Designed to counter the power of Russia's armored vehicles in the latter stages of WWII, Germany began work on a heavy tank, the Panzerkampfwagen VI-B Tiger II, better known as the King Tiger. The King Tiger was fortified with 185mm armor on its turret and 88mm on the side panels, much thicker than the standard Tiger. The King Tiger was equipped with a powerful, armor-piercing Type-43 L71 88mm main gun. Two 7.92mm machine guns were mounted to the front of the hull as well as the turret as an auxiliary armament. A powerful Maybach HL230 P30 V-12 cylinder, liquid-cooled engine brought this monster to life, and the King Tiger entered mass production in August of 1944.

During the early development stages, Porsche and Henschel worked on a variety of turret configurations. The turret featured in this 1/16 scale model kit includes the turret developed by Porsche. While lacking in terms of the initial armor thickness, and the necessary tooling prior to mass production, the Porsche turret performed quite well on the frontlines.