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Trumpeter King Tiger


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Hi guys, thanks very much for your kind comments :)

I was hoping to have another update by now but I haven't found much time lately. The Boss has also ordered that I clear most of the kit away for the Christmas period. Plies of scratch building materials, tools and the mess that goes with it are now strictly off limits until the new year. If I'm honest it's probably a good thing as I almost suffered burnout last week after losing my rag with some of the scratch building.

I am making some progress though. I've decided now would be a good time to tackle some of the simpler, yet boring tasks which would be nice to get out of the way. These tasks are mainly the road wheels / sprockets / idlers, main gun ammunition and the tracks. I have all the wheels and idlers finished and am just working on the sprockets now. Next will be cleaning up all the main gun rounds and then filling all the pin marks in the tracks. I'll post up some photos once these chores tasks are done.

Cheers

Matt

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Hi all,

Just a little update, I've now finish the running gear. Each road wheel is made up of 5 parts, 5 parts for each idler and 2 parts for each sprocket. So that was 104 parts to sand down and clean up, great fun! The sprockets, idlers and the hub covers for the inner road wheels also had some texture added with mister surfacer.

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Some poly caps are provided for the road wheels and sprockets but I didn't use them . I'm not really sure why trumpeter provided poly caps as it makes no difference to the build and I doubt anyone will be pushing their tiger around on the carpet :D

Next up is cleaning up the ammunition for the 88. Another fun task...

Cheers

Matt

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys,

Firstly, thanks very much for all your kind comments. I really do appreciate it :)

Apologies for not having posted any progress for a while, Christmas and new year pretty much took away all my building time. I have managed to get going again the last couple of days and have made a little more progress. Hopefully I will have an update in the next day or two.

Cheers

Matt

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Hi all,

Small progress update. Last time I posted an update I had just finished the wheels and had started to clean up the main gun ammunition. All I can say is that didn't last long, such a boring task. So, after my christmas break I got back to work on the engine bay.

First I increased the thickness of the side armor which would be visible behind the fuel tanks. I also took the time to clean up all the added side armor and the upper hull in general.

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Next I decided to rebuild the main cooling fans as my previous attempt wasn't quite right. Here is what the two fan boxes and fuel tanks look like when fitted.

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Next I finished off the detailing of the the left side fan box. I haven't bothered with the right side as I will be fitting the roof plate which will pretty much hide everything below it

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Finally, i started building the conduit for the rear convoy light.

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So, next up I will finish off the conduit. Then it will be the two centre tanks and then onto the engine.

Cheers

Matt

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I'm only on page two but this is absolutely fantastic work....very inspiring.

I'm dumb struck how you create such accurate looking details. I have the 1/35 Academy Tiger I with the interior and have struggled with how to create more accurate details than the kit provides from the many reference photos I've seen on-line. Once I see WIPs like this it all comes into focus and makes me "say" of course that's what goes there! For some reason looking at the reference photos don't seem to help (me) :banghead: . Hope that makes sense.

I need to find a Tiger I WIP like this one :-)

Anyway Great work, looking forward to catching up on your build. :popcorn:

John

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Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your comments.

John, I know exactly what you mean about reference photos. Sometimes even the most obvious things aren't obvious from a photo. Fortunately for me, there is an entire forum dedicated to this kit where just about every detail has been discussed in detail. So, thankfully, I don't have to do too much on the research side of things. As for your Academy Tiger, I think an hour or so on google will bring up some good results, it's still quite a popular kit despite it's flaws.

So, I finished that conduit (which I forgot to photograph) and moved on to the centre tanks. This is what Trumpeter provide you with.

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On the left is the fuel filler tank and on the right is the coolant header tank. Surprise surprise, they need some work.

First off, the fuel filler tank. Trumpeter did manage to get the shape pretty much spot-on. The fit of the parts isn't good though and requires plenty of filler. Trumpeter forgot to include the retaining straps so these had to be scratch built. Attached to the fuel tank is the snorkle tube which I made no changes to. Finally, I had to replace the handle on the filler cap. This actually quite annoyed me as Trumpeter didn't even attempt to mould a handle, instead chosing to mould a big lump of plastic. I would be a little hacked off to see this in 1/35 scale but in 1/16 scale, it just stinks of pure laziness. Anyway, here is the finished fuel tank.

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Now, onto the coolant header tank. Trumpeter got this completely wrong. The whole thing had to be rebuilt and reshaped to even remotely resemble anything that would of been found in a Tiger II. I think the picture says it all to be honest!

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Finally, a couple of of pictures of the parts fitted into the engine bay

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So, now that is out of the way I can move onto building the Maybach engine. I've had a good look over the engine parts and it looks very good. It's a kit within a kit so to say. Looking at the engine parts and comparing them to the tanks I just built, I have to wonder how Trumpeter can deliver great parts and utter rubbish, all in the same kit!

Cheers

Matt

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"Looking at the engine parts and comparing them to the tanks I just built, I have to wonder how Trumpeter can deliver great parts and utter rubbish, all in the same kit!"

That's so cliche :)

Your work is awesome :)

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Thanks for the comments guys :)

I've been working away on the engine which is almost finished. I've made a few modifications, such as replacing cabling with my own scratch built items. Here is what the engine currently looks like.

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The two 'arms' coming off the engine are the main coolant hoses. I had to scratch build the hose clamps as the kit detail was pretty poor. Here is a comparison

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The engine could quite easily be super detailed but I've decided against it. Once the engine is fitted and the air filters on there isnt much to see. The entire area around the carbs will be hidden, along with any detail below the exhaust manifolds. Before fitting the engine I had to re-work the top of the firewalls.

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One area that did needed quite a lot of attention was the connections between the fan boxes and the engine. As I have completely changed the fan boxes all the connection points have moved. To do this I modified the fan boxes again, adding new connection points.

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The two coiled parts connect to the engine at the rails for the air filters. The two linkages are the drive shafts that connect the engine to the fans, giving them their power. I had to lengthen the shafts as the kit parts no longer reached the fan boxes. Heres how it looks with the engine in place

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The engine is pretty much complete. All thats missing are the air filters and some ducts/hoses. Once thats done I can complete all the engine bay plumbing and call this part of the build complete :)

Cheers

Matt

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Every time I look at this thread the detail just gets better. Really looking forward to the painting. I'm intrigued as to how you are going to access a lot of the model with it all being in situ. Learning so much from this - Thank you :)

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Thank you all for your comments :)

Every time I look at this thread the detail just gets better. Really looking forward to the painting. I'm intrigued as to how you are going to access a lot of the model with it all being in situ. Learning so much from this - Thank you :)

I'm also learning quite a lot as build goes on too. I think one of the main things I've learned from this build is that scratch building is far less intimidating than it appears. This is the first project that I've done that needs extensive detailing and I have surprised myself with some of the stuff I've managed to put together. Of course there is also all the things I've learned about the real tank which I find just as interesting as building the model.

I'm glad you have found this build log helpful. Having read so many build logs on here and other forums it's nice to give something back.

Super job Matt - I presume you've made the whole lot in assemblies to facilitate painting? :thumbsup:

Thanks Mike, it's all in subassemblies as you though. The engine and cooling system can be completely removed leaving almost no parts in the rear compartments. Needless to say that engine has been in and out of the hull more time than I care to remember already. The term dry fitting couldn't be more apt for this kit!

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