Matt182

The Tiger II went through numerous changes during production, some of which were quite noticeable. Do you want to model a vehicle from a specific time frame or battle, or do you just want to build a generic vehicle? My opinions on the kits available in 1/35 which I either own or have built. Tamiya: Overly simplified and lacking detail. Rubbish band tracks, no PE or metal parts. Good instructions. Fine kit for a generic Tiger II but will be the most expensive to upgrade as you will need tracks, gun barrel and PE. Very easy to build Academy: Good detail, Link and length track, workable suspension, includes the entire main gun and PE mesh screens for the engine deck. The most complex to build of the lot due to multi-part lower hull and over engineered wheels. Some very minor sink marks. Marking options are very limited as this is a final production KT from March 1945. Eduard: It's a re-box of the academy kit with different markings and very little else. Academy kit is cheaper so don't bother with the Eduard kit. Dragon: Best of the bunch but there are many variants to chose from. Most have individual track links, PE and metal barrel. Some have zimmerit molded on. They are the most expensive to buy but will require the least amount of aftermarket. Instructions are poor. Somewhere between Tamiya and academy difficulty wise. Be wary of recent re-boxes that have removed the individual track links and many of the metal parts. Zvezda: A re-box of the early Dragon kits. No metal parts or PE. Sink marks on many parts. Individual links will need to be cut from the sprue so lots of clean up. Instructions a big improvement over Dragon's. Cheapest of the lot. Which kit you buy really depends on what you are trying to build. I would recommend a Dragon kit as they cover most variants or the Academy kit if you fancy building a final production Tiger II

Cracking work Julian, coming along very nicely. Bet your wallet is hurting after buying those resins upgrades! It's quite easy to spend the cost of the kit again on them!

Mine is is roughly 65cm from tip of the muzzle to the tip of the exhaust, with the turret facing forward. The 50.5cm length quoted by Trumpeter is wrong. Not sure where they got that from but the kit is certainly 1/16

Hi Brian, No real progress to report at the moment. I'm stalled as I have nowhere I can use the airbrush at the moment. Not sure when I'm going to get the space back but it's probably a good thing to have a break. I'm hoping it won't be too long until I get going again. Cheers Matt

Or a good slap with a wet fish! Honestly, I'm quite apprehensive about painting the exterior. It's going to be a huge job and I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle it. I have decided on the camo scheme but that's about it, still not sure on what paints I will use, level of weathering etc. Same with the base. All I know at this stage is that the base needs to be 70X25cm for the tank to fit inside a display case with the turret facing forward. If I want the turret turned to the side, it will have to be more like 65X50cm. Finding a space in the house for a display case that large is also another issue I haven't resolved yet! I found them on Ebay. They come up from time to time at very good prices. Cheers Matt

Thanks chaps No problem Martin, happy to answer any questions. The main pe set is Voyager PE16003, with a couple of scrap parts from an old Aber set. The flat grills are from Voyager PE16004 and the raised grill is the kit plastic & PE parts. The Voyager PE isn't quite as detailed as Aber's but is much cheaper and easier to work with. I was going to replace everything with pe but some the kit parts are quite good, so I didn't bother with the extra work. As you say, the side skirts can be latched on/off at any time. It was a bit of a pain setting them up to be workable, getting them to sit right etc but I think it was worth it. Should come in handy come painting time Hopefully won't be too long until I get to the paint job. The turret internals shouldn't take too long as most of it has already been built. Just some welds on the exterior and some minor fit issues to solve first then it's back to the airbrush Cheers Matt

Hi guys, I've now got most of the hull finished. Most of the details are in place and the tracks are finally on. Finally, with the turret on and a 1/35 Tiger for scale. On to the turret next I think Cheers MAtt

Hi Martin, These are the bolts I used. http://www.scalehardware.com/product_tech_info/simulated-micro-hardware-c-47/1-5-mm-simulated-hex-bolt-brass-qty-20-p-361 If you are using the Aber fenders, Dimension D (0.9mm) is slightly too big for the holes. I had to file the slots in the fenders and the holes in the mounting blocks for them to fit. It's only 0.1mm difference so it's not much extra work. You also need 42 bolts if you are going to fit all the fenders but they come in packs of 20. I left a few off as I'm not fitting all the fenders so If you need the extra two bolts, let me know. Pretty sure I still have them in the spares box. Cheers Matt

Cracking job, really looks the part. The weathering is spot on, particularly the wear on the tracks.

Hi Brian, I think you may be thinking of Phil (Silverstone 2). Sadly, my job is much more mundane than that! I would like to take on the Panzer IV but I don't think I have the space for it. I have the Hobbyboss 1/16 Tiger lined up as my next big project but I'm not sure where I'm going to put that one yet. With regards to the fan blades, they are just a simple butt joint. I cut the edges with a circle cutter to create the curve to fit around the center disc. Then I smothered the joint in glue which slightly melts the plastic card. It allows you to make some adjustment to the joint which is how I added the slight curve to the blades. It's pretty straight forward to do, cutting all the blades to the right size and shape is the hard part. I went through quite a lot of plastic card trying to get them right. Cheers Matt

looking really good so far.

Thanks very much chaps To be honest, it's a big relief to finally reach this point. I never thought I would still be working on this 2 1/2 years later, let alone still have so much left to do. The upper hull is now firmly in place, just tidying it up before I begin adding all the welds and details. Thankfully the exterior is quite bland in comparison to the interior so it shouldn't take too long (by my standards!). Thanks to all those that have and still are following this build. It's got to be one of the slowest in forum history! Cheers Matt

Thanks guys The hull is now together and the glue setting. I'm going to have to let if set overnight before removing the clamps so no photos yet. However, I have taken some higher quality photos of the completed hull parts. Below are some forum friendly photos but for those that are interested, the full resolution photos can be found here: http://s1158.photobucket.com/user/MattTullier/library/King%20Tiger%20Hi%20Res%20photos

Thanks for the comments guys Turtle, good luck with your Panzer IV build, hope to see some progress soon. Well, it's taken me longer than I expected to get the upper hull painted but it's pretty much done. The paint job didn't turn out quite as well as planned, had some airbrush issues but not too much of it will be seen anyway. Quite happy with how the MG34 has turned out. The resin ammo belt from AFV modeller is very nice. So, just some touching up and fine tuning to be done now before the hull pieces are finally glued together. I've updated my photography setup so the the next update should be some good quality photos of the completed hull Cheers Matt

Hi guys, A small update. I've added a few more parts but the bulk of the work has been on cleaning up the upper hull, getting it ready for painting. On the front I've added the base of the headlight and the hinges for the front mudguards On the rear plate, I added the hinges for the rear mud guards and the mount for the convoy light I then added the retaining bolts for the sideskirts. Aber provide brass rod and PE bolts with the sideskirts but they would need to be soldered together to use them. I decided to replace them with some very nice solid brass bolts from scale hardware. Finally, I built the mg ammo rail which sits under the turret ring. I've also made an extra bracket which holds the second demolition charge but it cannot be fitted until the upper hull is in place. So it's all ready for a lick of paint, hopefully this weekend Cheers Matt

Hi Phil, Considering the suspension isn't glued, it's holding up well. Strange as when I built this kit oob a few years ago I found that the suspension was far too weak and just sat on the bump-stops. I'm not sure I would trust the plastic to last long term though and would still suggest you glue it in place, just to be safe. It is sitting a little lower than it should and the tracks are maybe a little too slack but to be honest, only nitpickers (like me! ) are going to notice. Honestly, I quite like the way it looks, gives a good impression of the weight of the beast. Your build is really coming along well. The zimmerit looks very smart. Keep up the good work!

Looks to me like Dragon are packaging the wrong lower hull with some of these kits. I built this kit when it was first released as the Otto Carius kit and encountered no problems at all. Compare the front of the hull on my build to yours, no sign of the extra piece of flat plastic. I would contact dragon care as it would appear the lower hull in your kit was not designed for the added zimmerit part. You've done a good job correcting it though !

Ah good. There are two tabs in the hole for the idler arm which you will want to remove. That will allow you to adjust the track tension manually to get it just right. If you just glue it as per the instructions, you will be left with tracks that are overly loose or far too tight. Tracks on the Tiger II were quite slack. For the most part, the upper run should rest on top of all the wheels except the first. This picture shows the correct tension from the drive sprocket. For when you glue the suspension in place, the ground clearance between the belly plates and the ground (with tracks on) is 31mm at the front and 32mm at the back. It doesn't have to be perfect, a few mill either way won't really be noticable. Cheers Matt

Phil, have you slept lately or just been working on this flat out?! It's all coming along very nicely indeed. The turret in particular is very nicely done. A note about the suspension. I would highly recommend that you glue it all in place. I'm not sure if Trumpeter intended it to be workable or not but it is far too weak to take the full weight of the kit. You will have probably noticed by now that it looks like the suspension has collapsed once it's all loaded up. Also, have you glued the idler wheel arms yet? Cheers Matt

Cracking work Phil, your getting through the build quite quickly I would say considering just how much there is to do. I particularly like your work on the wooden parts of the ammo racks, looks very convincing. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the exterior. Still going for a Normandy vehicle? No progress on mine at the moment. Waiting for some parts to arrive so I thought I would take a break. Your going to be finished before me at this rate!

Hi guys, I've continued work on the upper hull interior. The turret ring retaining bolts have been added. Next I fitted the conduit which feeds the aerial cables to the rear of the tank. I had to cut it short as it won't fit behind the rear right ammo rack. Then on to the rotating periscope for the driver. The main part of this is from AFV modeller but some of it had been broken while in storage, so I built some replacement parts. Finally, I built up the hull mg. As with the coax mg, I replaced the barrel with an Aber item and also removed the stock. Unfortunately, Trumpeter did not provide any of the parts for the ammo feed rail so this had to be built from scratch. The open mg ammo sacks are also AFV modeller items. Finally, an overall view of the front upper hull. Just a few more parts to build now, then I can get this all painted. Cheers Matt

Thanks chaps Phil, it certainly helps with the bowing. The rear now sits almost perfectly in place and it has helped straighten out the sides for a much better fit overall. I didn't entirely think it through though. Now the upper hull has to be slid into place, which is fine with the standard kit parts. However, the extra side armour I have fitted is making for a very tight fit. I now have to apply quite a lot of force to get it properly in place. It's not a big deal, just something I don't want to be doing too often. I'm looking forward to seeing your next update. Cheers Matt

Hi guys, I've moved on to working on the upper hull. Originally I didn't plan to do much work on the exterior but having taken a closer look at some references, I couldn't leave it as is. The main issue is with the welding detail. It is all far too neat and some of the welds look nothing like the real thing. Here is what Trumpeter provides. There should be a lot more 'structure' to the interlocking welds and the weld for the mg ball mount should be nearly flush with the front plate, not raised as provided. So, all the interlocking welds were carved out, widened and replaced with milliput. The weld for the ball mount was smoothed off and a recess cut into the front plate for the new weld. I also added texturing to all of the armoured plate to simulate rolled steel. The ball mount also needed some attention. I slightly re profiled the base and added casting texture. The hole for the mg sight has also been reduced as the original hole is too large. The periscope cover has also been fitted. Another problem I encountered was with the side skirt mounting blocks. I will be using Aber's PE skirts but unfortunately the mounting holes do not line up with the blocks and they lack depth. All of the blocks were removed and replaced Aber parts with new welds. The rear plate also had some welds reworked / added. Note that the holes for the towing shackles are hollow and need to be filled in. I fitted some plastic card in between the upper hull and the rear plate and re-drilled the holes once the glue had set. Finally, I filled in the turret ring, ready for the retaining bolts to be added. Cheers Matt

Thanks guys

Hi guys, Finally have an update. Painting up the ammo has been a very time consuming task. I decided to finish all the rounds I need for both the hull and turret now to avoid another slow down later on. The rounds for the hull were then glued into the racks. The racks were then glued into the hull. I then built the headphone/throat mics for the driver and radio operator. I used Aber PE combined with scratch built ear pads and cables. And finally, a couple of clearer photos of the engine bay. So, I'm calling the lower hull finished for now and will be moving on to the upper hull. I will probably revisit the weathering before the upper hull is glued on, likely to add some final details and tidy everything up. Cheers Matt