NinjabreadMan

So this has been my big lockdown endeavour, the 1/35 Meng 505th King Tiger with full interior. A real labour of love and a solid project to work on. I would recommend to all, but be careful with the fit of the hull as the 'scale thickness' armour means that it is very tight to secure over all of the innards. As I was working I decided I wanted a little base to display it on, which then morphed into a few figures to denote scale, which then became a lot of figures and what is almost a full diorama! My initial set of photos (apologies for the poor quality/ composition) and happy to take more if anyone is interested:

Wow, these are really coming on, the attention to detail and background research is amazing! I can't wait to see how they progress.

Dov, You really are flying through this, and it is looking great! How did you find the turret interior?

Dov, Don't know what happened there, but here you go: All should be available online if you are interested

Dov, The painting guide in the box isn't too bad, later in the war the Germans were running short of Brass for the shell casings so they resorted to steel-lacquered casings to make up the shortfall. This was a less than ideal solution and you would probably find that there was a mix of both in the tank. So the bottom casing would either be 'Brass,' 'Olive green' or 'Steel-Grey.' The projectile (top-pointed end) were Black with white tip for Armour Piericing (Anti-Tank) and Yellow for High Explosive. A photo from the Deutsches Panzermuseum: The Zimmerit was very thinly applied and mixed with plenty of adhesive to get it to stick... but there are photos of chipped or flaked zimmerit on tanks, especially after being in action. If you want a good account of King Tigers in action these books are a good read :

Dov, Thos is flying together and I haven’t even got my one out of the box yet!!!! When you ask about “grenades” are you referring to the shell and casings? I have a book on the king tiger that has information if you would like? The zimmerit was a concrete paste applied in the factory much like you would with a wall grout, each tank type had a different patterned applicator - panthers had squares, Tigers were lined etc. It was just held on by its own adhesive hold and it would chip or fall off over time

Dov, looks great! This is just the motivation I need to get my box open and get catching up!!!! keep up the good work

Ok, I got the weathering done and everything together nicely. I'm pretty happy and proud of the final result (although I have noticed that the masking tore off one handle from the crew hatch!) I will post these here for comments and then I can move to completed builds pending any last minute touch ups...

Dov, I have just bought the exact same kit and am about to start it this weekend (my first interior too)! Do you mind if I build alongside you and we can hopefully avoid the pitfalls?!

No problem, and as I said a pretty trivial point. I often find a lot of our (modellers/historians) discussions forget that these things were made in factories that had been pretty consistently bombed, by staff that were at best overworked and underfed (often much worse) to a ridiculous turnaround time per vehicle. The niceties of precision and quality of workmanship were just that. "Paint them yellow and stick them on the next train to the front, spare track and all!!"

Ian, I think it looks excellent, I wish I could get mine to look half as good! The camo looks just right and the tracks have come out really well (I would never know they were the rubber bands). My only very small point would be that the spare track on the front would not be painted (as the dunkelgelb was factory applied) although it might be oversprayed once it arrived at "Unknown Unit."

I have the other turret (the quad 20mm) undergoing the red oxide primer treatment now!

I'm going to leave that in Tan and weather it all together- nothing too dramatic though. I wanted a way to make the turret seem somehow separate but also still a part of the vehicle, so keeping the upper clear highlights the turret nicely.

I managed to get the turret masked and sprayed: Barrels painted and I decided to Red-Oxide the inside of the hatch. And then had a go at the 'Ambush' on the turret. I think I might have added too many dots, at too small a size, but I think its acceptable for a first attempt! Close up of the crewman- some detail work to go but I like the pose and the interaction Next is the weathering to bring it all together

Very cool. Am I right in thinking that the 'Type' number refers to the date of the vehicle coming into service?