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Trumpeter King Tiger


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Hi Matt,

Extreme apologies for not posting any of my KT updates. I have been working on it yesterday and agin I'll be working on it over the weekend.

I will post later today some progress shots.

Yours is looking truly amazing, I can see the mods you have made on the ammo racks to prevent the turret from snagging.

Phil.

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Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your kind comments :)

A small update for you. I've managed to get the first batch of mg ammo bags painted and fitted to the rail on the bulkhead.

DSCF3082.jpg

Next I decided to get a job done that I had been putting off for a long time, cleaning up all the ammo. This is easily the most frustrating job I have had to do on this kit. Trumpeter clearly had a problem with the molds as all the rounds are slightly distorted. The result was quite a few evenings cleaning up the ammunition. Here they are with the PE bases supplied with the kit.

DSCF3084.jpg

Unfortunately, excessive clean up is only the beginning of the issues with the ammunition. The real tank carried 70 rounds for the main gun, 22 in the turret and 48 in the hull. Typically the ammo would be split 50/50 between AP and HE with maybe a few specialty rounds. Trumpeter gives you 48 AP, 16 HE and 8 HC, making it impossible to display a typical load out. I have only bothered to clean up 60 rounds as I only need 42 for the hull and have decided to have a few rounds missing from the turret.

There are also issues with the shell bases. Trumpeter only provide 66 so there is not enough for all the shells. Another problem is that you only get 22 bases that are correctly stamped for AP rounds, just slightly short of the 48 needed! Thankfully, only 19 of the shell bases will be seen on my build so I can get around the problem but this could be an issue for others.

Cheers

Matt

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another small update. I finished up adding the final details to the ammo racks and the backing plates.

DSCF3091.jpg

Next I painted them up with the basic colours. I used buff is a basis for the wooden parts.

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Finally I used oils to tone down the ivory and give the wooden parts a basic wood grain effect. I also dry brushed some deck tan onto the wooden parts. To be honest, it hasn't turned out exactly as planned but as most of this work will be hidden by the ammo anyway, I'm not too bothered.

DSCF3103.jpg

5 more racks to go!

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Cheers chaps

nice rack

;)

Well, I've been busy with more painting. The ammo racks are now complete.

DSCF3146.jpg

Then my work desk turned into an ammo factory. 60 odd rounds painted up in their basic colours. I decided to take some artistic license here and paint all the shell cases to represent brass. It would of been unlikely to see a Tiger II fully loaded with brass shells (or any German tank for that matter) by this point in the war due to material shortages. Most tank shells by this point in the war were made of steel with either a pakerised blue/grey or green/beige finish. I just thought brass shells would be more interesting to look at!

DSCF3149.jpg

So here are the different types of ammo. The four on the left are HE rounds, the black round is an AP round and the round on the right is a hollow charge round. I ditched the kit decals and replaced them with Peddinghaus decals. The kit decals do not provide anywhere near enough for all the rounds and the Peddinghaus decals just look better. Sadly, neither Trumpeter or Peddinghaus provide the correct stenciling for the AP rounds. Both provide black stenciling, which on a black round is rather useless! The writing should be in red so I will have to figure something out.

DSCF3154.jpg

Finally, a test shot of the HE ammo in the center ammo rack.

DSCF3157.jpg

Still plenty of work left to do on the ammo before they can be fitted into the racks.

Cheers

Matt

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Cheers guys :)

Brilliant Matt. Excellent detail. Be sorry to see this build finished,

I think that might still be a long way off. Still have the upper hull, turret and all the exterior to go yet!

Love the 88 shells, great work. What paint did you use for the brass effect?

Phil

I used vallejo 70.801 brass straight from the bottle for the shell cases.

Well I'm still working on the the ammo. I had to get some decal softener as some of them weren't settling down properly. The HE rounds are nearly ready so hopefully these will be fitted into the racks soon. I'm also in discussions with Peddinghaus about a custom decal sheet for the AP rounds. Fingers crossed it works out.

Cheers

Matt

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You're patience and attention to detail just leave me slack-jawed in wonder.

I'll continue to set back here and just watch you do your thing.

This is impressive.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cheers chaps,

I haven't got much done lately. Peddinghaus have agreed to make my custom decal sheet but as they are rather busy right now, I'm going to have to wait. In the meantime I finished off the basic painting for all the hull ammunition and applied all the decals that I have. I decided to fit all the ammo to get an idea of what it will look like once finished. I quite happy with the results so far :)

DSCF3166.jpg

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And with the hull top on.

DSCF3162.jpg

Once the decals for the AP rounds have arrived I will give all the ammo a dark wash to tone it all down. Testing the fit for all the ammo also reveals that there really is no point fitting the base plates to the ammo in the two racks by the firewall as they will never be seen. The same will be true for the turret as I will be sealing the rear hatch, so over all I will only need to fit 20 of the shell bases.

Hopefully in my next update the ammo racks will finally be finished!

Cheers

Matt

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Thanks chaps for all the very positive comments :)

I think I'm on the final straight now, as far as the lower hull is concerned. The custom decals I ordered from Peddinghaus turned up today so I've just spent the last few hours cutting them all out and applying them to the AP rounds. All the hull ammo is now ready for washes and weathering. Just a quick pic of the three types of ammo, with all the stenciling applied.

DSCF3172.jpg

Cheers

Matt

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