Bernie Mac

I agree with the engine (can't comment on the fuel tanks as I haven't got that far yet. I have heard a few people mention the fit issues so plan on holding off securing the fuel tanks and spare shells until I am happy with the fit of the upper. Thanks for the heads up, could have easily made that mistake. Its definitely interesting try to figure out the order in which to build the kit, I know aircraft like the back of my hand but this is a different beast altogether. -Ian

Thanks for the kind words folks! I have been away on holidays and busy building I haven't had the chance to update the thread...until now! The amount of building and sub assemblies this thing has is incredible, and the details is amazing. So quite a few things have been made and the first was the turret interior: I have also built up the main gun. I decided to keep them separated to try and save myself a headache later on. The rounds you see coaxial gun are from a 1/35 german weapons kit. I will be dropping a few crew weapons and other bits around the interior, again to make it look like it is a working vehicle. I also added the guards/skirting onto the upper hull. I had to hack the single piece provided by Takom and then also thinned out any of the exposed edges so they didnt look out of scale. Some of these were also bend and battered a little bit. One thing I like the look of is the melted armour from a direct hit and then the chipped zimmerit. Takom built this kit with scale thickness armour but it is hollow so I needed to fill it with some plasticard so it would melt I am pretty happy with the outcome: And finally for another taste of what is to come I cut out some of the moulded shells out of the racks (the dremel was a life saver here). And as you can see in the background I have a few empty shells to use. One thing to note for anyone planning on this in the future, if you build the production turret version like me you still get the rounds for the porsche turret, which have no racks attached. It is just two sets of 4 moulded together with a spacer. These can be easily separated, the round chopped off and then drilled out. Might help save someone a few bob down the road. That is all from me at this stage. There has been some progress since these photos were taken. I expect my next update will include some more built up parts with a little bit more colour added Thanks for looking and please don't be shy if anyone has any questions or queries - Ian

Hi Folks, So this is my first AFV build, I have previously being building things that only have wings so decided to give something different a go and try and learn a few new techniques along the way. I first spotted this kit when it came out and I was immediately drawn to it so I am glad I finally got my hands on it. It is the Takom 1/35 King Tiger full interior kit featuring Abt. 505. I will be doing my interpretation of how the tank would have looked at the time. Considering I haven't been able track down too many references of this particular KT I am taking a little bit of an artistic licence with the weathering and battle damage. I plan on building the tank as if it was engaging a target from a static position at a distance as I have learned these machines weren't built for close engagements. With this in mind it will mean leaving it buttoned up, but I am going to leave a large portion of the doors and panels unglued so they can be removed and you can have a look at the interior. Unfortunately I never took any pictures when I was building up the interior so I only have them after it has been built and painted but will try and keep up with pictures as I progress. I think I was a little heavy handed on the chipping, but should be able to clear all that up when I start weathering. The engine all painted up. I later gave this a run over of panel line wash and will rust up the exhaust pipes a little later. Also need to add some chipping. And the weathering begins...and finishes: I then started to put everything into place. Thankfully even with the paint everything managed to slip together nice and snug. I have added a lot of grime, oil and even a few leaves to portray the winter environment and the crew dragging the dirt inside the tank. Nothing special was used, litte european earth pigments, streaking grime for interiors, black night panel wash and also some black ink was flicked from the brush to replicate oil stains and spills. If anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to share and chat! Cheer

Hi all, I have been doing a lot of research on how the crews operated their King Tigers but there is one piece of information I can't seem to track down and was wondering if anyone might be able to help me out? I am currently building Takom's 1/35 KT (Henschel turret) and want to display the model as if it was in the heat of battle i.e, battle scares, spent rounds laying about, interior a bit of a mess etc. Once of things I have been trying to find out is what the crew did with the spent shell cases after firing each round. I have read on some articles that some AFV's had a canvas sack to collect the shells (think this was on the Panzer V or IV) but not the KT's. I have found some diagrams that indicate that the small hatch on the rear of the turret was for ejecting spent shells. I am curious to know if this was actually the case. If it is, it will greatly change on I weather the top of the turret to indicate the paint chipping from the casings landing on the top of the turrent and even the top of the engine covers, as well as placing a shell or two on the back. However another article has indicated that is was usually the practice of the crew to saves the casings and place them back onto the racks and brought back to the stores to be refilled. This was usually done after the engagement, which meant that the shells would just be disgarded and left to roll around the interior until they were in the clear. This in my opinion seems like the most obvious scenario but I would have thought that if one of the shells fell into an awkward position it could block the turrent from rotating which is not what you need when you have a flanking enemy. The third option, although I am not sure how viable it is unless they were firing at range would be chucking the casings out the back escape hatch. Although it looks like the hatch isn't the most accessible when fully loaded and does leave a massive gap into compartment which I can't imagine they were keen to leave open. Depending on what their processes were will dictate quiet a lot about the model and the finer details so I am keen to find out how they did it. But anyway enough of my rambling, anybody with any information or thoughts on the matter I would love to hear as I am of two minds with this one and would like to see what others may have found that I missed. - Ian

Thanks very much for advise folks! I do have one other questions that I am struggling to find with my current reference source. Do we know what the crew would do with empty shell casing after they were spent? As in where would they be stored? I am hoping to present the model as if it was in a static position while carrying out a long range bombardment of sorts and wondered if the crew would chuck the empty casing out the back of the turret when well out of range of the enemy, or where they just left rolling around inside? I have seen a model or two which shows the casing in the rails behind the chamber but would have imagined this would get in the way once of reloading after some time. If they crew do fire them out the back I would like to place a couple resting on the top of the engine compartment to represent this action. Any help or would are much appreciated. - Ian

Hi all, So I have been looking for the next project and I am leaning towards going for something that rolls on the ground rather than something that flys above it...I think refer to it as the "dark side" but that all depends what side of the fence you are standing! My background, last few projects and most of the skills I have learned have been in the aircraft world from modern to WW2 era aircraft. My thinking is that I will hpefully expand my skill set and learn some new techniques. With all of this in mind I was wondering if anybody could point me in the direction of any good online resources for: Tutorials on weathering and any other paint techniques that are a bit more AFV secific (chipping, mud, etc) Refernce materials To give you a taste of what I am looking at, I have my eyes set squarely on the Takom King Tiger in 1:35. It looks like a beautiful kit! I have a bit of a history buff and always loved the Tiger and King Tiger. This kit has really stood out to me since it first came out and I think its time I got my hands on it. Hence why I would like to get some decent references of King Tigers for weathering and general wear and tear as well as how the tigers were kitted and loaded out. I know there is tonnes of resources online, but you do have to silt through a lot to get to the good stuff so was hoping some of you might be will to share your finds! If anyone is interested in going the opposite direction to be me let me know and I will happily share my knowledge base!

Ok so I have used a different host site for the auld photos, may have been a permission issue the first time. Let me know if people still can't view them. I will see if I can get some better natural light photos some time this week as I think the colours may be distorted due to the artificial light.

Ah well that's no use! Right will try a different upload site later this evening! Sorry to disappoint folks!

Hi all, So I have been "working" on this one for a while. I picked it up as a quick OOB build to get some practise at a prop aircraft and to see what all the fuss is about with these tamiya kits. Must say the hype is definitely real! Anyway I say "working" as it got benched a couple time as I recent bought a van and have been converting it into a camper so that has taken all my focus. OK now onto the mozzy, I tried a few new techniques here and wanted to experiment. Some things were successful, some were less so, but what is certain is that my photography skills and combination of my phones camera don't do any of it justice. Enough waffling, on with the photos! The office: So one of the experiments was the pre-shading...on a plane made of wood! I wanted to liven up the surface a little so it didn't look like a tube with wings. I gave it a two toned pre-shade and then painted it with a very thin and transparent colour. It kind of gives a tiger strip look and an uneven shade. I only applied this to the top surfaces, as if it was a sun bleaching of sorts. The final product unfortunately had a good bit of silvering with the decals despite a large amount of micro sol! Anyway you win some, you lose some!

Thanks Robert, I had heard whispers about the Hasegawa kits alright but could never seem to find one, although hadn't really looked outside the UK either. Looks like I need to spread my searchs a little wider. Thanks Bruce I will have a read through that see what the consensus is!

Hi Folks, I have been keeping my head down for the last while and just pottering about with a couple of projects both modelling related and life in general! But the time has finally come to start looking at getting back on the horse. I have got my eyes set on 1/32 build and the F-16 has really taken my eye. The question I have, as I have been looking at it for some time now, is which would people recommend when it come to the 1/32? For me its down to Tamiya or Academy. I have only ever built one tamiya kit, a 1/48 mozzie, and it was a dream in comparison to the few hobby boss kits I am used to. I have never had an Academy and I have heard on several occasions that fit can be a major issue with their kits and the F-16 is no different. I love the idea of all the variant choices in the Academy and the full belt feed rum being visible. I would most likely add more details to these areas as well. However the engine is very tempting with the tamiya. But obviously you are very much set on building the variant included in the box, which isn't the worst thing. I was thinking of doing a well weathered Hellenic F-16 or maybe an aggressor instead of the RLM grey. Anyway just interested to see what peoples opinions would be and if anyone has had their hands on both and can say what is what. Thanks for looking! Ian

Thanks for all the comments guys its much appreciated! Cheers Dave, always nice to hear that somebody who was up close and personal to these machines thinks you have pulled off the look...because there was definitely points (mainly during painting) I wasn't too sure if it was going to work.

Thanks very much folks! I am building a 1/48 Mk. IX but fancied spraying the roudels and as much of the other details I can onto the model so I have help weather them a little bit better than just the usual decal...I always make a balls of the decals. I have gotten my hands on a compass cutter and some tamiya A4 masking sheet so will be using those to mask. Cookenbacher that looks about the right shade I am looking for, was that blue and red sprayed straight onto the camo base colour or did you give it a blast of white for the roundels on the fuselage and the vertical stabiliser?

Hi all, I was wondering if anybody could suggest which colours would be best to use when painting RAF roundels on a Spit Mk.IX? I mainly use Vallejo paints so if you could recommend one of their I would appreciate it. Its pretty hard to make a judgement call when looking at the colours online. Ian

Oh wow that's a great image! I have never seen a 5th gen in such a state...you may have started to put something in motion....just need to find a decent 1/48 Raptor for the stash now...