M3talpig

Yes i thought so .....think the pre production King Tiger was a soft steel not armoured if memory serves...104 is the right colours just not sure they followed the same pattern as when she was shipped back to England...an impressive beast when you stand next to her though....very intimidating you can see why they struck fear into your average Sherman driver.

Well seriously what's not to like here ...it has an interesting colour scheme all the stowage is tied down and not all the same colour a very nice layer of dust and dirt and to top it of nicely presented....love it You have and then some

This was also interesting

This video with David does show how hard even in fresh paint it is to differentiate between the two colours now imagine the paint is 40 plus years old and fairly mistreated and after the trials the British put it through...as i said i do have an open mind on this but i can also see how black and white only footage would make it very hard to tell for sure especially on battered paint and under poor lighting...this is under studio quality lighting and still very hard to tell.

Well i must say (and i hate to admit this lol) i too saw her before her restoration and again when just the turret was being displayed ...and will freely admit in my memory i do not remember her to be anything other than dunkelgelb.... you could be right and i'm open to that ..... even the best museums make mistakes and just because it was on an ordnance spec sheet for the year of delivery for instance doesn't necessarily make it so...a good example is the headlights being moved to the glacis front by the field workshops of the 501st....and not to mention other mods that were carried out in similar vein by workshops on the Russian front. You may well be right and there working of paperwork that stated this was to be.... but maybe not implemented...i do know there were Tiger that were slated to be sent to North Africa that ended up on the Russian front that were delivered in the tropen scheme....sure there are pics of some of those vehicles. Honestly if i had to base what i know on my memory versus what David Willey and his team came up with i have to say i would go with David for now...but as i said if the evidence is clear that 131 was indeed Dunkelgelb then i'm all for that too. As for 142 several people have said she too was a tropen scheme Tiger and have to again say that i disagree with that, she at least to me was a green of some description and having read a lot of the arguments for that didn't see anything in there so called proof that would sway me from that conclusion...so your argument on 131 could well stand up also....been trying to find the pics i took of her when i saw her all those years ago ..without much success. Perhaps we could ask the community for there assistance and see if anybody has colour pics of 131 pre restoration. And thank you for bringing this up ...these conversations are important...never a bad thing to question an accepted point of view it's how we unlock the truth...if you do find anything more on this subject let me know. Steve

This pic was taken at Aberdeen USA of 712 (the earliest known Tiger one still in existence) and this is period colour image not a b&w recolour.....this is also before she was cut up for the school and pre any kind of restoration work..it not only shows the turret numbers are not red with white outlines (for years it was thought that they were red) but it shows the tropen scheme quite well albeit very faded.

Yes have seen the speculation about the first few 501 Tigers to arrive in country being whatever was available( from captured U.S. olive drab to various shades of British and Canadian greens)..especially 142 although the pea green is new to me ...if you have a source for that it would be appreciated. As for 131 the black and white pics are of very limited use as the contrast for the tropic scheme is almost completely lost especially on period film stock...David willey the curator at Bovington did a lot of personal digging on this and have to say unless you actually have hard proof of your thoughts on this i would go with his rather exhaustive list of evidence....including the actual paint chips from the original paint from 131...nevertheless an endlessly interesting subject and one i have no problems discussing for hours.

Think ole Mark Felton done messed up ...and really upset a few people....don't make zee Chermans angry ...you wont like them when they are angry https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx_jc7512xf7uYXReMrVY3huvOm_yrkOzK

That primer straight from the can almost looks the right shade already ..well at least in the pics ...had to re-read the post to make sure it wasn't the final colour

This thing would have creamed Tigers and king Tigers...... and i'm talking the stock British version....these were designed to go head to head with soviet IS3-4's a far more potent weapon. For once a fighting vehicle from the Brits that inspired fear from all that potentially faced them.

Finally got some colour on ...well have to say bout bloomin time...you kept us waitin for that didn't ya. Spose it'll do.... Now crack on there's a good chap...

That would make for a great diorama...either that chassis has been partially stripped or it had a fairly beefy internal explosion ...the commander's cupola is missing and it looks a bit bare bones doesn't it

Revel used to be fairly good but their quality has gone downhill rapidly over the last 10 or so years...even uncle nightshift had basically nothing nice to say about one of their kits ..if memory serves he actually titled the video "the worst kit i have ever built" and i did find a video of somebody else trying to build the same kit as you and were having a devil of a job with the tracks .....so far considering some of the problems you have had and the level of patience you have displayed i think its rather admirable that you didn't throw it in the bin ............i can tell you right now i would have done.......anyway hopefully the bits i sent will help you and as i said as soon as i can i will show you how i do zim and you can run with that or modify to suit your on particular needs.

@echen tools on there way and two types of putty so you can play a little...... the pots of putty are what i would use for the zimmerit should be enough to do two maybe three vehicles ...will try to get some photos up showing a step by step ..might take a couple of days...bare with me... the other is for weld beads and other such details....done a weld bead tool and pair of different size putty spreaders, one really small one a little bigger for larger areas, a needle tool which is great for precise application of cyano...and the spade tool which should be perfect for the zimmerit pattern itself. All the tools have bamboo handles and the spreader are bamboo throughout....helps to absorb the water and keep them damp whilst working the putty on the surface of the plastic...ill get into that more though when i put up a walkthrough. Hope they help mate and best of luck.

echen ...your tools are done will post out in the morning along with some putty ......very inconsiderate of the RAF to park that Tiger in such a way....you think they might have taken more care wouldn't you

Thanks mate ...everything is fine made up some of the tools last night do the rest in the morning and will sort some of the putty out .....no excuses want to see some zimmerit on that tiger

Many thanks Rob ...yeah do give them a watch he is very good at this plastic stuff ya know

Absolutely stunning.........but you already know that

Now that looks awesome

Thanks bud ...

Before and after of the zimmerit

I know that Uncle Nightshift has done some videos on zimmerit application on at least two of his builds ....and for echen i'm going to get my daughter to film me doing a test piece so i can explain better how i do zimmerit ...but that might be a few days because my wife is currently in hospital and so i have other things on my mind at the moment.... but it really isn't as daunting as you think. As with all things like this it looks like a slog until you do your first one ..then you wonder what all the fuss was about. The most important thing is making sure you are using the right tools for the job and that you have everything you need at hand before you start. Link to the nightshift channel below ...you're looking for his Fehrmann Tiger build and his recent Normandy Jagdpanther build. I don't use exactly the same technique as nightshift or even the same tools or putty but the result is pretty much the same.

That's lookin great ....weathering next then....

Don't get disheartened mate ...number one it's your first attempt and two it's on a scale that is already very fiddly.... and as such will be very difficult to get a scale thickness not too mention the the correct size tool to sculpt the surface...you really need a putty rather than a paste...putty gives you time to work...zimmerit is difficult even on 35th scale so can only imagine how much of a pain it is on a vehicle model at less than half that size.......at this stage as hard as it is to admit i would say remove it now rather than trying to clean up an application that clearly is not working and invest in a tub of magic sculp https://sylcreate.com/product/magic-sculp/ and make some custom tools for application from soft wood (chopsticks worked for me) and some tools for the actual pattern....general rule is if you measure from the drivers vision port to the right edge of the armour then divide by five this will give you the correct size tool you need to make (pic below) Below is some of the tools i made for the tools i use most often for retexturing and zimmerit 1-fine application tools 2-weld bead tools 3-putty applicator 4- zimmerit blades for the texture Send me a message with your address and the measurement i told you to take above and i will make you a full set of these tools and send them too you will make the process so much easier and give you a chance to be able to practice before applying to a model. When you get the tools message me back and i will walk you through how to apply the putty and to do it cleanly and without too much fuss. Will also send some putty ...got tones of the stuff so won't miss a lump here or there...then you will have everything you need