Trumpeter 1/72 King Tiger (Henschel Turret)

The family spent the whole day at home so I cracked open this kit for a fast build.

Assembly was fast but I discovered that I was missing a grill for the hull. The part must have detached from the sprue some time ago and was misplaced. So I left out attaching the grill that I have, maybe until I find a replacement or make one. Trumpeter's casting is a bit light on detail. I didn't like that fact that parts such as hatches, cables and tools were molded on the hull instead of being separate parts.

I refrained from gluing the soft rubber tracks together and instead joined the ends using thread. Putting them on was a chore though. Happily, I didn't break and idler when I fitted them on as I inevitably did with my old ESCI kits.

Attaching the hull posed some problems because of how the hull was designed to attach to the lower chassis. Pegs on both sides should snap on the lower lips of the chassis but doing so would prevent me from disassembling the model again for painting. So I nipped off the pegs and will just glue it on after painting.

The turret assembly was easy but again, I found myself disappointed with the very soft details. I left off the spare tracks until after painting.

The turret easily went on the hull and voila -- a King Tiger in a few hours! Build time, not counting the time I spent lounging around, puttering about and generally just lollygagging was around three hours. I'll be painting this model with some other German tanks I built to save on time prepping my airbrush. Call me lazy but that's how I roll!

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