Small Scale Military Headquarters

I had originally intended this to be a "head to head" review of the 21C KT Porsche turret, and an FOV KT, but since FOV does not make a KT with a Porsche turret (that I'm aware of) I decided against that idea. I'm going to keep this review short and to the point.

21st Century Toys 32X King Tiger Porsche turret: Purchased online from Good Stuff To Go, cost: $18.00, not including shipping. Comes in the usual window box, and has no included figures or accessories.

The Good: Has a good level of detail for an $18 model that includes: opening hatches for the commander, gunner, driver, and bow machine gunner, plus a hatch in the rear of the turret and an engine access hatch. Also sports tow cables on both sides of the hull, tools (shovel, axe, sledgehammer etc.) and towing shackles up front. Turret rotates without much resistance and the gun elevates/depresses through a wide arc. The paint job is professionally applied with no obvious flaws like smudges, streaks or the like, and the numbers and German cross on the turret are crisp and sharp.

The Bad: No weathering to speak of, except a very light application of silver paint on the high points of the tracks, other than that it looks as though it just rolled out of the factory paint shed ready for field acceptance trials. The paint scheme has been described as "garish" and I tend to agree, but this is just a matter of personal preference and I'm sure new and different paintschemes will follow to give us all some variety.

The Ugly: Nothing really, save for a very small spot of what appears to be glue on the left rear fender which should be very easy to touch up with a Q-tip and the right color of paint.

Rating (1-10): 7. The lack of any figures and an almost total lack of even the most rudimentary weathering dragged the rating down a bit, but this is still a nice model that I believe represents an excellent value for the money, and should be even more attractive if it can eventually be found at your local WalMart store. Hope you guys find this review and the pics useful.

Great review Ost! I really don't understand why they don't include at least a commander figure anymore. I mean how much does deleting the figure really save them? I'd pay another dollar for one.

The King Tiger looks nice. The paint scheme is as you say a bit "garish" though. The lack of weathering doesn't really bother me as I can do that myself. Overall I think I prefer my #112 King Tiger.

Now I would like to get my hands on the Sherman dozer.

Thanks for the kind words gents. I tried to use the "schizuki format" for the review, which I think is well organized and efficient. and Rows... I agree that the failure to include a figure of some kind is difficult to understand and I much prefer my #112 version as well. Another thing that puzzled me about this model is the lack of a divisional or tactical insignia of some kind, I think it would have been a nice addition. It should be interesting to see what the future holds for us in terms of paint schemes for this model.

ostketten wrote:Another thing that puzzled me about this model is the lack of a divisional or tactical insignia of some kind, I think it would have been a nice addition. It should be interesting to see what the future holds for us in terms of paint schemes for this model.

Hmm, the lack of insignia is odd. The Porsche turret looks really nice but I will pass on this one and wait for a more appealing paint scheme.

This is the review that I've been looking for. Thanks so much.

Here's what Hobby Master has done with this paint scheme in 1:48 scale. http://www.hobbymastercollector.com/HG0 ... 41-48.html

Jagdplastic wrote: Here's what Hobby Master has done with this paint scheme in 1:48 scale.

Cool model but I really dislike that paint scheme.

issues.

Paint..eh, nothing the airbrush can't fix

the turret looks too clean, Did the porsche turrets store links on the sides like the Henschel version? If so I'll did some spares from the 1/35 box

The lack of Zimmermit, well that can be done with either a demel scouring the surface or using a putty and waffle tool.

King Tigers w/"Porsche" turrets did have extra links on the turret sides just like production King Tigers, but not until after the Battle of Normandy, September, 1944, and after if I remember correctly. I have seen pictures of KT "Porsche" with a short track link stored horizontally just aft of the gun mantlet on the turret roof.

I think for the money its a great buy

Jagdplastic wrote:King Tigers w/"Porsche" turrets did have extra links on the turret sides just like production King Tigers, but not until after the Battle of Normandy, September, 1944, and after if I remember correctly. I have seen pictures of KT "Porsche" with a short track link stored horizontally just aft of the gun mantlet on the turret roof.

That is field modifications by crews, not standard production. In fact, there's only one Kingtiger that had that mod, and it's a very well known white-washed Porsche KT. Since only the first 50 Kingtigers had the Porsche turret, I doubt they'd have been making Porsche turrets with track link hangers in September.

Hmm my AO needs to get these.

As often happens, my memory failed me. Here is the quote from my source, Kingtiger Heavy Tank 1942-45, New Vanguard Series, Osprey Publishing, 1993.

" Starting in July 1944, hangers and fasteners to mount replacement double track links were welded fore and aft on both turrent sides. In Novmber 1944, permission was given to the troops to backfit this modification for Tiger IIs with both turrent types."

As mentioned earlier and from other sources, two Tiger IIs with "Porsche" turrents serving with 503 Heavy Tank Battalion survived Normandy and were used in Russia. One, Tiger II "314" with turrent-mounted track links, is the white one mentioned earlier. I've not found any info on the other one; however, here is a link to a painting done of Tiger II "311" serving on the Eastern Front. I do not know if it is accurate or not.

http://www.military-art.com/dhm794.htm