did all German WW2 King Tigers have Zimmerit coating?

simple answer. no. im not an expert, so i wont go into when they would have started, but it would have been toward the second half of the war.

there are a couple museums, patton museum, as an example, that have the KT on display without zimm. there are also a few that were monumentized after the war in europe that dont have it either. google search king tiger and use the picture option. you will see many that are both ways

No. Most, if not all of the Porsche turreted ones had it. Late war Hentschel KTs didn't, though. The Germans stopped using it in September of 1944.

All King Tigers produced prior to 9 September 1944 were coated with zimmerit. All "Porsche" turreted KT's were coated with zimmerit. Wa Pruef 6 PzIIIb, on 9 September 1944, informed all assembly firms that, based on a decision by the Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen on 7 September, zimmerit will no longer be applied to armored vehicles.

Thanks alot guys...........really appreicate the knowledge. I have since done some reading.

I have three King Tiger Kits at this time. I was just trying to figure out what else I needed to build them.

These are the three kits I have so far..........

Tamiya #35164 “King Tiger” – Production Turret
Dragon #6302 “King Tiger” – Porsche Turret w/ zimmerit 6302 (Dragon)
Academy #13229 “King Tiger” – Last Production

I was wanting to start with the Tamiya (#35164) production turret (Which I think is the same as a Henschel Turret) kit first. Since I know the Tamiya will be somewhat easier to build. But was not sure if it needed to have a zimmerit coating or not. I guess after some reading and your advice.......if I build it as a King Tiger manufactured after September 1944 it would not have a zimmerit coating.

Is that correct? If so any advice on what I should do if anything to make it appear as a post September 1944 King Tiger?

I am just not wanting to have to apply a zimmerit coating if possible and still keep it historical accurate.



I will then build the other two and since the Dragon (#6302) has the zimmerit coating......its good to go. And I assume that since the Academy (#13229) is a last production King Tiger it did not have a zimmerit coating anyway.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Spence

This is a Tweaks List, written by Lawrence Goh, for the Tamiya kit:

Missing Links Tiger II Tweaks List 1.0

You'll find all the corrections necessary to bring 35164 up to par.

Here is a link to Liejon Schoot's King Tiger Timeline

You can use it to determine what production mods were incorporated in a particular KT that you plan to depict.

A commonly forgotten detail seems to be the mushroom-shaped lifting lugs on the armored exhaust covers. Easily made from heating the end of styrene rod and squishing it for the mushroom shape.

You're right about that, Biggles2. This is often overlooked. I use 1.6 mm Head Diameter (Short Shank) brass rivets from Scale Hardware to make mine.