1/35 Tamiya King Tiger (Henschel)
Here's one more Armor model for tonight. I built this King Tiger without zimmerit and its painted in the "Ambush" tri color scheme. The German tank manufacturing companies discontinued the use of Zimmerit paste in September 1944. (So I'm going to say my Tiger was built after that date.) This is a model of the Henschel turret production version. I sprayed on the dirt and road grime using Model Master "Russian Earth Gray" and "Russian Earth Brown".
The Porsche version had a rounded front mantlet and was not chosen for full scale production due to it being a "shot trap". It would sometimes redirect an incoming round into the top of the hull. This could jam the turret ring, thereby knocking the vehicle out of action. Worse yet, occasionally the incoming round would penetrate the crew compartment. I'm going to guess and say that approximately 50 Porsche turreted vehicles were completed. These were all reported to have a Zimmerit anti magnetic coating applied.
I have a model of the Porsche version and will post an article about it here as soon as I get it completed. (It's in the last 3 photos to show the difference between the Porsche and the Henschel turrets.)
This model was built using Fruilmodel tracks. Other than that it's pretty much right out of the box. I sprayed the model in a 3 color camouflage pattern, then using a small brush I painted on the small dots. This was my first attempt at painting crew figures. It also uses the Tamiya photo etch. These PE parts are visible on the MG barrel as the front sight and is also covering the top of the rear deck grill plates and fan towers. I also used "Testors" clear parts cement to replicate the glass vision blocks on the Commander's Cupola. Finally I added a small piece of wire to simulate the wiring going to the Notek driving light.
Enjoy!
Another great build, and informative, the figures came out fine.
Thanks for the compliments my friend. Painting figures is a real weak spot for me. I'll have to try it again one of these days...
I agree with Mr. Royes, sir...(and my bane is figure painting, too). 🙁
I'm trying to get better with this (figure painting is still hard for me to get the way I would really like them to look).
Thanks Craig.
Nicely done, there are "better" King Tiger kits out there with more accurate details, but none build as nicely as the Tamiya kit. A little TLC and it is as good as the Dragon ones, and a heck of a lot easier to build! Good job!
I agree Rob. The Tamiya kits go together really well. I've built others such as DML, Dragon etc. These have amazing detail, but also a lot of really small parts. I like Tamiya products for their ease of building and fit. Thanks again !
This is simply excellent, Louis !
The paintwork, especially the ambush scheme is well captured, subtle weathering. Figures look great as well.
And everything is well photographed !
The Zimmerit on your Tiger with the so called Porsche turret looks very convincing, looking forward to see more !
Thanks everyone ! I agree the Tamiya is a sweet building kit. I used a Cavalier zimmerit sheet on the Porsche tank.
I may post my Jagdtiger tonight, along with a NKPA Korean War T-34. I sculpted the Zimmerit by hand on the Jagdtiger.
Sounds great 🙂
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
For some reason, this one seems to make the viewer look for more ... good work Louis.
The paint scheme looks very convincing and is so well done. Good work.
Thanks DE ! I appreciate the compliments. Sometimes I add little things that are barely discernable unless you really look close...