Ive seen there are 4-5 types of Tiger tanks available to purchase and just wanted opinions of which Tiger or King Tiger was the best for you?

Thanx in Advance

I had heard that the early Afrika Korps was the best, but I don't know for sure. I think it's the best since it definitely does not have zimmerit.

I have built 3 Tamiya Tiger kits and my favorite was the King Tiger.. I honestly think it was the "smoothest" kit I have ever built. Everything just fell into place and it was really a treat to build.. I just bought the "Ardennes" version and I am looking forward to building it.. :-)

As the other posters have mentioned, you can't go wrong with any of Tamiya's big cats.
The Initial or "African Tiger" has the correct asym turret, and can be built as either an African or Leningrad Tiger. Only. They were the only 2 uses of this initial version. The others - Early, Mid, Late/Final can be built for any number of units, theaters; Eastern Front, Italy, Sicily, France. Later mids and lates need zimm.
The Porsche KT is a gem, and requires zimm to be correct.
The Henschel KT can be built w/without zimm, depending on what you are trying to replicate.
The Ardennes KT is their Henschel with some extra figs, markings, and a later mantlet style, mostly seen w/out zimm.

The closest competitors to Tamiya for Tiger Is would be the Academy kits. Italeri falls 3rd, but can still be built into damn nice kits.

The only other competitor for the KTs would be long OOP Nichimo's from eBay, which were better than the first Tamiya Henschel KT of the late 60's, but not as nice as the Tamiya Henschel of the 90s.
If your gonna drop the Tamiya coin, may as well get the Fruil metal links and go all the way.
Forget the Tamiya JagdTiger, get a DML version.

Actually, U of A is not quite correct. The most accurate of the Tamiya Tigers is are the two newest molds, the 35216 and 35227 early versions. I like the 227 Afrika Tiger as it is very unique, but the 216 is the classic early Tiger. These two kits have the most accurately shaped turret. The Mid and Late production tigers are also excellent, though, very good. How many people will really know that your turret shape is off?

I believe the most accurate Tiger 1 you can buy out of the box is the Tamiya 1/16 Tiger 1. As to King Tigers, I believe the newer tool Tamiya 1/35 kits are all great kits to start with.

HTH,

Scott

Gotta love that POrsche turret King Tiger. Get the cavilier or Eduard Zimerit set for it. I'm going with the cavalier as I bought some brass fenders I want to bend up for it. I'm saving that one for desert though, I 'm doing a mass Modern US build now

Always 35216, nothin but 35216, again 35216 :-)
And off course if u wanna do one "Afrika", get the "Initial" one.

All the Tamiya Tigers I are very good kits. I found no diference between them. But also the Academy Tiger I is a very good also.
I think that between the two brands you can pick the cheapear. Here the Academy kits are cheaper than the Tamiya ones.

Here is my Tamiya Tiger I, I built it three years ago and it´s in the Features:

Wonderful African CAS Good job !

Ooopsss.... Havent seen the coat & the snow #:-)

Thanks for all the replys and with that Im focusing on the King Tiger Porsche turret or Ardennes version... ...Do these kits have individual track links or Rubberbands????

(I hate individual track links )

The Porsche Turret that I am building has the rubber band type tracks. I really like the model a lot. It is my first Tiger kit and I am pleased with the fit for the most part. I am building it with the winter wash on it. Get one you won't be sorry.

Great looking snow tiger. I think that all of the Tamiya tiger kits are great .

Sorry, nfafan, I have to disagree. I have built all the Nichimo kits. They Tiger II's were all out of proportion and angles to the front of the hull and glacis plate were off because of motorization. To build any of them correctly involved cutting these plates out and re-doing them at the correct angles. Also the hulls were 4 scale inches too long, and the Jagdtiger 4 scale inches too short, because Nichimo took the difference between the two hull lengths and split it. At least they made some attempt, Tamiya ignored it(or didn't know it).

The angles of the NichimoTiger I hull plates are even worse.

These kits are nice collector's items but not worth building now with all the better kits out there.

PH

I'm building the kingtiger porche turret ardens version right now and its kit no.252
with rubber tracks.

I agree get the Initial version one first now OOP.
second Late version
Third the Tiger II ardennes Version picked it up for 24.00 half off at Hobby Lobby.
Academy is real close to Tamiya kit have one also parts are interchangeable (++) (:-)