1/35 Tamiya King Tiger (Porsche)

[Mike]

As I was taking a break from the Sherman project I was thinking I need to finish one of my Axis beasts and get some momentum on the KT. As I was letting the dirt and mud effects on the lower hull and wheels dry I decided to take one more stab at making my Alpine figure a bit less disappointing to me and I repainted his uniform again. Once again trying to brighten up his color pallette. I just got done setting him up in the cupola. 










I'm still working on getting the tracks assembled and I'm making sure I dirty up everything behind them before I get too crazy. Most of you know just how tight the spaces between and behind all of those wheels can get.

[Tojo72]

Love to see a big cat,looks really good so far.

[Mike]

Who doesn't love a big cat? Lol
I've got so many kits in various stages of completion. I'll eventually finish my Panther ausf. D in a similar state. Just waiting for decals and effects.

I don't now why I can't just finish one at a time and move on to another. Sometimes I feel like building, sometimes painting.

[Mike]

I completed the tracks today. I started with the upper runs and worked my way down on both sides. I didn't know that the long runs I assembled months ago would naturally bow over time but all I had to do is to gently flex them into shape and I got the sag I was wanting. I did have to make one hybrid link for the left side as I didn't get that lined up as well it seems. But I did get both runs completed and I think they look good. That sag isn't easy to get from indy links like these Tamiya links because of the lack of pins. I got lucky I think. The bottom runs needed more convincing than the top ones did, but some CA helped me out.









While I was waiting impatiently for the top runs of track to cure up I cut some of the fenders apart and thinned them down with my mini Dremel, sanded them as even as I could considering the thickness I was then dealing with, and bent them up and added new styrene strips for the brackets. I can't wait to see how these turn out later. I'm not adding most of them back as I really want to show off those tracks later. I have them in Primer for the night and I'll paint them up later, after I get the effects on the tracks. That should limit any issues that could appear.



I'm not sure how much farther I will go tonight. I plan on adding some sort of ammo to the MG as well and I will probably scratch build that. I need to get some paint on the raw track links and get those prepared for the next steps.



Good night, Gentlemen! Have a great day!

[handiabled]

Sensational so far Mike! I'll be following this for sure

[Mike]

Thank you, I'm pretty happy with it so far. I hope I can keep everyone interested lol. Including me! LMAO

[Steve Zuleski]

Looking great from here, Mike!

[lyle]

outstanding work! She looks great.

[Mike]

Thank you. What I would really like to do is finish this one before I lose interest lol. My sherman is waiting for me and I hear it calling.

[lyle]

Jun 28, 2024 9:21:26 GMT -5 Mike said:

Thank you. What I would really like to do is finish this one before I lose interest lol. My sherman is waiting for me and I hear it calling.

I understand completely. Boy do I understand.

[brandonk]

Banging up those fenders and skirts really adds a level of realism to the build. This is gonna look amazing. The KT is looking stellar!!

[Mike]

Last thing I did was get the base color on them fenders. I think I've got the "beaten but not useless" look down. From reference videos they always look like they've been beaten to crap and I've been told they never lasted long. I watch a lot of The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum (www.youtube.com/@ausarmour) videos on YouTube and they always have a hard time finding original tinworks and they're always damaged and often need to be refabricated from scratch. They may not have a KT, but they do have a JagdPanther and it was fascinating to see how those skirts were fitted. If you haven't seen their videos, I very highly recommend them. They provide an enormous amount of detail information you can rarely find anywhere else.





I really can't wait to see how these are going to look on the tank!

[deafpanzer]

Great work especially the figure!!! Who makes that figure?

[stikpusher]

[Mike]

Jun 29, 2024 9:17:30 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Great work especially the figure!!! Who makes that figure?

Thank you. The figure is from Alpine. 

[deafpanzer]

Jun 29, 2024 16:59:52 GMT -5 Mike said:

Jun 29, 2024 9:17:30 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Great work especially the figure!!! Who makes that figure?

Thank you. The figure is from Alpine. 

Sweet! I wanted to say Alpine but I wasn’t sure. Now I have to add this to my stash. Your fault… 😂🤣😂

[Mike]

Jun 29, 2024 17:27:57 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Jun 29, 2024 16:59:52 GMT -5 Mike said:

Thank you. The figure is from Alpine. 

Sweet! I wanted to say Alpine but I wasn’t sure. Now I have to add this to my stash. Your fault… 😂🤣😂

LOL! You're welcome! Should be figure #35187 WSS Pz Commander #1. Alpine always makes such beautiful figures.

[Mike]

Today's progress was good. I gave the tracks a wash and then slopped some dried mud on them while I also scratched up some new mud flaps out of thinner material and thinned out, bent up, and painted up another section of fender. I also freshened up the overall paint scheme which is okay but my lighting makes it look like I've painted the model in yellow, brown, and black.

















I think I'm at the point now where I can begin some weathering above the fender line.

[Mike]

I apologize for the darkness of these pictures, but lowering the light level and adjusting the saturation is the only way to show the paint on this model as I actually see it in front of me. Otherwise the colors are over saturated and the tank is not bright yellow.

I've finished the initial dirtying of the upper hull and turret with several washes over a transparent layer of gloss that I added some Israeli Sand Grey as a way to add some light modulation. Amusingly it added a bit of rain spattered dust to the effects. I'm not done yet. I plan on adding more layers but I need to start painting the details next.















That's it for now. Thanks for taking a look. Have a fun day!

[handiabled]

Really like the look of the road worn skirts and fenders.

[Mike]

Thank you. I like the way they turned out also. Glad I chose to do that with them as I was originally going to just leave them off entirely.

[kyledehart5]

Really nice. I like the camo work too and the skirts. Looking forward to seeing the next step.

[Mike]

Painting all of the little things such as the towing cables and pioneering tools took longer than I thought it would. I still need to weather them all and then start chipping and the rest of the final weathering techniques I want to do. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel lol.







I like how it all turned out, except I don't like how my "Dark Yellow" looks so damn bright. Tamiya looks better, but all I have is a little bit of the Vallejo left. I need to update my supplies list lol.

[handiabled]

Looking good Mike! Are you planning on muddying this one up or just light weathering?

[project510]

Wow, very nice work on the paint. I dont know how you guys do it haha. Cant wait to see what weathering details get added.

[kyledehart5]

I’m with James. Everyone’s camo work on this site is soo good. I don’t even know where I’d begin!! Lol

[Mike]

Jul 2, 2024 8:16:03 GMT -5 handiabled said:

Looking good Mike! Are you planning on muddying this one up or just light weathering?

At this point I'm planning on making a small diorama with it, and to that effort I am planning to save some of the weathering to mate it with the base so they match. So yeah, it's getting some mud later. I'm concentrating on weathering the upper hull and all of the tools right now. If I leave as it currently stands it will look like someone added brand new tools to a somewhat worn tank and it will all be out of place.

Jul 2, 2024 9:12:18 GMT -5 project510 said:

Wow, very nice work on the paint. I don't know how you guys do it haha. Cant wait to see what weathering details get added.

LOL. I'd say it's simple, but that would be somewhat disingenuous. It's a few layers of base, gloss, washes, oils, washes again, matte, and more to come. I haven't put this much effort into a finish in quite a while. My SU-85 was a bit of a test to get me back into the game, so to speak. I do like a clean and simple finish though. But the King Tiger is one of my favorite tanks and I really want this one to make an impression, even if it's only for me. Stay tuned. I just added the spare track links to the turret sides and I've got to weather it all together now.

Jul 2, 2024 14:51:48 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

I’m with James. Everyone’s camo work on this site is soo good. I don’t even know where I’d begin!! Lol

To be very honest I messed this one up twice already. Wrong colors (but within parameters), and airbrush overspray that has to be corrected by brush, which leaves hard lines. But mistakes make us better modellers in the end. Inventing or researching ways to fix my mistakes seems to always get me even better results. I'm always fighting the fear of messing up and on some projects its held me back from making something better. Just be bold. Experiment. Have fun!

[Mike]

Here's a surprise. Since I plan on making this into a diorama it would be a shame not to use my Grenadiers with it. So on a whim I just picked up the sample I previously painted and took another stab at fixing his eyes. While I was at it I tried using Dark Prussian Blue for the 5 o'clock shadow and I must say, I like it. It's a bit tricky to use because if you don't thin it out to an extreme it looks really weird lol.



Like 90% of my small figures if you zoom in he looks disgusting. Looks great to the naked eye, but dayum, It's not good under magnification at all. Anyways, I have four more of these guys that will look magnificent next to the King. I'm going for it.

[handiabled]

Subtle additions that made a big change. You have this figure looking great

[Mike]

Thank you! I just got done doing a bit of refinement on him too. I don't think I had the lighted magnifier that I do now, but I was in a hurry before, so maybe that's it. I used some time to correct a few issues and paint some things I couldn't see before. This figure has a lot of details!

Edit:




Subtle changes. Mostly just cleaning up lines, but he does look a bit better.