Alex's King Tiger

The most noticeable thing about this kit is the color of the plastic. It's a pain to photograph and requires a lot of light to halfway see anything. The parts numbers are small and not very stand-out-ish...the color doesn't help with this. The instructions are pretty vague. It's cited as being build-able as either an early or late KT, but the instructions don't point out which parts are for which production phase. And to be honest, this kit is a reversed conversion...it's a retro build where they are un-interior-izing it. And that's not a criticism, as much as an observation. Some of the parts just look odd. Some are missing textures they should have.  For example, the hull MG barrel has no real detail to it. It's just a length of styrene rod. The tie-down for the engine deck are way undersized.

Anyway...on to the actual build....and some more probable griping.

The roadwheels are pretty okay. They are a polycap sandwiched between the inner/outer wheels design. I'm not sure why they have polycaps for a kit that comes with length & link tracks...but that's not a problem. The wheel details is okay. It's not crisp...or at least as crisp as the Dragon KT wheels. They give you the parts for early and late wheel hubs but don't tell you which is which.

The suspension is pretty normal. They are delicate and I imagine pushing those roadweels on will be an adventure. Also, they include spacers to be placed on the suspension arm shafts to offset the wheels. The problem is the instructions aren't specific on which ones to put them on.

The rear of the hull...pretty simple. The exhausts were super smooth so I sanded them to try to give a hint of some texture. The armored exhaust covers are given as optional early and late versions...again not specified which is which. After some comparisons to the Dragon KT I settled on one set. I left one of the tow shackles off. I figured these were easily lost by crews.

Rear plate mounted. That red plastic really looks rough. I'm sure paint will cover it just dandy and I'm shooting for a rough, worn-out KT. I left the jack off for now.

Mainly another shot of the lower hull. Meng did something pretty smart here. They included a lot of support pieces. I assume the interior would have given a lot of that support. They included two pieces that fit in the tub and a fancy looking part that mates the upper and lower hull pieces. There's another support section that you add to the upper hull later.

So I went ahead and shot a coat of sand on the lower hull and roadwheels.

Now for the upper hull. I see why they included the extra supports. The upper hull is pretty flimsy. That rear section for the engine deck is a separate piece. I get why they did it like that...this was designed as a full interior kit. This lets them show off the inner-kabobs. And to be fair, once all the engine deck pieces, turret ring section, etc. are added this should be pretty sturdy.

Sort of along those lines, Meng has included an insert for the interior of the front plate. I assume this is an interior leftover to simulate the armor thickness. I don't see it, but I suspect the added thickness is also added for fit. You actually have to add a layer to each of the rear tow bracket extensions too. Also, there's not much for the bow MG. At the least, I'll update that horrible barrel.

Flipped the upper hull over and added the radiator sections and turret ring section. I left off the engine cover for now. I have a Tamiya Tiger Engine and might add it. The kit doesn't come with the radiator/fan units under the grills...which is a shame. I'll probably just box those off and paint them red-oxide. It would have been nice to have them, but to be fair, once the PE grills are added you really can't see any thing underneath any way.

The periscope are molded clear. They are very fragile. The hole for them is tight....I broke one of the periscopes pushing it in...and it didn't take much effort to break it. You'll need to open the hole a bit. I used a flat file. By the way, the upper hull texture looks great.

I think that's it for now. If I sound down on this kit...well I am. It's a big letdown as I expected more from Meng. Without the interior, I would say the old Tamiya KT is a better kit. And I think that's it...this kit looks dated and I think it leans on having that full interior (and Meng AM sets) to keep up. I hope it gets better, but we'll see.

It should be good. I just expected a better kit from Meng in 2019. And to be fair, I think some of the issues are a result of this being retrograded from a full interior kit. Without the interior and AM stuff...it's not that good of a kit.

Looking ahead...let's check out the turret and tracks. See those two turret looking parts. One is the interior and the other the exterior. One fits inside of the other. I assume this is a leftover from the interior.

And the tracks...there are four identical sprues. The tracks look sort of dated. But what concerns me is that the top runs are made from single long runs. Getting that top run to sag is going to be something, especially since I plan on leaving the side skirts off.