Early King Tiger with Porsche Turret

[Retired Bob]

A quick update on my early KT, I thought I was ready to put the Fruil tracks on, they were painted, so was the running gear so I went for it.  When I use the kit "magic tracks"  I use 46 pairs of links per side, so I did the same with the Fruils, when I fitted them they were as slack as Nora Battys stockings so out came the snips and pair of links were removed, much better, so I did the same to the other set and put them onto the wheels.  I then attached the upper hull and found the track guards a very tight fit over the tracks and the rear hull plate was bent back, not sure if it was the weight of the Fruils or my clumsy fitting but the rear hull plate was bent where I had thinned it removing the zimmerit.  I did take a picture before I removed the tracks and after finding a photo of the right side of this tank on the tinternet  I have adjusted the camouflage on this side of the model.

 

Here is the photo showing the right side a bit better.

 

And the model with the camouflage adjusted and some Plastruct girder sections clamped on the back plate to straighten it up.

Any comments welcome, thanks for looking.

[Jasper dog]

Hi Bob, the early one is coming along nicely too. I like how you've created the base for it in pic 2, and done a b&w photo, do you have a wip for that as well?

 

What are the plans, re' weathering etc?

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

They're both looking good Bob. I like the Nora Batty analogy.

 

John.

[Roger Newsome]

I thought I was having fun and games!

My filling and sanding woes are nothing compared to messing about with those tracks. It's looking good though. 

Roger. 

PS, have you heard about the mad woman vandalising cars over this side of the swamp?

[Retired Bob]

43 minutes ago, Roger Newsome said:

My filling and sanding woes are nothing compared to messing about with those tracks. It's looking good though. 

I've said before that's the main problem with tanks.. the tracks, whether they are elastic bands, fiddly plastic individual links that fall apart or expensive metal links that weigh a ton, that rigging is looking more do-able. 

 

49 minutes ago, Roger Newsome said:

PS, have you heard about the mad woman vandalising cars over this side of the swamp?

No I haven't, that's the problem with this self- isolating, I don't leave my man cave much. 

[Roger Newsome]

2 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

No I haven't, that's the problem with this self- isolating, I don't leave my man cave much

I'll pm the info.

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

What are the plans, re' weathering etc?

Hi Darryl, as far as weathering goes I will be keeping it light as these early machines were so unreliable they spent much of their time on warranty repairs, most of the damage caused in the photos of it pushed into a ditch were caused after it was abandoned, I wonder who took all the tow cables and tools, the crew or the locals.  It's the same with photos in the Panzer Wrecks books, all the equipment disappears, including spare tracks and eventually road wheels and other parts? 

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, Bullbasket said:

They're both looking good Bob. I like the Nora Batty analogy.

Thanks John, I like a good "Last of the summer wine" analogy and I could not think of anything else to describe how saggy the tracks looked.