King Tiger or Tiger II were the common names of the German heavy tank of the Second World War. Even though the final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. B, it is also known under the informal name Königstiger (the German name for the "Bengal tiger"), often translated as King Tiger by American soldiers or Royal Tiger by British soldiers.
During the Battle of the Bulge, approximately 250 Tiger I, 775 Panther, 775 Panzer IV and a very few Tiger IIs were seen in the battle.
Even though only a few we made, they still showed a massive difference on the battlefield, where only airstrikes, heavy artillery or heavy AT could stop such beasts. Even though the Allies finally made tanks with 17 pounder guns capable of hurting the Tiger tanks, the new Tiger IIs threw that all out the window. That's why the American's call them Kings, for they owned the battlefield.
For the King Tiger itself, Henschel won the contract, and all Tiger IIs were produced by the firm. Two turret designs were used in production vehicles. The initial design is sometimes misleadingly called the "Porsche" turret due to the belief that it was designed by Porsche for their prototype; in fact it was the initial Krupp design for both prototypes. This turret had a rounded front and steeply sloped sides, with a difficult-to-manufacture curved bulge on the turret's left side to accommodate the commander's cupola. Fifty early turrets were mounted to Henschel's hull and used in action. The more common "production" turret, sometimes called the "Henschel" turret, was simplified with a significantly thicker flat face, no shot trap (created by the curved face of the initial-type turret), and less-steeply sloped sides, which prevented the need for a bulge for the commander's cupola.
Finally finished this bastard. Over a year of lying around getting worked on randomly when I had the moral/time to do it. I was being very picky on how to colour/shade it, so that's a big reason why it took long, besides college and work. Also had to actually redraw most of this, for I realized I was 1024x648 viewing size instead of my usual 2048x1296 working space size.
And many thanks to Megas-SF on DeviantART for helping in motivating me into finish this piece this month.
