All,

I have a few Dragon King Tiger kits, and will probably end up with some of the new ones that have recently hit the market. My question is about the spare track links that are sometimes shown being mounted on the sides (front and rear) of the turrets. I gather the intent, in addition to being a convenient spot to place them (the hulls were already pretty full of things carried), but were potentially additional protection, in addition to the turret armor. I've read that there was evidence that these tracks were never really carried this way on the real tanks. Any evidence that this is true or not?

Secondly, and the most important reason for my post, is there a definitive set of locations for these tracks? I recall seeing post, perhaps on Armorama, of mark-ups of where these links were supposed to be located. I took a guess on my in-progress Henschel King Tiger, and I didn't do the greatest job of equally mounting the tracks on the sides (i.e. they are not located exactly the same on both sides of the turret) and I'm not sure where they are supposed to be mounted (if they were supposed to be there at all). Any idea of the reality of their presence and the precise locations of where they were supposed to be?

Thanks for any help.

HI Curt,
there are plenty of online pictures of the tracks on the sides of the Henschel turret. There are also pictures of the empty racks on the side of the turret.

Like on the La Glieze Tiger:




I'd say what would be harder to find is one without racks or tracks, completely.

As far as exact placement...I couldn't tell you.

But there are plenty of pics online of them with racks but no tracks. Might have to do some measuring and math.

Cheers,

Gaz

I guess some period pics should help...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deckarudo/sets/72157623853333977/

and a few walkaround pics for good measure

http://www.net-maquettes.com/fr/pictures/tiger-ii-walk/?afg265_page_id=1#afg-265

https://jtrowbridge5.smugmug.com/KingTiger104completewalkaround

H.P.

You should just mark the location of the hanger mounts with a pencil,use this blueprint as a guide.

Curt the Dragon kits have the spots marked very faintly on the turret sides so no guess work needed. Building one now so know for sure.

Gents,

Many thanks for all these replies. They all help a great deal. I think I know what I'm doing going forward. Thanks again.

Even the turrets with the molded on zimm ? I never noticed and that was a problem for me.

Curt doesn't say he's build one with molded zim.

I built both,and no zimm had very clear holes for the hooks,but when Dragon added the zimm,they didn't put the holes for some reason,unless I'm missing something

Both of my Tiger IIs are the ones with zimmerit. I looked but didn't see any markings (faint or not) where the brackets should be located. I am no longer worried about it, though, as there were so many other posts providing me with the needed info/locations. Yes, it will take a bit of measuring and marking, but I can deal with that. I did note that the brackets are something of a pain to attach to a turret that has zimmerit, but it's not THAT hard to do.

The tracks were carried on most vehicles until the last months of the war, when resupply of tracks became problematical. They disappeared from the turrets because they were in use.

The first production turret King Tigers with Zimmerit were issued before the track hangers were standardized, so there are a couple of photos of the two assigned to first company of the 503rd Battalion in Normandy without tracks or fittings on the turret side.