There was a rumour going around a long while ago that a company was going to build a King Tiger (KonigsTiger as the German propaganda man said) with internal detail. That company was Meng, and the levels of anticipation and excitement among Tiger fans grew and grew. Then just as the funnel smoke of good ship Meng was seen on the Horizon It was cruelly torpedoed by U-boat Takom, Not once, not twice, but 3 times! Takom announced they were doing 3 KT's all with interiors and zimmerit, They then followed this up with 3 more, a porsche KT without zimmerit and a Henschell KT without zimmerit and more importantly, a March 1945 KT (owned by Mig).

So now all the dust has settled, how do these models face up to each other?

Before I launch into a rant let me explain, I am a slightly below average modeller. I do not have much in the way of skill but I do have enthusiasm and a desire to make things as accurate as my skills allow, I know a little, not a lot and I will give an honest opinion on my findings here.

So I have built the Takom KT (SPz.Abt 505) and also the Meng KT (Spz.Abt 509)
I will put up pictures later.

Both Models follow separate build guidelines and The Takom kit is way more involved. So we will firstly compare the chassis.

Both have difficulties and issues with the running gear. With the Takom kit the Torsion bars fit almost perfectly, however the the arms do not fit into the sockets and you have to cut the bar from the swing arm. Once you have done this you can then correctly slot the swing arm into place. With Meng however you have a bizarre situation where all swing arms are the same for the inner and outer wheels. This is a bit inaccurate to say the least. However, Meng have overcome this by adding some nondescript plastic cylinders that you have to fit onto alternate swing arms, an ingenious solution to a problem that really should never have existed.

Moving to just the Takom kit with the internals: the details are amazing and parts are fantastic. You get a handy colour guide to show you how to paint the internals. However, caution is urged here. Takom show you that almost everything is almost red oxide or elfenbien. You can be a bit more detailed if you wish as some parts were also painted German Grey Green a bit of research will soon show which bits these were and I will be putting in a bit more detail in a follow up thread if people are interested,

Even though the Meng kit is meant to have internals very little is given with their kit, the main gun for example does not even have its breach and there is no co-ax machine gun worth mentioning, even the bow machine gun is severely lacking in detail. You would be very embarrassed to leave any hatches open. Incidentally if you want to do the internals on the Meng KT you would need to have the internal kit ready to go as you need to put in parts to strengthen the hull and many parts have to be left out if you do install the internals.

The Hull:
Starting with the back plate: Both Meng and Takom offer great detail, though both make errors but in different areas! So firstly the error with Takom: The jack dos not have the grab handles on the under side, the Meng KT does have. On Meng the starter handle guide is shown as non moving it would swing on the real thing, it does on Takom. Petty I know but it shows that no kit is perfect.

I once heard a pretty daft argument about the Meng kit being far superior in its surface texture when compared to the Takom KT, I am not sure what the person was getting at as one has zimmerit the other does not!

Both Hulls are very much the same and a joy to build, very precise in parts and fits. Detail is quite sublime and as can be expected with new moulds the detail is crisp and flash free. very little in the way of sink holes and so that part built quick. However, the Takom Tow Ropes and gun cleaning rods are easier to put on the hull side. The Meng ones are separate and the fit is a little tight and so can cause a few issues when going on the hull sides. A bit of caution is urged here. Another word of caution involves the tracks. I used fruil tracks on my Takom KT and these fitted beautifully. I have heard however that there is a fitting issue with the Meng KT as you need to put on more than was used in the real thing. I do not know if it was just a mistake with the positioning of the idler wheel on the Meng KT or if the scale was wrong. However, I used the Kit tracks and found no issues,

Moving on swiftly to the Turrets.

Don't believe the hype! Meng have included a metal gun barrel but it lacks detail and is next to useless, The plastic gun is more accurate and as it is one piece is more favourable. Unfortunately I had fitting issues with the gun Sleeve and so this needed filling afterwards. Meng advise you to remove the rain guard over the gunners sights, however you do not have to as this was on quite a few KT after September 1944, (remove if you going to add zimmerit though) it was only fully added onto production Turrets in January 1945. So do not feel that you have to remove this part.

The Commanders sighting vane is a very fragile plastic part (A25) and I snapped both trying to remove them from the sprue, and although a metal one is included I made my own! The cupola is a very bad area for Meng. They depict the cupola as being solid and so the periscopes are made into two parts, one you stick underside and another top side. In reality there was no solid part, the periscope went straight up through, not cut off (How the heck was the commander meant to see?) Another problem I had was the armoured covers for the periscopes when put on they seemed to angle down so the commander would be only able to see about 2 foot either side of the tank and certainly nothing in front! in despair I got hold of an old Academy King Tiger and salvaged the cupola from that and used this on the Meng KT, Another sad issues was that there is no smoke grenade launcher internal, just the cover on the turret roof. Interestingly the Loaders periscope does go through the roof. Unfortunately it needed a lot of trimming to make it fit.

Rather Bizarrely Takom make mistakes in this area, they do not include the sighting vane at all so you have to make one. All other details were there (No rain guard over the gunners sight though. A terrible mistake that Takom Make is with the numbers. They give you the numbers for the tanks Gun but they do not give you the tanks numbers for the Turret rear! Bad Takom!!!!So I had to swipe numbers from elsewhere.

I used an Aber gun Barrel for the Takom KT. No real reason but the plastic gun barrel is up to the task should you not wish to be lavish on your kit.

So How did the battle work out?


It did not, both are aimed at different kinds of modeller. So this kind of eliminates any competition.

However I would have to go with the Takom Kit in which I preferred.

Why? Well apart from being easier to assemble and more detailed it also offered the chance to build a Model that is very detailed and brings a feeling of reward in every step of the build. I found it a bit more interesting than your average model and a sense of achievement that I have not felt for ages.

The Takom Kit is a one stop shop for the complete King Tiger, although as I type this Voyager models are bringing out a detail up set for the Porsche Turreted KT due to be released on the 28/02/2017 and boy does it look good!

I think that Meng are being a bit clever in offering a King Tiger that does not have the full internals, It is fairly detailed, cheaper than Dragons offerings and just a bit more expensive than Tamiya's so fits a nice price bracket, However I will not be buying another and toward the end of the build I was just wanting to get it over and done with as some parts were quite frustrating in fitting and assembling,

So if you want a KT with no internals then go for The Meng Model.
If you want a KT that will take a while to build, give you a sense of achievement and be a lot more than you have done before then get the Takom one.

The Takom King Tiger took me a total time of 3.5 months to build, paint and weather. It is now sitting on a dio base with an interesting pose on it, pictures will be up shortly.

The Meng King Tiger took about two weeks to put together and I found it not so much a joyful experience, more like a long hard war off attrition at one point texting a friend and saying I was just going to give up on it!

Well that is my view on things and I hope you found it if not helpful then amusing. I am more than happy to answer any queries you may have or any clarifications you may need.

PS: I know a few people will shake their heads because I have mentioned the word "Porsche" a few times,
However, Porsche were building a tank to their own specs and this Turret was originally intended for the Porsche vehicle, so you can quite happily call it a Porsche turret

Hi Jase, Thank you for your comments.

You are quite right about what you say regards the Krupp designed turrets for both Porsche and Henschell Vehicles.

They designated the Turret for the Porsche vehicle simply as P-2 Turm and the turret for the Henschell vehicle H-2 Turm. (porsche and Henshcell respectively)

This later transformed into Series Turm. But you can see by the initials officially given by Krupp even they referred to them as Porsche and Henschell themselves.

Interestingly later they dropped the H-2 Turm name and simply called it "Series Turm"

Mind you, the name "KonigsTiger" was never officially recognised. It was first called this in a propaganda film during a battalion parade of Schwere PZ Abt, 503.

It got translated to King Tiger, when more accurately it is Royal Tiger or Bengal Tiger. I call it KT for short, it appeases both camps.

Interestingly enough the VK4502 (p) (VK4502 (P) simply means Volkettenfahrzeuge or "Fully tracked experimental vehicle" 45 means in the 45 ton class and the 02 is the 2nd vehicle.) was just one design submitted by Porsche yet both designs exceeded the 45 ton class by 20 tons.

Porsche submitted 2 designs and these only differed in engine positions. One was rear engined and the other central.

I think the P-2 turm is more pleasing on the eye, (like you) unfortunately in combat conditions it could cause quite a few issues with the shot trap. Also the curved plate at the front was 100mm thick where on the H-2 Turm it was flat (or 60 degree angle I think) and 180mm.

Another fascinating fact, and I do not know if it was ever attempted or done is that normally the turrets were not interchangeable without modifications as the mounting design was different. However the chassis could be modified as required to change out turrets. A well equipped field repair unit could complete the task.

So apart from all the changes you mention, which were quite a few, you may very well have had a hybrid out there! It is a nightmare to try and get the correct vehicle for the correct time and date you wish to build it for. It could end up in a nervous breakdown.

However, back to the models:

My own opinion on the kits and which one to choose is to get both. They are quite good in their own rights and provide some good options, only I found building the Takom kit that much easier.

I have since gone and bought the Porsche turm and the Henschell series turm models both with internal details, well actually my wife bought me the second one, I am quite lucky in that respect.

My P-2 Turm KT will be the one belonging to S.pz Abt 506 and I will have to buy the voyager set in order to get the correct exhausts on it.

Again, as you say, due to all the modification changes this has to be done to get the exact vehicle I wish to do.