meters away. The M10 shot at the Tiger II without results, but was totally ineffective. The Tiger shot back, nearly atomizing the hapless M10, but when it fired, the blast started the monster going backwards down the same road it had just carefully negotiated. The driver frantically tried to halt the slide, but to no avail. When the US troops returned sometime later, they found the unfortunate Tiger embedded in some Belgian's barn! Pretty poor trade.

But I digress.

DML has now used some of the parts from its earlier and very nicely done Jagdtiger kits to produce a new kit of the Sd.Kfz. 182 Tiger Ausf. B or Tiger II. (King Tiger was a Western nickname, not the German one. Use in a sentence and watch Tom Jentz light up!) This is the early model with the Porsche turret originally made for the VK4502(P) tank that was not accepted for production. Only the first 50 out of 485 eventual Tiger II tanks were fitted with this turret. Personally, I think it is the better looking of the two, albeit it does limit your modeling options as far as where the tank was used.

DML has gone out of its way to provide a number of options with this model, and I appreciate the fact they give you a choice of either the early or late barrel; one tank with each barrel is called out on the painting instructions. It also comes with what are now the usual touches for preparations for those who will add after-market parts to the kit, such as an engine and interior parts. The top turret hatch and the rear turret hatch are also nicely detailed on the insides, but there are a few pesky ejection pin marks that must be removed.

The turret does come with an elementary gun breech and recoil mechanism assembly. There are a lot of little "fiddly bits" for the turret such as spare track link hangers. No AA machine gun or mount comes with the kit, but I believe that there is one in the DML set of German Panzer crewmen so I guess they expect the modeler to pick up a set to complete the kit. (Apparently the AA MG was not a "basic issue item" for the Tiger II, or at least not according to one of the Jentz articles on it.)

The skirts are one piece, but come with the hanger holes molded into them so they appear nice if installed. They may be a bit thick to section, so anyone who wants to show "combat damage" may have to think about etched metal skirting.

The kit provides for two finishes: one tank from the s.Pz.Abt. 503 in Normandy

1944, painted in the three color Panzerbraun/green/ red brown scheme, and one from s.Pz.Abt. "Feldherrenhalle" in Hungary in 1945; this sports a two-color Panzerbraun/green scheme with a hastily applied whitewash winter camouflage scheme over it.

Tigers seem to be the armor modeler's P-51 Mustang as there never seem to be enough kits of them around! Seriously, this is a really nice kit and with some TLC and a bit of zimmerit if needed it should be a very nice addition to most modelers' shelves.

Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.

Cookie Sewell AMPS

Reply to
AMPSOne
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Cookie:

Neat tale! People think a big heavy thing like a tank won't slide on ice. Har! Har! I could tell them about some raggedy assed army reservists who were out playing games on a winter weekend at Ft. Meade back in the 60's when an M48 went it's own way without a by your leave from it's driver. If the idiots we had for officers had had any sense we wouldn't even have been out that day, but hey! He may not be right but he's always the Lieutenant. That big iron hog ended up in a ditch with the crew needing clean shorts (and a few of the rest of us as well) and we didn't get her out till the weather thawed. M88 simply spun it's tracks on the ice.

Bill Shuey

Reply to
William H. Shuey

Hello,

It's funny that at one point you strongly point out that the name King Tiger or Königstiger was not an official name the Germans used, but that throughout this post you continue to refer to the turret as a "Porsche" turret.

Which is wrong, as a certain person called Jentz will also start rolling eyes over.

The first 50 turrets were not produced especially for the VK-4502(P), bot also for the VK-4503(H), the Henschel design for the Tiger-E successor.

Lessons learned from especially the curved Panther mantlet led to a rethinking of the curved Krupp-turret first designed and together with simplifying production, the latter more familiar Tiger-B turret was born.

Glad to sort that myth out again.

"AMPSOne" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m19.aol.com...

transmission,

instructions.

Reply to
Herbert Ackermans

Watched an M1 Abrams slide into a rice paddy in Korea after a particularly vicious ice storm went through. 70 tons is 70 tons, but it only takes relatively little ice to make that thing into a giant sled...

BTW: does the DML Tiger II have individual tracks or some alternative? WHile I liked the detail on the JagdTiger tracks, I couldn't see myself assembling 5 separate pieces for one track shoe/cleat 160+ times (or however many track pieces are on each run), and I used the excellently detailed and much easier to assemble Fruil alternatives.

Thanks for the review. For the price, it sounds like a winner.

Reply to
Steve

That's the early track. That had indeed one teethedlink, and a baffling 4 part connecting link.

So far, the tracks in the DML kit are the later type, which consist of one link with teeth, and one connecting link.

But you could swap those tracks with the early tracks and create a very early Tiger-B.

And indeed, the Friulmodelismo tracks are a lot easier to build.

"Steve" schreef >

Reply to
Herbert Ackermans

There's also a very nice piece of footage showing a Sherman skidding down a road in the Ardennes.

"John Hairell" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Reply to
Herbert Ackermans

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