I preferred the VK3001P, because of speed (and it also looks kewler). Don't look forward to the Tiger, it'll take you a ton of grind to get it to a decent state.
Don't know about the Tiger, but the Tiger P can use the same 88mm cannon at stock, which is rather shitty for tier7 (132 penetration, gg), with the upgraded 88mm cannon being a fuckload of grind away (needs expensive transmission, expensive turret and the gun itself is uber costly in XP)
Other tier7 heavies have it way easier at start.