Dr. Porsche, who was 'connected' to high echelons of the government, assumed he would get the Tiger 1 contract also and was so sure of winning that he started producing Tiger 1's before the decision. 3 of his versions served as battle tanks, at least one of which served on the East Front as part of Command, I don't remember which regiment but the number was 003. The remaining 100 or so hulls morphed in to the Elefant series and three became Berg Elefants. .

On the King, there were problems with the turret involving not only the supposed shot trap of the main gun mantlet but rolling the complicated curves of the turret left side let to cracks appearing in the cupola bulge during the process.

There is tons of information out there about the Tiger series and the aura of such a series with a relatively small production run is amazing.

I'll write more about Sophia and her gang in the Tankers Lounge, don't want to derail the thread.