Tamiya 1/35 Tiger II (Henschel Turret)

The Last Of The Royals...

The Tiger II...

What a beast of a heavy tank! 150-185mm of steel protecting the front and a powerful long 88mm to delete anything unlucky enough to be caught in its sights. This thing is nearly 70 tons of unforgiving German steel!

This thing was Massive. It put nearly every other tank in WW2 to shame in terms of weight and size, save for its heavier brother the Jagdtiger. Bigger isn't always better though. This poor things drivetrain system certainly suffered.

The Maybach HL230 Engine powering the Tiger 2 was certainly underpowered, considering it made the same horsepower as the Tiger 1s Engine (a early version HL230), but was using that to propel a tank 13 tonnes heavier. This made the Tiger 2 Sluggish, to say the least.

The transmission on the Tiger 2, the Maybach-Olvar OG 40 12 16 was... EXTREMELY overstressed. The final drive units of the transmission suffered heavily under the 70 ton tanks weight, considering it was the same as the 57 Ton Tiger 1's transmission. Not to mention the transmission had originally been designed for a vehicle around 45 tons in weight, meaning that the tiger two was on the heavy side by 25 Tons. This, coupled with the weak engine, made mechanical failure commonplace on the Royal Tiger.

But Hey, at least it had the long 88 going for it! The Mounted 88 mm KwK43 cannon. This thing could penetrate over 230mm of armor at point blank range, and 180 at 2000m, meaning that Nothing the allies had was safe, save for the Soviet IS-2 and the later developed Heavy Pershings. This gave the Tiger two the upper hand in nearly any confrontation.

The Armor also was considerable help. The weakest un-angled armour plate on the tanks front was the 185mm turret face, meaning that, save from a hit from a Soviet 122 or the APCR from an american 90mm, the Tiger two was tough as nails from the front. When long range engagements were concerned, the Tiger 2 had a massive advantage. However.... This figure cannot be exactly trusted. By 1944-45, the germans had lost control of many metals that were required to make strong and durable armor for tanks. As such, later german tanks like the tiger 2 suffered extensively from the weak and brittle nature of the late war german steel alloy quality.

In the end, the Tiger 2 had a lot going for it on paper, and a lot that most definitely did not work in its favor. While it was great in theory, with its heavy armor and powerful cannon, it suffered heavily from the overstressed drivetrain and armor quality issues. This tank was a mixed bag nonetheless. But hey, you gotta admit, it is Imposing. And maybe thats all that matters.