Konigstiger Review PT 1

That puppy right up there is one of the biggest, baddest tanks of World War 2. The Konigstiger (Which is actually German for Bengal Tiger) or Tiger II or Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B is hulk of a machine. It weighs in at 67 tons and had, on it's most armored spots, a whopping 108mm's of armor protecting the crew. More impressive is the gun, which could penetrate any allied armor at a range of 1.6 miles. 


But were not here to talk about that guy. Where here to talk about this guy:

The Konigstiger Platoon from the fine folks at Battlefront. In this first part of the review we'll go from box to base coat taking a look at the great scwhag, some troubling casting and what, all in all a very fine kit. 

Read on to get the full run down on the Konigstiger

Obligatory box shot, but what do you get for $65 other than 3 giant death dealing tanks?

All of this. And by this I mean Magnets, Decals, Tiger Ace Dice, options for two different types of front tread guard, Konigstiger Bogged and Bailed Tokens, and enough crew to uniquely make each of the three different sculpts look as different as you like. 

You get the option for three different Scwereabteilung units, for this review I'll be going with the 503. And, as long as you can accept that poor misters 123 and 132 were destroyed sometime before the packaging of this box, you get a full set of numbers as well :)

Tokens, cause who doesn't want more tokens?

Each tank is a separate sculpt with a matching turret. These are labled B through D so I'm assuming they're different than the original 1 tank Konigstiger Box.  

And they honestly look fantastic, very little bubbling on on the resin, except under the turrets (watch out for that when you're trying to seat the turret)

They all really do look great, but there's one problem...

Ruh roh... Casting fault not in your favor grasshopper! All three of the chassis had this same issue. The hole, however, sits underneath the prodigious turret and is easily fixed with some liquid green stuff by... those guys 

I'm not going to go through all the assembly steps, but this resin and metal kit has some real difficult bits, at least for my sausage fingers.

Here you can see one of the front fender options, the more battle damaged of the two. The other one, while it looks cool and modern, just doesn't have the same flavor. Also, these are a pain to put on. One of the places where I found extranious mold bits was in the place where these were supposed to be seated. After carving it out you're faced gluing these bad boys to the side and front of nose of the tank with out a lip or stud to help hold them on. 

Here you can see the exhaust which very much sits in the good thing/bad thing category. It's great that they decided to put little divots in the resin to seat the tail pipes, but why in the world only have the pipes be attached? You could have just molded the exhaust system separately. Also, the tail armored mud flaps have the same issues as their front friends, except worse, because they sit vertically on the model and are much more prone to fall off until the glue is completely dry.  

I do like how each of the tanks have their own gubbins. Here you can see the cannon, which only goes on one way and will leave a gap on the top side of the gun between the mount and the turret itself, don't freak out, it's supposed to be like that I'm told. And FYI, the wider of the two sides of the gun mount goes opposite the commanders cupola. 

Due to the weather here in the DC area i needed to hand prime these. Here, I've chosen to go with white. I generally like to prime white over black. It's harder to hide if you've missed any bits, but I think that just keeps you honest. I went with a white Gesso, which is a canvass primer you can find in any craft store at like 10 bucks for a vat of it. 

They key with Gesso is to paint on the base color as soon as you can after the primer dries. Gesso holds paint great and acts as a solid bond between the model and the acrylic layers above it. BUT! If you leave it laying around to long it will get brittle and chip off. Forcing you to reprime. 

So that's it folks. I really do like this model, and the complaints I have about it are pretty much the same I have for any 15mm model. The parts are fiddly and I have giant sausage fingers. Tweezers are a must. Otherwise, you get a great deal of value out of the kit, and now with Devils Charge coming very soon, you'll get a great deal of value out of the models on the table top as well. 


Part 2, where I paint these bad boys will be up in the next day or so.