introduction

If you're a fan of the what-if 1946 German tanks and a fan of Jentz's books on late war German tanks (but I repeat myself) you probably noticed that there were the traditional 1945 cocktail napkin doodles of a King Tiger tank with a 10.5 cm main gun. Now, Jentz states that it wouldn't have fit in the turret effectively but A) These are the same Germans who built multiple Maus tanks, so never bet against Nazi craziness and B) it just looks darned cool.

the kit

Zitader Designs have released numerous metal and resin detail sets for 1/35 tanks but their products can be difficult to find in the US. Rainbow Ten used to be my go-to site but they sadly closed their doors to international shipping back in February of 2012. However, for someone who wants to build a late 1945 King Tiger, their replacement guns are well worth hunting down.
Consisting of three resin pieces, three white metal pieces, two brass machined rings, and a turned barrel along with several pieces of bass rod you get a pretty complete drop in set for a Tamiya or Dragon King Tiger. The pieces dry-fit together quite well but the mantlet itself has a pretty rough texture. I assume it is to reflect casting as the other two resin pieces are smooth but it seems overdone to me. There is a fair amount of very thin flash in the muzzle brake that will need to be removed. However, I can't see anything that will require more than a few minutes of cleanup.
Compared to the 88mm from the Dragon kits, this gun is impressively large. It will certainly stand out from the pack of King Tigers at any model show!